How much money did dee dee blanchard make from gypsy

Gypsy Rose Blanchard grew up with her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, making claims about her health that resulted in a series of dire diagnoses and medical interventions. However, Gypsy wasn’t actually unwell — her mother had been lying about her symptoms. Experts believe Dee Dee’s behavior stemmed from the mental disorder Munchausen syndrome by proxy; because Dee Dee wanted to be a caretaker, she feigned and induced illness in her daughter. The truth about Gypsy and her mother only came out after Gypsy arranged for an online boyfriend to murder Dee Dee in Gypsy Rose, who was born inwas a baby when Dee Dee claimed her daughter had sleep apnea. When Gypsy was eight years old, Dee Dee how much money did dee dee blanchard make from gypsy her as suffering from leukemia and muscular dystrophy and said she required a wheelchair and feeding tube. The list of medical problems that Dee Dee related about her daughter would go on to include seizures, asthma and hearing and visual impairments. Due to Dee Dee’s actions, Dod was prescribed a litany of medications and had to sleep maoe a breathing machine. She also went through multiple surgeries, including procedures on her eyes and removal of her salivary glands.

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By now, we’ve all seen new Hulu series The Act , right? Some background: For most of her life, Gypsy was under the impression that she had leukemia, muscular dystrophy, and a host of other illnesses. Her mother Dee Dee had told her so. Gypsy didn’t even know her real age. She was, it later emerged, perfectly healthy. Dee Dee is thought to have had Munchausen syndrome by proxy. After finding out the truth—that she was in good health and much older than expected—Gypsy conspired with her internet boyfriend Nicolas Godejohn to murder Dee Dee. But she could be up for parole as early as Although The Act dramatizes her story, Gypsy won’t benefit fiscally from the show—at least, that’s according to Gypsy’s stepmom Kristy Blanchard. Kristy spoke to Vulture and claimed that Michelle Dean, author of the investigative BuzzFeed article on Gypsy Rose and one of the co-producers of The Act , had initially suggested half the proceeds from the show go to the Blanchards. Sign up for Hulu to watch ‘The Act’. Dean hasn’t commented on any of Kristy’s claims. As for Gypsy, she hasn’t spoken out about the release of The Act.

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She isn’t able to watch the show from prison, but she’s not particularly happy with its existence, as she stated in an email to Bustle. In the statement, Gypsy also threatened legal action.

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After two decades of being abused and effectively held prisoner, Gypsy came up with an escape plan, enlisting her boyfriend Nick Godejohn to murder Dee Dee. Dee Dee and Gypsy move into a house built for them by Habitat for Humanity. The two moved from Slidell, Louisiana to Aurora, Missouri in September , and lived in a rental home before the Habitat for Humanity house was completed. At the time they moved into the house, Gypsy was wheelchair-bound and used a feeding tube and sometimes an oxygen tank. Gypsy made her first, and seemingly only, escape attempt. After meeting a man his identity was kept anonymous in Dean’s Buzzfeed article at a science fiction convention she attended with Dee Dee, Gypsy began communicating with the man online. She was 19 at the time though she and her mother claimed she was 15 and the man was He took Gypsy back to his hotel room, but Dee Dee found them and presented paperwork stating that Gypsy was a minor. During this year, per BuzzFeed , Gypsy continued to use the internet in secret after Dee Dee went to bed. While using a Christian dating site, she eventually met a man named Nicholas Godejohn. He was from Big Bend, Wisconsin and had been diagnosed with autism. Gypsy and Godejohn went on to have a secret online relationship for two and a half years. This was the year Gypsy first confided in her neighbor, Aleah Woodmansee, about her relationship with Godejohn.

