Courtesy of Mia Blanchard/Instagram, Getty Images
Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Family Welcomed Her Home After Prison: Meet Her Father, Stepmom and Siblings
Despite her tumultuous upbringing by her late mother, Gypsy Rose Blanchard has developed a close loving relationship with her father, stepmother and half-siblings. Fans want to know more about her loved ones who welcomed her home from prison.
Who Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Father Rod Blanchard?
Rod was still in high school when he met Gypsy Rose’s mom, Clauddine, known as “Dee Dee,” and they began dating. She became pregnant and the couple married, welcoming their daughter on July 27, 1991. Rod and Dee Dee separated before Gypsy Rose was born.
“I woke up on my birthday, on my 18th birthday, and realized I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I wasn’t in love with her, really. I knew I got married for the wrong reasons,” Rod told Buzzfeed News in 2016.
Father and daughter remained in close contact until Dee Dee moved from Louisiana to Missouri with Gypsy Rose when she was 10 and began to lie about their child. Dee was believed to have developed Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental illness that causes guardians to fake symptoms in order to make a child appear sick in an attempt to gain sympathy or attention.
Dee Dee went on put her daughter through a series of unnecessary medical treatments, including removal of her salivary glands, the insertion of a feeding tube and several other surgeries. She also confined Gypsy Rose to a wheelchair, even though she was able to walk.
Rod wasn’t aware of his daughter’s crisis. Gypsy revealed why she never told him the abuse she was undergoing in an interview with People after being released from prison two years early on December 28, 2023.
“I just didn’t think he would care because my mother had created that distance there, and she would say so many bad things about him behind his back,” she said. “And to me, just telling my head with stories that were troubling, and I felt like he was not a source to go to, not that I even knew his phone number because I didn’t know his address. So that never crossed my mind. It was kind of like, I’m not going to reach out to him because why would he care?”
Rod began to learn the truth after Gypsy and then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn conspired to kill Dee Dee in June 2015. The following year, she pled guilty to second-degree murder and received a 10-year prison sentence.
“I’m never going to question her or ask her why,” Rod revealed during a 2017 appearance on Dr. Phil, referring to Dee Dee’s murder
“I feel guilty. How can I let this happen? Why wasn’t I there for Gypsy more?” he added. “I could have built that relationship with her. She wouldn’t have hesitated to call me and say, ‘Daddy, this ain’t right.’”
By 2018, their father daughter relationship had blossomed. “It’s a hundred times better, honestly,” Rod told Fox News. “We email each other. She can call me anytime and she does. I’m keeping tabs on all of her accomplishments in school. She’s getting her GED. … It’s wonderful. I can’t wait for her to get out so we can build on that foundation that we started here.”
When his daughter was released from prison, Rod was part of her welcome home party in Louisiana.
Who Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Stepmom Kristy Blanchard?
Rod and Kristy began dating shortly after the end of his marriage to Dee Dee. The couple married and went on to have two children of their own, Dylan and Mia. The couple remained close to Gypsy until Dee Dee moved away with her daughter and contact became less frequent.
Following Gypsy’s imprisonment, Kristy – like Rod, has been active in helping her stepdaughter tell her story from behind bars. The couple participated in the 2017 HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest and they also appear in the 2024 Lifetime docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. In the latter, Gypsy calls Kristy, “The mom I always wanted to have.”
Who Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Half-Sister Mia Blanchard?
Rod and Kristy’s daughter Mia was born on June 26, 2001, making her a decade younger than her half-sibling. She came along just as Dee Dee moved Gypsy Rose out of Louisiana, where Mia was raised by her parents.
Mia graduated from high school in 2019 and went on to attend the University of Louisiana, attending the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. In February 2022, she shared an Instagram post showing she received her white coat. Mia was also a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
It was at the University of Alabama where Mia met her current boyfriend, Andre Pittman, who received an MBA in finance from the school. The pair have been dating since the spring of 2021.
Mia was part of her family’s celebration welcoming Gypsy Rose home from prison. She shared a series of Instagram photos on December 31, 2023, posing together with her sibling and writing in the caption, “The sweetest hello, welcome home sister.”
Who Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Half-Brother Dylan Blanchard?
Dylan is Rod and Kristy’s second child. Little is known about him as he has chosen to remain private and not participated in any of the programs surrounding Gypsy’s case. He appeared in a family photo Mia shared for Christmas in 2020 and does not seem to have a social media presence.
Who Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Grandfather Claude Pitre?
During The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, she accused her maternal grandfather, Claude Pitre, of sexually abusing her.
“I’ve gotten to a point where I can stand on my own two feet and say, this happened to me and I’m not going to let it affect me anymore,” Gypsy Rose told People about the alleged abuse just before her release from prison, adding, “And that’s why I’m talking about it now. And I think for me, making it known that it happened might prevent him from doing the same thing to another family member or another child or another person because he’s still alive.”
In the docuseries, Claude not only denied the accusation, but turned the tables. “She was the one that was trying to touch me, and I’d say no, don’t do that,” he claimed adding, “She started doing that when she was about 4 years old.” After a producer told Gypsy Rose what her grandfather said, she stated she wanted “nothing to do with him.”
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