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Gypsy Rose Blanchard Says Kidnapping Survivor Elizabeth Smart Slid Into Her DMs After Prison Release
Gypsy Rose Blanchard has received many DMs since she was released from prison on December 28, 2023, though one that caught her eye was from kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart.
“My schedule has been pretty busy, so I haven’t had a chance to check all my DMs or anything,” Gypsy, 32, told E! News in an interview published on Sunday, January 7. “But I actually did check one.”
Gypsy explained that Elizabeth, 36, told her “that she had been wanting to reach out for a long time and she feels like [her] story can help a lot of people.”
“And if I ever needed to talk to her, she would be more than happy to chat with me, which is very, very sweet,” she added.
Gypsy then shared how she responded to Elizabeth’s message. “I told her how much of an inspiration she is to me,” she recalled. “So that’s been pretty amazing.”
The Elizabeth Smart Foundation founder has worked as an advocate for survivors of trauma after she was abducted from her childhood bedroom in 2002.
Meanwhile, Gypsy made headlines for her involvement in the 2015 murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. Gypsy recruited the help of her then-boyfriend, Nicholas “Nick” Godejohn, to kill Dee Dee after she learned that her mother had lied to her about having various illnesses.
Throughout her childhood, Dee Dee made Gypsy undergo several unnecessary medical procedures and told her countless lies. Following the murder, it was concluded that Gypsy was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. The disorder is “a mental illness in which a person acts as if an individual he or she is caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick,” according to The Cleveland Clinic.
The Louisiana native was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison in July 2016, though she was released on early parole in December 2023 after serving eight years behind bars. As for Nicholas, 34, he was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to serve a life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Gypsy has been busy on a press tour since she was released from prison, while she recently revealed her mindset at the time of her mom’s death. “It was panic, desperation,” she told People in an interview published on January 3. “Because I was facing yet another surgery pretty soon, and I really did not want to have the surgery.”
She explained that Dee Dee wanted her to have a neck surgery that would look at her “vocal cords” and “voice box” to “figure out why [her] voice is so high-pitched.”
“And they thought the doctors attributed that to maybe a breathing issue,” she said. “So they were going to do surgery on my larynx, and at that point, I was just not having it. I’m like, ‘I do not want to have the surgery.’ I expressed that to my mother.”
After noting that there was “no debating” with Dee Dee about the procedure, Gypsy added, “She’s like, ‘You’re having it,’ and that’s it. There’s no discussion to be had. And I felt in my heart, please change your mind. This life needs to change.”
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