The Tragedy of Gypsy Rose Blanchard

The real story behind Hulu’s new hit series, “The Act”

Gypsy Rose Blanchard was born in July, 1991. Shortly after her birth, her parents separated. She had no health issues. When she was 3 years old, her mother was convinced that Gypsy had sleep apnea and persistently took her to the hospital even though doctors insisted she was fine. Her mother, Dee Dee, had convinced herself that her daughter had a huge range of health issues. When Gypsy was 7, her father reported that she scraped her knee. Shortly after, her mother confined her to a wheel chair despite being able to walk perfectly fine.

Dee Dee had many incidents with the law while living with her Father, stepmother and Gypsy. She was arrested several times, wrote invalid checks, and was being investigated for her treatment of Gypsy. She even was suspected of routinely poisoned her stepmom. Dee Dee moved to Slidell where they fell victim to hurricane Katrina and later moved to Springfield, Missouri. They lived in a house built by Habitat for Humanity.

Gypsy was paraded as a sick, mentally and physically ill child, when in reality, she was a healthy teen. Her Mother controlled her with physical abuse when she “acted out”. As Gypsy grew older, she tried escaping from her mother's abuse but she took precautions to keep her daughter enslaved, like labeling her as mentally incompetent so that law enforcement wouldn’t believe her.

In 2012, Gypsy met Nicholas Godejohn on the Internet. The next year they met at a movie theater and soon began planning to murder Dee Dee.

In June 2015, Godejohn killed Dee Dee and him and Gypsy fled to Wisconsin where they were undiscovered for several days. They were arrested and taken into custody for questioning.

As law enforcement uncovered the specifics of her situation, they did not see her as a murderer but the victim of child abuse. She agreed to a plea deal of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years with the possibility for parole. Goodjohn was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Dee Dee’s family felt that she got everything she deserved and that Gypsy should not be punished, that the treatment she faced from her mother was punishment enough. None of her family paid for her funeral and went as far as to flush her ashes down the toilet.

Gypsy is now serving her 10-year sentence and will be out for parole in 2024

“I feel like I'm freer in prison, than with my mom. Because now, I'm allowed to just live like a normal woman.” -Gypsy Rose Blanchard, 2018