Gypsy Rose Blanchard is getting some heat after sharing a Mother’s Day post to her TikTok account.
The 32-year-old Missouri native gained notoriety for her involvement in the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, in 2015.
As reported by Complex’s Starr Savoy, Dee Dee had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a disorder where a guardian feigns or induces illness in their child for attention. Gypsy Rose was reportedly subjected to years of abuse, including unnecessary medical procedures and restrictions, at the hands of her mother. At 23 years old, the young woman conspired with her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to kill her mother.
Despite the complicated nature of their relationship, Gypsy Rose offered a special message on her TikTok for the “really strong and wonderful” women in her life—including stepmother Kristy Blanchard, her ex-fiancée’s mother Raina Williams, and her “Aunt” Vickie, who have served as mother figures to her over the past years.
With a locked comments section, Gypsy Rose chose to acknowledge the absence of her biological mother and remember her with compassion despite her shortcomings.
“It does not go without notice that my own biological mother is not here to celebrate Mother's Day. And what I choose to feel on Mother's Day regarding my own mother is that I think the best of her,” Gypsy Rose said. “I think about the good times. I think about her as not what she did to me, but I think about her as a person and I think that—was she a good mom? No. Was she the best mom in the world? No, but she was still my mom. So what I choose to feel about her, whether that be guilt, anger, grief, resentment, whatever, that's mine to feel. No one can take away my own feelings about my own mother.”
She continued, “And I feel like nobody should be able to have an opinion about my mother except for her family, and me because we were the people closest to her. Everybody else does not matter. But I choose to remember her for the good that was in her heart that I truly believe was there.”
“I have been working for years on forgiveness, and I hope that she is in heaven. And I hope that to some degree, I make her proud of at least some of the achievements that I've made in my life and growing up and standing on my own two feet, learning through experiences. Because in heaven, they say that like all mental afflictions, all physical afflictions are gone, right? God makes you perfect in heaven. So if you take away the mental afflictions that my mother had, then I think what's left is a good person, at the end of the day is a good person.”
“Do I have regrets? Oh yeah, I've got many. But nobody is going to be able to tell me things about myself that I don't already know…I will say a prayer for her today and I will remember the good that was inside of her, whether that be extremely deep or not.”
Gypsy Rose told TMZ that she has received backlash in her DMs in response to the video—including death threats.
“When I said that I hope my mom is proud of me, people are thinking I meant she would be proud of the murder. That is obviously not what I meant,” she told the outlet. “I meant she would be proud of me in heaven, like getting my GED, moving towards independence and learning how to cook, clean, having my own bank account etc."
"Because of what happened with my mom, that shouldn’t make me exempt from wishing the other women in my life a [Happy Mother’s Day],” she added. “I didn’t say this because of my balls and audacity, I did this message because I have women in my life that are supportive."
TMZ reports that GRB had a low-key Mother’s Day and spent it watching movies and cooking dinner with her stepmother, Kristy Blanchard.
Gypsy Rose pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was released on parole after serving eight years last December.
