Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison on December 28 and picked up by husband Ryan Scott Anderson, who shares the unexpected Tiger King connection to their love story.
Now that she’s a free woman, gearing up for her own Lifetime docuseries, Gypsy Rose Blanchard is starting to open up about her life in prison, including the unexpected way she and husband Ryan Scott Anderson first met.
Most people are aware of her pre-prison story, with her story the subject of the 2019 Hulu docudrama series The Act, with Joey King portraying Gypsy Rose and Patricia Arquette her mother Dee Dee.
Courtesy of the Blanchard Family/Lifetime
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For most of her childhood, Gypsy was the victim of Munchausen by Proxy with her mother convincing her, doctors and the world that she suffered from a myriad of illnesses, forcing her to use a wheelchair even though she could walk and even use an unnecessary feeding tube.
Gypsy wound up in prison for the murder of her mother, which was carried out with her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn. He was ultimately sentenced to life in prison for Dee Dee’s murder, while Gypsy received ten years.
She received early parole and was released on December 28, three years before her original release date. As a high-profile case, her release was kept secret from the public, but their own cameras were present and running when husband Ryan picked her up, per TMZ.
Now, the couple is starting to open up about how they first came to meet, which had a lot to do with the craziness of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic … as in the Tiger King craziness of the world!
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According to Ryan, their first communication came when that Netflix series about “Joe Exotic” Maldonado was dominating pop culture. “My co-worker at the time was like ‘I want to write Tiger King,'” Ryan shared with People. “I said, ‘I’ll tell you what, if you write him, I’ll write Gypsy Rose Blanchard. I never thought she’d be my wife.”
He said that after talking about how much her tragic story impacted her, “on the second page I just let her have it. I told her everything about me.” According to Ryan, Gypsy has told him the main reason she responded was because he was from her original home state of Louisiana.
As for Gypsy, she gives Ryan a ton of credit for being her “emotional backbone for the last three years.” She said this while acknowledging, “I could be a lot to handle. I could be an emotional handful.”
In particular, she said she really struggled with the pandemic, which led to “a lot of emotional ups and downs.” But Ryan “is probably the most compassionate soul that I’ve ever met, and the most patient.”
Gypsy shared that her father Rod and stepmother Kristy were hoping she’d wait until her release to get married, she and Ryan could not, tying the knot in a prison ceremony on July 21, 2022.
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While some might think that she and Ryan rushed into marriage while she was in prison and have no real sense of what married life together will be like on the outside — they hadn’t even been able to consummate their union yet — Gypsy has no worries.
“I don’t foresee any major hardships,” she said. “I think when I’m at home with my family, with my husband’s arms around me and I’m surrounded by my loved ones, that is when I will be happy.”
She also said that despite her own harrowing childhood, Gypsy is confident she’s “going to have kids some day.” The challenge, though, is “I’m going to have to explain to my kids why their grandmother on mommy’s side isn’t around. And that’s going to be a really hard conversation.”
While she’s afraid of that tough moment, Gypsy said she has no fears of herself as a mother, despite her own upbringing. “I have learned what not to do,” she said. “I have no concerns about my parenting when it comes to that.” She also emphasized that she’s done a lot of self-work and is continuing with therapy.
Gypsy will start to share her own story with the six-hour Lifetime docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose on Lifetime from January 5-7 at 8pm ET, including fresh footage, like that shot from her release. From there, her life is finally her own.
