With true crime TV documentaries dominating every streaming platform from Netflix to Disney it’s hard to be surprised by any new stories. They turn criminals into celebrities, treat crime as entertainment and often expose the vulnerability in us that cults and charlatans can exploit. The new Lifetime docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blandford struggles to fit into any of these genres with its story of the darkness at the heart of a mother’s love.

Gypsy was born in Louisiana in 1991, her mother Claudine “Dee Dee” soon became a single mother and began raising the sickly child on her own. They moved around a lot and spent years in doctor’s surgeries and hospitals where Gypsy was treated for a myriad of illnesses. By her early teens Gypsy had been operated on multiple times, she had had most of her teeth removed, glands removed from her neck and was confined to a wheelchair.
They became minor celebrities as mother and daughter helped campaign for charities and sympathy was showered on them in every community the lived in. Indeed, it seemed that Dee Dee’s income was derived from the medical grants she received for caring for her daughter and the pair even had a house built for them for free. But it was all a lie.
There was a dark secret lying beneath the surface of a mother devoted to her child. There was nothing wrong with Gypsy, it had been fabricated by Dee Dee and indoctrinated into Gypsy through threats of abandonment and cloying love until Gypsy believed she was ill herself.

As Gypsy grew older, she became aware of what was being done to her and slowly began to search for freedom and a way out of the nightmare. Although terrified of her mother, by her early twenties she had met a boy online and then murder raised its ugly head. Dee Dee was dead and Gypsy was in prison for inciting the boyfriend to kill the mother she hated but loved as well. Why killing her mum was the only way out is at the heart of this disturbing documentary.

The story became a media sensation and had had a dramatized miniseries (Hulu’s The Act,2019) about them. Dee Dee had a condition called Munchausen by Proxy. Munchhausen by Proxy is a mental illness and form of child abuse. Whoever the carer is, which is most often the mother either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like the child is really sick.
This meant that throughout Gypsy’s life she was mentally and physically abused by her mum, all the while masquerading as love, until aged 23, Gypsy killed her mum out of desperation to escape with her then boyfriend Nick.
Gypsy pleaded guilty to second degree murder and received a 10-year prison sentence.

The series begins with Gypsy in prison waiting for her parole hearing while telling her story from her prison cell. The story is not what it seems. As Gypsy grew up her mother kept how old she really was to make it seem she was younger and made-up stories that Blanchard had Leukaemia, Muscular dystrophy, seizure disorder among others. Dee Dee also scammed doctors, Make a Wish, Habitat for Humanity and Leukaemia and Lymphoma Society to pay for their life-style.
Claudine craved and indeed had ultimate control over her daughter. To make matters worse Gypsy also claims that she was sexually molested by her grandfather. This is where the story takes another disturbing twist. While in no way can u dispute the terrible harm that Gypsy endured from her mother, this claim of her grandfather’s abuse is not only refuted by the man himself but by all the other relatives. While her claim cannot be dismissed there is an unmistakeable undertone of Gypsy manipulating the audience to underscore the horror she has been through. Especially through the prism of her upcoming parole hearing.
This manipulation again raises its head when Gypsy relates her relationship to the actual killer of her mum, Nick. While there is no doubt that he was a disturbed young man, who at present is serving a life sentence for the killing, it is clear that she used him as a vehicle to be rid of her mum.
Her contradictions continue when she says that she could never kill her own mother herself but then tells the story that she had once picked up a gun thinking it was real and shot Dee Dee badly injuring her. Later Gypsy realised that this was a BB gun.

While in prison Gypsy becomes engaged to a lonely man who had written to her expressing sympathy for her plight. He is interviewed and while excited about his upcoming marriage it becomes clear that Gypsy is in control of the relationship. Sometimes affectionate to him and other times taunting him with the fact that she stays in contact with other men who have written to her.
Given the mental control Gypsy received from her mother from the cradle it is no surprise that she has the ability to do the same, although it must be stressed not to the same degree.
This complicated story is told over six episodes, mainly concentrating on Gypsy’s side of events but there are headshots and opinions from family members, doctors, psychoanalysts too. Throughout, Gypsy remains an elusive figure which is perhaps not surprising as her mother made her lie and obfuscate not only to doctors and family but to herself.
It is this mystery surrounding her essential character which has sparked claims that she is a mass manipulator. This may be true, but given that she has known nothing but control and manipulation all her life we should not be too quick to judge someone who knows no other way of interacting with the world.
Gypsy was granted parole on 28th December 2023 and has become a social media sensation, gaining 9.9 million followers on TIKTOK and 8.9 million on Instagram.
Why Gypsy did not just run away is not clear, even to her herself. Why murder was the only way out from her mother’s twisted love is sometimes hard to understand, but then it is hard to relate to the horror of Gypsy’s childhood.
Watch this documentary, where the story is perhaps not over to make up your own mind.
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