Dee Dee appeared to be a charming, devoted mother, so people believed her

Gypsy eventually managed to get back online. These were supplemented by video of his interview with police after his arrest, where he admitted to having killed her. He suspected the possibility of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. After seeing a concerning Facebook status posted from Dee Dee’s account, the Blanchards’ friends suspected something was not right. Monday, Jan. Gypsy allowed him in and allegedly gave him duct tape, gloves and a knife with the understanding that he would use it to murder Dee Dee. Retrieved January 25, Yet the truth was that Gypsy could walk, didn’t need a feeding tube and did not have cancer. The truth about Gypsy and her mother only came out after Gypsy arranged for an online boyfriend to murder Dee Dee in All who knew the Blanchards feared the worst—even if Gypsy had not been harmed, they believed she would be helpless without her wheelchair, medications, and support equipment like the oxygen tanks and feeding tube. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison, though she’ll be eligible for parole beginning in When Gypsy was eight years old, Dee Dee described her as suffering from leukemia and muscular dystrophy and said she required a wheelchair and feeding tube. Springfield, Missouri , U. At an event in , she made what may have been another escape attempt that ended when her mother found her in a hotel room with a man she had met online.

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Further investigation found that some of the doctors blanchhard had examined Gypsy Rose had found no evidence of the claimed disorders. Nevertheless, he recalls, Clauddine became convinced that Gypsy had a wide range of health issues, which she attributed to an unspecified chromosomal disorder. A doctor there from the Ozarks suggested they relocate to her native Missouriand the next month they were airlifted. Her daughter was, in essence, a hostage, and I think we can understand the crime that occurred subsequently in terms of a hostage trying to gain escape. In later interviews, he stated his belief that there wasn’t enough evidence to act. Retrieved March 23,

Dee Dee appeared to be a charming, devoted mother, so people believed her

Late on the night of June 14,sheriff’s deputies in Greene County, MissouriUnited States, found the body of Dee Dee Blanchard born May 3, in Chackbay, Louisianaalso known as Clauddine or Claudinea Pitrefacedown in the bedroom of her house just outside Springfield[2] lying on the bed in a pool of blood from stab wounds inflicted several days earlier. There was no sign of her daughter Gypsy Fee, who, according to Blanchard, suffered from leukemiaasthmamuscular dystrophyalong with several other chronic conditions and had the «mental capacity of a 7-year-old due to brain damage » she had suffered as a result maoe her premature birth.

After reading troubling Facebook posts earlier in the evening, concerned neighbors notified the police, reporting that Dee Dee might have fallen victim to foul play, and that Gypsy Rose, whose wheelchair and medications were still in the house, might have been abducted.

The following day, police found Gypsy Rose in Wisconsinwhere she had traveled with her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn, whom she had met online.

When investigators announced that she was actually an adult, and suffered from none of the physical and mental health issues her mother had claimed, public outrage over the possible abduction of a severely disabled girl gave way to shock and some sympathy for Gypsy Rose.

Further investigation found that some of the doctors who had examined Gypsy Rose had found no evidence of the claimed disorders.

One physician suspected Munchausen syndrome by mqkea mental disorder where a parent or other caretaker exaggerates, fabricates, or induces illness in a person under their care to obtain sympathy or attention. Dee Dee had changed her name slightly after her family, who suspected she had poisoned her stepmother, confronted her about how she treated Gypsy Rose.

Nonetheless, many people accepted her situation as true, and the two benefited from the efforts of charities such as Habitat for HumanityRonald McDonald Houseand the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Dee Dee had been mych her daughter pass herself off as younger and pretend to be disabled and chronically ill, subjecting her to unnecessary surgery and medication, and controlling her through physical and psychological abuse. Marc Feldman, an international expert in factitious disorders, stated that this is the first case in his experience of an abused child killing the parent.

She had five siblings, Claude Jr. During her childhood, relatives recalled, she occasionally engaged in petty theft, often as retaliation when things did not go her way. When she was 24, she became pregnant by Rod Blanchard, then Despite Clauddine’s efforts to get him to return, he did not, and she took her newborn daughter to live with her family. According to Rod, nlanchard remained involved with his daughter at this point, by the time «Gyp» as she was known in her extended family was three months old, her mother was convinced the infant suffered from sleep apnea and began taking her to the hospital where repeated overnight stays with a sleep monitor and other tests found no sign of the condition.

