Gypsy Rose Blanchard was sentenced to 10 years in Chillicothe Correctional Facility in northwest Missouri prison for her role as an accomplice in killing her mother, Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. She and her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn conspired together, and he was the one to commit the murder. Gypsy was charged with second-degree murder.
She was released on December 28th of 2023 after serving eight years and has since seen the vastness and overwhelm of having a colossal online platform at your disposal, more specifically, the impact your online reputation can have on your everyday life, relationships and career.
Gypsy was a victim of Munchausen by proxy. This is a form of abuse in which a caregiver or guardian seeks attention, compensation or empathy by exaggerating their child or person in need’s illness, or in some cases, making them ill. Growing up in a rented home in Aurora in southwestern Missouri, throughout Gypsy’s childhood, her mother regimented and controlled practically all aspects of her life, resulting in Gypsy receiving many intense and distressing medical treatments that she never actually needed.
Her arrest and imprisonment made headlines and led to several documentaries and projects based around the unravelling of the story. Since her release from Chillicothe, Gypsy has taken to social media and has developed a giant following in a very short space of time. She is set to tell her side of the story with the release of her docuseries. However, nothing made her estrangement from the world of social media more blatant than her incredulously fast rise and fall of online public support, specifically on TikTok.
On December 29th, Gypsy shared her first selfie on Instagram following her prison release. “First selfie of freedom!” was the caption. The updates would become more frequent as time went on. At the time of writing, she has 8.3 million followers on Instagram, and 9.8 million on TikTok, with 3.4 billion views across all her TikTok videos. She had been thrust into influencing, and essentially became a celebrity overnight while being completely unfamiliar with the online world, its rules and regulations, what flies and what doesn’t, and how to conduct herself.
She grew an audience exponentially quickly, and across the span of about two days, Gypsy went from vast support on social media, people “stanning” her, to accusing her of being a “master manipulator” and cancelling her; it is being referred to as “whiplash” due to how quickly and suddenly it happened. Many people on TikTok deconstructed her behaviour after leaving prison, pointing out that Gypsy seemed to adore the spotlight: going to events, podcasts, lifetime specials, and many news interviews, especially with her husband.
Her fanbase of eight days loved her transparency about her marriage and sex life. A comment under an Instagram post, that has since been deleted, about the fact her husband’s “D is fire”, went viral, and sparked a TikTok wave of love and support. The flirting between the couple, who would be very outward not just on social media posts, but in interviews, was a huge backbone of the obsession that followed Gypsy.
Everything collapsed when she partook in an interview with The Viall Files. The crowds who had previously been supportive, suddenly cancelling her after a statement about her involvement in the murder Dee Dee Blanchard. Gypsy announced: “I don’t associate myself as a murderer, because if you think about it, yes I had a part to play in it.” She goes on to say that Nick had promised to protect her from anyone, even her mother and “the plan kind of formed from there. But he’s the one who did the actual kill. Not me. I can’t kill anyone, that’s why he’s in trouble to begin with. He’s the one who did it. When they say I’m a murderer, I don’t identify with that.” Not only did the internet take issue with her not taking full accountability, but many pointed out that she is “making money off of the crime”.
Around the same time, Gypsy posted a photo to her Instagram page of her and her 15-year-old cousin, captioned: “Girls, show my boy some love in his DM’s. Only age-appropriate ones though, he’s only 15.” Once again, people took to their TikTok pages to discuss Gypsy’s actions, the word “exploitation” frequently floating around.
Her reach and influence began to concern people. After eight years of isolation from the digital world, and before that, years of abuse, manipulation and lies, the reputation she was solidifying for herself was not helping her return to “normal” life. When Gypsy went to prison, cancel culture was not the colossal element of social media that it is today, and many acknowledge that she had no idea that one wrong move could destroy online careers. Since then, thousands of videos have been posted online, mainly via TikTok, about people referring to her as “manipulative” and “narcissistic”. Her follower count stands strong, but the support has completely dwindled. She has gone from adored and idolised, to shunned and scrutinised. Truly, the speed at which she lost her influence and platform is considered unprecedented amongst the ruthless TikTok community.