Gypsy-Rose Blanchard Reveals ‘Final Straw’ That Led to Her Mother’s Murder

Gypsy-Rose Blanchard is opening up about the “final straw” that led to her mother’s murder in her new memoir, My Time to Stand, which is released today, Tuesday, December 10.

Blanchard served seven years for her role in the 2015 stabbing death of her mother, Dee Dee. Her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, killed Dee Dee on June 9, 2015. Godejohn was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus an additional 25 years for armed criminal action; Blanchard was sentenced to 10 years in prison for second-degree murder.

Growing up, Blanchard was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a disorder where a parent or guardian either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like the child is sick.

In an excerpt from the memoir shared with People, Blanchard details what led to her taking her mother’s life. She claimed the “final straw” came a month before the murder when her mother “tried to cut” her throat because her voice suddenly became “high-pitched.”

Blanchard said she pleaded with her mother that there was nothing wrong with her voice, but Dee Dee took her to a pulmonologist, who suggested “exploratory surgery of her larynx.”

The Lifetime reality star revealed she’d already tried to run away twice by this point in her life and had shot her mom with a “BB gun” after Dee Dee allegedly “chained” Blanchard to the bed because she was getting “harder to control” as she got older.

 

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Blanchard called the surgery on her voice box “completely unnecessary,” and it made her “truly” fear for the “scope of [her mom’s] malice.”

Prior to the planned voice box surgery, Blanchard said her mom would “muzzle” her mouth shut at night with a CPAP machine “for my fake sleep apnea” and “numbed” her mouth with Orajel, “so I’d drool and slur.” She also blamed Dee Dee for her teeth falling out “due to side effects of superfluous medications.”

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“By speaking for me and scripting my every interaction, she deprived me of finding my own voice. Now, the way I saw it, my literal voice, squeaky as it might be, could be taken from me. Her final play,” Blanchard wrote.

Blanchard was released from prison in December 2023 and documented her life post-jail in the Lifetime docuseries Life After Lockup. Following her release, she filed for divorce from her estranged husband, Ryan Anderson, and rekindled her romance with former flame Ken Urker. She and Urker are expecting a baby girl in January.

Speaking about her memoir, which was co-authored by Melissa Moore and Michele Matrisciani, Blanchard told People, “It brings me a lot of pride and joy to have this exciting moment,” adding, “It’s stressful. You want to do your story [justice], you want to tell it with as much honesty and vulnerability as possible. So it was quite a rollercoaster ride.”