Nevertheless, he recalls, Clauddine became convinced that Gypsy had a wide range of health issues, which she attributed to an unspecified chromosomal disorder.

When Gypsy was 7 or 8, she recalls, she was riding on her grandfather’s motorcycle when they were involved in a minor accident. She suffered an abrasion to her knee, which her mother said was the visible sign of injuries that would require several surgeries to treat properly. From then on, Gypsy, who had already been made to use a walkerwas confined to a wheelchair, although she was healthy enough to walk on her.

Gypsy often went with her parents to Special Olympics events. Gypsy seems to have stopped going to school after second grade[1] possibly even as early as kindergarten. Gypsy managed to learn to read on her own through the Harry Potter books.

While Gypsy’s father Rod had remarried, [3] Clauddine moved in with her father and stepmother. They hod later claim that Clauddine, when preparing food for her stepmother, poisoned it with Roundup weed killerleading to her own chronic illness during this period. Her stepmother’s health returned to normal shortly. In Slidell, she and Gypsy lived in public housing ; they paid their bills with public assistance Clauddine had been granted due to her daughter’s supposed medical conditions and Rod’s child-support payments.

They spent most of their time visiting various specialists, mostly at Tulane Medical Center and the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans how much money did dee dee blanchard make from gypsy, seeking treatment of the illnesses Muuch claimed Gypsy suffered from, which she now said included hearing and vision problems.

While a muscle biopsy found no sign of the muscular dystrophy Clauddine insisted Gypsy had, she was successful in securing treatment for her daughter’s other purported issues. After she told doctors Gypsy had seizures every few months, they prescribed anti-seizure medication.

Several surgeries were performed on her during this time and Clauddine regularly took Gypsy to the emergency room for minor ailments. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the area in AugustClauddine and Gypsy left their ruined apartment for a shelter in Covington dld up for individuals with special needs. Clauddine said Gypsy’s medical records, including her birth certificatehad been destroyed in the flooding. A doctor there from the Ozarks suggested they relocate to her native Missouriand the next month they were airlifted.

At first Clauddine and Gypsy lived in a rented home in Aurorain the southwestern area of the state. During their time there, Gypsy was honored by the Oley Foundation, which advocates for the rights of feeding-tube recipients, as its Child of the Year. The story of a single mother with a severely disabled daughter forced to flee Katrina’s devastation received considerable local media attention, monry the community often pitched in to help the woman who now went by Clauddinnea Blancharde, and whom they knew as Dee Dee.

The outpouring of support included a great deal of charitable contributions. In Louisiana, mother and daughter had at most availed themselves of occasional stays in Ronald McDonald Houses during medical appointments; in Missouri they received free flights to see doctors in Kansas Cityfree trips to Walt Disney Worldand backstage passes to Miranda Lambert concerts where she was frequently photographed with the singer via the Make-A-Wish Foundationin addition to the house Habitat built for.

Rod and his second wife regularly hoped to get to Springfield and visit, but for blanhard variety of reasons Dee Dee would change plans. She told her neighbors in Springfield that Gypsy Rose’s father was an abusive drug addict and alcoholic who had never come to terms with his daughter’s health issues and never sent them any money.

Many people who met Gypsy were charmed by. She often wore wigs or hats to cover her baldness; her mother regularly shaved Gypsy’s head to mimic the hairless appearance of a chemotherapy patient, allegedly telling Gypsy that since her medication would eventually cause her hair to fall out, it was best to shave it in advance.

When they left the house, Dee Dee often took an oxygen tank and feeding tube with them; Gypsy was fed the children’s liquid nutrition supplement PediaSure well into her 20s.

