A NEW LIFE FOR GYPSY ROSE

The Munchausen victim-turned-murderer is leaving prison early

- Katherine Chatfield

For nearly a decade, the story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and how she helped murder her abusive mum Dee Dee has shocked and fascinated the world. Now it's been announced that Gypsy Rose has been granted parole and will be released in December.

To mark the 32-year-old's freedom and document her new life on the outside, a docuseries, The Prison Confessions Of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, is set to be released and, in her own words, will allow her the opportunity to "use my voice, to share my story and speak my truth." 

In 2015, Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard was found dead in her Missouri home. Her daughter - who supposedly had muscular dystrophy and leukaemia, with the capabilities of a seven-year-old - was charged with her murder, along with her then-boyfriend Nick Godejohn.

But there was a twist. When she was finally found and arrested, Gypsy Rose was found to be a healthy 23-year-old, who was sound of mind and nothing like the wheelchair-bound, sickly woman she had appeared to be before this point.

It was revealed that Dee Dee had invented all of her daughter's numerous medical issues in one of the world's most extreme cases of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, now known as factitious disorder imposed on another. It is a rare form of abuse in which a guardian or parent exaggerates or induces illness in someone else, usually a child, for attention and sympathy.