There aren't many social media stars who have been convicted of second-degree murder, but Gypsy Rose Blanchard has amassed millions of followers, seemingly overnight, since she was released from a decade-long prison sentence last week.
Blanchard, 32, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016, when she was 24, for her role in plotting to kill her abusive mother, Claudine "Dee Dee" Blanchard, in their Missouri home in 2015 with help from her former boyfriend at the time.
"Hey everyone, this is Gypsy. I'm finally free!" Blanchard said in a video posted to her Instagram page, which now has 6.1 million followers, after her release. "I just want to send a quick video to thank everyone for the massive amount of support that I've been getting on social media. Everyone has been really, really nice and supportive. I really appreciate that."
Blanchard has also been promoting her upcoming book with co-authors Melissa Moore and Michele Matrisciani titled "Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom," set to be released Jan. 9, as well as her three-night Lifetime special, "The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard," set to premiere between Friday and Sunday.
GYPSY ROSE BLANCHARD TAKES TO SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER PRISON RELEASE: ‘FINALLY FREE’
"After a lifetime of silence, I finally get to use my voice to share my story and speak my truth," Blanchard said in an October statement announcing the show. "As a survivor of relentless child abuse, this docuseries chronicles my quest for liberation and journey through self-discovery. I am unapologetically myself and unafraid to expose the hidden parts of my life that have never been revealed until now."
The 32-year-old has posted photos of herself with her new husband, Ryan Anderson, whom she married while in prison, and even defended him from online "haters."
GYPSY ROSE BLANCHARD, WHO PLOTTED THE MURDER OF HER ABUSIVE MOTHER, RELEASED FROM PRISON
"Ryan, don’t listen to the haters. I love you, and you love me. We do not owe anyone anything. Our family is who matters. If you get likes and good comments great, if you get hate then whatever because THEY DON’T MATTER. I love you," she wrote in a comment on her husband's Instagram page.
Experts believe Dee Dee Blanchard had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological illness in which Dee Dee projected fake illnesses onto her daughter in an effort to receive attention or material items out of sympathy for the victim.
Dee Dee convinced Gypsy that she had a litany of illnesses, including leukemia, and was years younger than her actual age.
She also forced her daughter to sit in a wheelchair, made her take medication she did not need, shaved her hair, removed her teeth and fed her through a tube in her stomach.
The recent social media star has also been receiving tens of thousands of comments on her social media praising her for her bravery and quick return to her new life.
"She may be out of prison but she’s still serving 24/7," reads one Instagram comment on a selfie Blanchard posted Tuesday.
Others have taken to defending Blanchard from those calling her a "murderer."
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"I’m really sick of all the people calling her a murderer when she wasn’t even the one that actually killed her mom and it was self-defense," one Instagram user wrote. "She felt there was nothing else she could do. her mom was literally abusing her, beating her, chaining her to the bed just for wanting to live a normal life as a teenager."
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Blanchard and her ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Paul Godejohn, were arrested in connection with Dee Dee's fatal stabbing in 2015. The next year, Blanchard was sentenced to a decade behind bars, while Godejohn was sentenced to life.
Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said at the time that "while the evidence in this case clearly established that Gypsy Blanchard was guilty of murder and that the murder was neither justifiable nor excusable, the amended charge and 10-year sentence fairly and justly holds Gypsy Blanchard accountable to the law while also taking into account the extreme mitigating circumstances of the nearly two decades of systematic and purposeful abuse of Gypsy Blanchard by her mother to facilitate her mother’s fraudulent schemes."
Blanchard's case has been the subject of several documentaries and feature films, including HBO's "Mommy Dead and Dearest," "Gypsy's Revenge" by Investigation Discovery, Hulu's "The Act" and most recently, Lifetime's "The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard."