Dee Dee used physical abuse to control her daughter, always holding her daughter’s hand in the presence of. Whenever Gypsy said something that either suggested she was not really sick or seemed above her purported mental capabilities, Gypsy recalls that her mother would give her a very tight squeeze. When the two were alone, Dee Dee would strike her with her open hands or a coat hanger. Medical interventions continued.

Dee Dee had some of Gypsy’s saliva glands treated with Botoxthen extracted altogether, to control her drooling, which Gypsy later claimed her mother had induced by using a topical anesthetic to numb her gums before doctor visits.

Tubes were implanted in her ears to control her myriad purported ear infections. Bernardo Flasterstein, a pediatric neurologist who saw Gypsy in Springfield, became suspicious of her muscular dystrophy diagnosis.

He ordered MRIs and blood testswhich found no abnormalities. After contacting Gypsy’s doctors in New Orleans, he learned that Gypsy’s original muscle biopsy had come back negative, undermining Dee Dee’s self-reported diagnosis of muscular dystrophy, as well as her claim that all Gypsy’s records had been destroyed by flooding.

He suspected the possibility of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Dee Dee contrived to gain access to Flasterstein’s notes and subsequently stopped taking Gypsy to see. Flasterstein did not follow up by reporting Dee Dee to social services.

He said he had blancahrd told by other doctors to treat the pair with «golden sid and doubted the authorities would believe him. Inan anonymous caller [c] told the police about Dee Dee’s use of different names and birth dates for herself and her daughter, and suggested Gypsy was in better health than claimed. Officers who performed the resulting wellness check accepted Dee Dee’s explanation that she used the misinformation to make xee harder for her abusive ex-husband to find her and Gypsy, without talking to Rod, and reported that Gypsy seemed to genuinely be mentally handicapped.

The file was closed. Dee Dee seems to have at least once forged a mmuch of her daughter’s birth certificate, moving her birth date to to bolster claims that she was still a teenager; Gypsy said in a later interview that for 15 years she was not sure of her real age. Her daughter recalls seeing it during one of their hospital visits and becoming confused; Dee Dee mney her it was a misprint. SinceGypsy had attended science fiction and fantasy conventions[10] sometimes in costumesince she could blend in, even in her wheelchair.

At an event inshe made what may have been another escape attempt that ended when her mother found her in a hotel room with a man she had met online. Again Dee Dee produced the paperwork giving Gypsy’s false, younger birth date and bkanchard to inform blanchars police. Dee Dee later told Gypsy that she had filed paperwork with the police claiming that Gypsy was mentally incompetent, leading Gypsy to believe that if she attempted to go to the police for help, they would not believe.

Sometime aroundGypsy, who continued to use the Internet after her mother had gone to bed to avoid her tightened supervision, made contact online with Nicholas Godejohn, a man around her age from Big Bend, Wisconsin she said they met on a Christian singles group.

InGypsy confided to Aleah Woodmansee, a year-old neighbor who, unaware that Gypsy was mych to her own age, considered herself a «big sister», that she and Godejohn had discussed eloping and had even chosen names for potential children.

Gypsy, who had five separate Facebook accounts, [1] and Godejohn flirted online, their exchanges sometimes using BDSM elements, which Gypsy has since claimed was more what he was interested in. Woodmansee tried to talk her out of it, gyspy thinking Fromm was too young and possibly being taken advantage of by an online sexual predator.

The next year Gypsy arranged and paid for Godejohn to meet her mother in Springfield. Her plan was for him to just bump into her while she and Dee Dee were at a movie theater, both of them in costume, [14] and apparently strike up a relationship that way, then for her to introduce him to her mother. As soon as they did ftom in person for the first time, Godejohn says, Gypsy led him dde the bathroom, where the two had sex.

The two continued their Internet interactions, however, and began developing their plan to kill Dee Dee. Godejohn returned to Springfield in Junearriving while Gypsy blancjard her mother were away at a doctor’s appointment. After they had returned home and Dee Dee had gone to sleep, he went to the Blanchard house. Gypsy allowed him in and allegedly gave him duct tape, gloves and a knife with the understanding that he would use it to murder Dee Dee. Gypsy claimed later that she did not expect him to be able to do it.

