The pages of history would always keep turning with stories of twisted families, but one that would leave every normal stomach-turning is that of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. Captured in the new series The Act by Hulu, the story has left many wondering whether it crossed the line into fiction at some point. No, it didn’t.
With many questions on how anyone could ever do such horrible things to one’s own child, here are some things about Dee Dee Blanchard you probably didn’t know.
Things You Didn’t Know About Dee Dee Blanchard
1. She was thought to be the model parent
To many, there was hardly a model parent as Dee Dee Blanchard. She spent her time tirelessly taking care of her daughter Gypsy Rose Blanchard who was not only gravely ill but confined to a wheelchair.
More than just a dedicated parent, she also painted a picture of a very generous woman who helped people that crossed her path. She did not take any job, except that of taking care of her daughter who was guessed to be only 5 feet tall. She had a feeding tube inserted into her daughter whom she would sometimes push around with an oxygen mask.
Although Dee Dee was always ready to list a litany of health issues her daughter was having, from eye problems to muscular dystrophy, chromosomal defects, and a list that wouldn’t end including brain damage and cancer, it was all a lie. Gypsy had no health issues and she was only subjected to confinement on a wheelchair and feeding tube all by her mother.
2. Dee Dee Blanchard was the sick one
Having spent many years faking all kinds of sicknesses on her daughter, it turned out she was, in fact, the one who had been sick all the while. Based on her behavior, it was believed that Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy. This condition makes one to fake or exaggerates physical or mental illness on someone in their care in order to gain sympathy.
Apart from that, she had diabetes, something that some had speculated could also be another of her schemes, and she was said to have had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
3. Her Medical Background
How did she get so good with illnesses enough to convince doctors that her daughter was suffering from things she wasn’t suffering from? Dee Dee was once a nurse, a work that exposed her to various illnesses, terminologies, and symptoms enough to convince most doctors except for Bernardo Flasterstein who saw through her lies and was the person who had suspected she might have had Munchausen by proxy.
4. She had a bad relationship with her family
After her death, no one, not even her family felt sorry for Dee Dee Blanchard because she never had a good relationship with them. Since the time she was much younger, she had always been a problem to her family which claimed that she was always getting into one trouble or the other. She was also said to have stolen continuously from them among other petty crimes.
5. Did she murder her own mother?
She was said to be just like her mother in more ways than one could ignore. Alleged to be a shoplifter, her mother, Emma Pitre was also said by some sources to be very controlling and overbearing.
Following Emma’s death in 1997, there were accusations against her that she refused to take care of her or even feed her. Some members of the family believe Dee Dee’s hands could be in the death of her mother whom she allegedly starved.
6. She tried killing her stepmother
A story that was corroborated by Claude and Bobby, her father and nephew respectively, Laura who was the stepmother of the infamous Dee Dee claimed that she tried killing her with weed chemical which she put in her food. This left Laura bedridden for many months.
7. How She Died
Following her many years of being confined to illnesses that didn’t exist, wheelchair, feeding tube, and often oxygen mask, Gypsy conspired with her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn to kill Dee Dee so that Gypsy could be free from her.
On June 14, 2015, Dee Dee Blanchard met her end following stabs by Nicholas who is now serving time with Gypsy in prison. According to the daughter, she did not regret what she had done or even the fact that it landed her in prison because it was more like freedom for her compared to what she experienced with her mother.