Gypsy Rose Blanchard suffered from years of abuse at the hands of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, who is believed to have had Munchausen by proxy.
The 32-year-old, who was released on parole in December 2023 after serving 85% of her sentence for her involvement in her mother’s murder, reportedly had a multitude of illnesses, ranging from asthma and sleep apnea to leukemia and muscular dystrophy.
It was later revealed that Gypsy Rose Blanchard did not suffer from most of the illnesses Dee Dee Blanchard claimed she had, but she did suffer from at least one.
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What Did Dee Dee Blanchard Claim Gypsy Rose Blanchard Had?
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Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s medical problems began when she was a baby when Dee Dee Blanchard claimed her daughter had sleep apnea.
Ever since, Dee Dee went on to claim she had muscular dystrophy and needed a wheelchair, as well as leukemia, asthma, muscular dystrophy, seizures, vision and hearing impairments, developmental delays, a chromosomal defect, among other things.
It was later revealed that Gypsy did not actually need a wheelchair and did not have many of the illnesses, but she did have one.
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Gypsy Rose Blanchard Confirms The One Health Issue She Does Suffer From
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Gypsy’s pediatrician, Dr. Rob Steele, was also interviewed for the project. He began seeing Gypsy in 2005 when she was 14 years old. He claimed that when he was treating her, Dee Dee could “never show” her previous medical records. “If I could have seen [the records] earlier on, I just think a lot of things would have been different,” he claimed.
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Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Medical Records Were Obtained
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The producers behind “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard” obtained some of Gypsy’s never-before-released medical records. As Dr. Steele went through the pile, he was able to confirm that Gypsy had strabismus as an infant, which is when one eye or both wonder, and over time, you go blind.
“You do have to have surgery to correct the problem,” Dr. Steele said, which explains the surgery Gypsy had before she was one year old – something that she claims she had no idea happened.
She did, however, admit to having “issues in [her] right eye,” and so she does “know there was a real problem.”
What this means is that Gypsy Rose did, in fact, suffer from minor vision impairment in her eye. However, that is the only medical diagnosis medical professionals could confirm she had.
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Gypsy Rose Blanchard Gives Advice To Victims Of Munchausen By Proxy
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Shortly after being released from prison, Gypsy Rose Blanchard sat down with A&E, where she advocated for other victims of Munchausen by proxy.
“The advice that I would give is: Please tell someone. Even if you don’t think they will believe you. It doesn’t have to be someone close,” she said. “However, if there is just someone that you trust, even a little bit, tell someone and really know that you’re not alone. There will be people that can help you out.”
“Because I share my story to be a cautionary tale. I did things the wrong way,” Gypsy added.
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‘Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up’
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Following the release of “Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,” Lifetime is ready to release another docuseries, this time following Gypsy’s journey after being released on parole.
“Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up” will begin just before her prison release and will continue through the following weeks and months.
“It was very important to me because when we were working on ‘Prison Confessions,’ I had been so open and honest and raw about what prison life was like for me,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “And so I was sitting in my jail cell at the end of December, and I was like, I’m so tired of all these prison labels and all these labels that people put on me, and I want to show that I’m more than that.”
The first episode of “Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up” will be released on June 3.