After seven years in prison, Gypsy Rose Blanchard has been released on parole.
For those unfamiliar with her story, her mother Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard claimed that Gypsy claimed to have numerous diseases, only to receive sympathy from others.
This continued until Gypsy was 23 years old. She asked her online boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to travel to their home in Springfield, MO, to murder her mother. After found guilty of the crime, Gypsy was sentenced to ten years in prison, and Nicholas to life in prison.
In 2019, Hulu released the mini-series “The Act.” With Joey King portraying Gypsy, the eight episode series tells the full story of the horrors Gypsy went through. Although it is stated throughout the show that some of the events shown are dramatized, according to Vulture.com. The show drew attention to Gypsy’s case, and she became increasingly popular on social media.
Gypsy’s story caught the eyes of people all over the world, especially since her release from prison. Her mom lying to everyone for years, according to Biography.com, and Gypsy finally getting sick of it, led many to find the story intriguing.
The news of Gypsy’s release on Dec. 28, 2023, had many TikTok users buzzing about her story once again. Unlike other similar stories, many of these users were almost praising her by editing clips together of her from different interviews, or simply commenting compliments on her posts.
This response has earned Gypsy 9.9 million TikTok followers, as well as 8.2 million Instagram followers.
However, it is very odd that the public has reacted to Gypsy’s case the way it has, when you take into account similar cases, such as the Menedez brothers, who also killed their parents claiming self defense. Although many social media users defend them and claim that they did not deserve to be sentenced to life in prison, there is a large group of people who argue that they deserve their sentence.
Although a big part of Gypsy’s sudden social media attention is gained from the sympathy of her followers, the main contributor to her recent attention is the public’s eagerness to see how she adapts to life outside of prison.
When a true crime case gains a lot of popularity, the person who was convicted is typically given a much longer sentence than Gypsy was, so we never really get to see the person they turn out to be. However, with Gypsy being released only seven years after her crime was committed, her ways of adapting to everyday life are being widely publicized. This is what has led millions of people to keep up with her social media every day.
Despite the majority of social media appearing to side with Gypsy, it seems that the longer she is out of prison and present on social media, the more people begin to question her ethics, with many noticing that she tends to seem manipulative or rude in interviews with her husband, Ryan Anderson.
It seems that Gypsy may fall off just as quickly as she rose to fame. Social media is full of idolizing people, only to surround them in controversy quickly after.
Social media needs to stop praising Gypsy for what she did, and realize that she should be left to be a normal person now that she is released.
