In 2015, Gypsy Rose Blanchard shot to infamy when her then-secret boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, killed her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. Gypsy Rose was briefly feared dead herself — an unprotected wheelchair-bound teenager with grave medical issues. The truth, retold over and over in articles, a documentary, a fictionalized drama series and now a new Lifetime special, was even more shocking. Gypsy Rose was neither sick nor a teenager. Her mother had lied to her about her diagnoses, treatments and even her age. Dee Dee Blanchard was the victim of a brutal stabbing. But as prosecutors noted, Gypsy Rose was also a victim, of a lifetime of medical child abuse.
The stunning murder and its related fallout shined a very bright spotlight on Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Gypsy Rose who had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for her role in Dee Dee Blanchard’s killing was granted parole Dec. 28 and released three years early. (Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.) Gypsy Rose married behind bars and has quickly amassed more than six million TikTok followers, in addition to penning a memoir.
The stunning murder and its related fallout shined a very bright spotlight on Factitious disorder imposed on another, more widely known by its former name, Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MbP), a rare psychological condition in which a person — almost always the mother of the victim — induces injury or disease in another person, falsifies symptoms, or presents the victim as ill, typically forcing them to have unneeded medical treatments.
Children can be harmed by their abusers through countless medical mechanisms. When speaking of child abuse, we often only think of physical, sexual or emotional abuse, ignoring medical child abuse. While MbP is a psychological condition, the victim suffers the most as a result, not the person with the condition. We cannot allow the salacious, made-for-Hollywood details of the case distract us…
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