King starred as Gypsy Rose in the 2019 Hulu series, which the latter openly criticizes in her new book.
The Act star Joey King is sharing her thoughts on Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s recent prison release.
While speaking with photographers out in Los Angeles this week, the actress — who starred as Gypsy Rose in the 2019 Hulu limited series — revealed her reaction to the news of Blanchard’s newfound freedom.
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“I am so happy she is released,” King, 24, said, after sharing that she has not spoken to Blanchard in the wake of her release from prison late last month.
“I’m so happy for her. She deserves freedom,” she added.
On December 28, Gypsy Rose — an alleged victim of Munchausen by proxy — was released from prison after serving seven years behind bars for her role in her mom Dee Dee’s 2015 murder.
During her promo tour for her docuseries, she has repeatedly stressed that she “regrets” her role in her mom’s murder, which she plotted with her then-boyfriend Nicholas “Nick” Godejohn. Blanchard was given 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder but was released after serving just seven. Godejohn, meanwhile, was sentenced to life in prison.
The murder made headlines and inspired The Act, after the bizarre details of the case began to come out. According to Gypsy Rose, her mother forced her to use a wheelchair and feeding tubes and claimed the child had numerous illnesses and disorders, including muscular dystrophy — with other doctors calling BS on those diagnoses and claiming Gypsy Rose instead suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, now known as Factitious disorder imposed on another.
Courtesy of the Blanchard Family
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The Act was met with praise from critics and viewers alike, earning Patricia Arquette — who starred as Dee Dee — an Emmy and Golden Globe. Meanwhile, King received nominations for Best Actress at both the 2019 Emmy and Golden Globes.
Although King appeared to voice her support for the woman she portrayed in the series, Gypsy Rose was not a fan.
In her new book, Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom, the 32-year-old opened up about what it was like for the show to drop while she was in prison for her role in her mom Dee Dee’s murder.
“The Act brought an onslaught of emails from strangers all over the world. The corrections officers looked at me differently. Inmates wanted my autograph; others asked me for money, assuming being on television means you’re rich,” Gypsy Rose wrote in the book. “I still have no frame of reference or context for what led the general viewing public to their hype, because I have never seen The Act. I was not consulted or compensated for a show that made actor Joey King a household name.”
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She said she has not watched the show in full and has only seen a short clip which was played during an award show. “It was so far removed from my reality, it was hard to be sure what I was looking at,” she recalled.
“I just remember seeing Joey glammed out on the red carpet, the stark contrast of our lives casting a dark shadow over me,” she continued. “Here I was in my prison cell wearing my prison uniform, eating my disgusting prison food, while Hollywood celebrated itself. All I could think was, This girl tried to play me, and I had no control over it.”
Gypsy Rose said when she found out about the series from her stepmom, she was confused as to how anyone could make the show “without even talking to me about it first and asking me one-on-one questions.” She added she was “upset” and had zero participation with the series, claiming, “No one asked me if it was okay that they made this about my life.”
According to Gypsy Rose, she was “happy” they didn’t get Hulu behind bars, so nobody there could watch the show and make assumptions about her. She explained that after the series began airing, “it was like a bomb went off” and she became “a celebrity overnight … for doing something horrible” — claiming its release also affected her parents, with “strange women” with “no boundaries” reaching out to her father as well.
Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom is available now.
