Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for murdering her abusive mother, was released from prison on Thursday after serving eight years.
Blanchard, 32, was paroled and eligible for early release from the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri in September, the state Department of Corrections confirmed.
“No one will ever hear me say that I'm glad she's dead or that I'm proud of what I did,” Blanchard told People a day before her release. “I regret it every day.”
She was released from prison around 3:30 a.m. local time on Thursday, the Department of Corrections confirmed to HuffPost.
In a 2015 settlement, Blanchard was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who forced numerous fake illnesses on her daughter, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy, brain damage and an unspecified chromosomal disorder.
Blanchard's mother reinforced the charade by forcing her daughter to use a wheelchair, shaving her head to mimic the side effects of chemotherapy, giving her unnecessary medications that caused severe tooth decay, and convincing a doctor to install a feeding tube in her . Blanchard says her mother maintained control over her through isolation from the outside world and physical abuse.
Open Image ModalGypsy Blanchard takes the stand during the trial of her ex-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn in 2018.
Her story was portrayed in the 2019 Hulu series “The Act” and told in the 2017 HBO documentary “Mommy Dead and Dearest.”
In her People interview, Blanchard said she spent her years behind bars trying to understand her mother's situation, including her suspected case of undiagnosed Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
“It's a journey. “I’m still trying to forgive her, myself and the situation,” Blanchard said. “I still love my mother. And I'm starting to understand that it was something that was perhaps out of her control, like an addict with an impulse. This helps me to process and accept what happened.”
After her mother was found stabbed to death in her Springfield, Missouri, home in 2015, Blanchard admitted to conspiring with her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to kill her mother, prompting him to carry out the act while they were elsewhere in the house hid.
Godejohn was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Blanchard married Ryan Anderson, a 37-year-old teacher from Louisiana, in prison last year, she told People.
Blanchard's commentary will also be featured in the upcoming Lifetime series “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,” scheduled to air January 5.
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