Gypsy hid in the bathroom and covered trom ears so that she would not have to hear her mother screaming. Godejohn then stabbed Dee Dee several times in her back while she was asleep. They fled to a motel outside Springfield where they stayed for a few days while planning their next move; [17] during that time they were seen on security cameras at several local stores.

Gypsy said at that point she believed the two had managed to get away with their crime. They mailed the murder weapon back to Godejohn’s home in Wisconsin to avoid being caught with it, [18] then took a bus. Several witnesses saw the pair on their way to the Greyhound station and noted that Gypsy wore a blonde wig and walked unassisted. After seeing a concerning Facebook status posted from Dee Dee’s account, the Blanchards’ friends suspected something was not right.

When phone calls went unanswered, several of them went to the house. While they knew that the two often left on medical trips unannounced, they saw that Dee Dee’s Nissan Cubemodified to hold Gypsy’s wheelchair, was still in the driveway, making that explanation unlikely. Protective film on the windows made it hard to see inside in the low light.

No one answered the door, so they called When the police arrived, they had to wait for a search warrant to be issued before they could enter, but they allowed one of the neighbors present to climb through a window, where he saw that the inside of the house was largely undisturbed, and that all of Gypsy’s wheelchairs were still present. When the warrant was issued, police entered the house and soon found Dee Dee’s body.

A GoFundMe account was set up to pay for her funeral expenses, and possibly Gypsy’s. Blancharrd who knew the Blanchards feared the worst—even if Gypsy had not been harmed, they believed she would be helpless without her wheelchair, medications, and support equipment like the oxygen tanks and feeding tube. Woodmansee, who was among those gathered on the Blanchards’ lawn, told police what she knew about Gypsy and her secret online boyfriend.

She showed them the printouts she had saved, which included his. Based on that information, police asked Facebook to trace the IP address from which the posts to Dee Dee’s account had been. It turned out to be in Wisconsin ; the next day police agencies in Waukesha County raided the Godejohns’ Big Bend home. Both he and Gypsy surrendered and were taken into custody on charges of murder [3] and felony armed criminal action.

But, in announcing the news, Greene County sheriff Jim Arnott warned «things are not always what they appear.

Dee Dee began pretending that Gypsy had different illnesses when Gypsy was a baby

The show is based on Gypsy Rose and her mother, Dee Dee, who for years convinced Gypsy that she had a number of serious health issues. The Act is a dramatization, of course, but pretty much everything you see in the series actually did happen. How could someone do something so horrible to their own child? Her stepmother, Laura, claims that Dee Dee tried to kill her by putting the weed killer Roundup in her food.

Dee Dee began pretending that Gypsy had different illnesses when Gypsy was a baby

Laura survived but was bedridden for nine months how much money did dee dee blanchard make from gypsy the incident. Dee Dee started diagnosing Gypsy with a variety of illnesses when she was 3 months old, which included sleep apnea, epilepsy, cancer, muscular dystrophy, and ear and eye problems. In reality, Gypsy was perfectly healthy, but Dee Dee was convinced her daughter was sick. Her behavior points to Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which is a psychological disorder where a person makes up or exaggerates medical symptoms of a child in their care in order to gain attention and sympathy. It most often occurs in mothers, but there have been cases involving fathers as. Although Dee Dee was never formally diagnosed, Gypsy told Buzzfeed reporter Michelle Dean that her mother matched every symptom. Well, she came prepared. This allowed her to appear educated on the illnesses she was suggesting Gypsy. And since doctors rely on what patients tell them, they were inclined to believe. In The ActDee Dee gets diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Many fans were left wondering whether the real-life Dee Dee actually had diabetes or if it was just another part of her plan. But it looks like it was true.