(NewsNation) — A new Lifetime documentary about Gypsy Rose Blanchard shows “the first time she’s ever been free,” the series creator said during an interview on “CUOMO.”
“She was in a prison with her mother and then a prison in prison. Now, she’s free in her 30s as a woman,” executive producer Melissa Moore told NewsNation on Tuesday.
Blanchard has been released from prison after serving more than seven years for second-degree murder after persuading her then-boyfriend to murder her mother, who she says tortured her and forced her to pretend she had a series of illnesses for years.
As Blanchard adjusts to her new life on parole, the 32-year-old is set to appear in a three-part Lifetime special created by Moore, who has been in contact with Blanchard since 2017.
“This documentary is following her parole to then meeting her husband to then getting married. And after being basically friends with her and her family for seven years, you get attached,” Moore said.
She added: “Gypsy became a friend, and her family became a friend to me.”
While still in prison, Blanchard married Ryan Scott Anderson in 2022. Moore said she has found Anderson to be “a good guy.”
“He’s been embraced by the family. She spent her holidays with Ryan. She actually chose Ryan to pick her up from prison. That, you know, says a lot,” Moore said.
Blanchard was released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri on Dec. 28, 2023. She pleaded guilty in 2016 to the second-degree murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. Gypsy’s then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, is serving life in prison for stabbing Dee Dee to death in 2015.
Some experts think Gypsy, who attorneys say was isolated and abused by Dee Dee for years, may have been a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Gypsy was forced to use a wheelchair and undergo unnecessary medical procedures, her attorneys said. After Dee Dee’s murder, Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was recently paroled after serving 85% of her sentence.
“The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard” is set to air Friday. Gypsy said over the years, she has avoided watching TV specials and interviews about her and that this will be the first docuseries she has ever watched about the case.