In reality, the only health issue Gypsy suffers from is minor vision impairment in her left eye. “I have a little bit of a lazy eye, not all the time,” she said. Other than that, Gypsy has a perfectly clear bill of health.
There was no sign of her daughter, Gypsy Rose, who, according to Blanchard, had chronic conditions including leukemia, asthma, and muscular dystrophy, and who had the "mental capacity of a 7-year-old due to brain damage" as the result of premature birth.
YouTubeGypsy Rose Blanchard on a trip to Disney World, which was sponsored by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In 2010, Dee Dee was telling everyone that Gypsy Rose was 14, but she was actually 19 years old. By then, she knew she wasn't as sick as her mother claimed — as she was well aware that she could walk.
According to the American Dental Association, dental extractions occur when the teeth are severely decayed, damaged, or diseased. It's unclear why Gypsy's teeth decayed, but it's likely a combination of poor dental hygiene, malnutrition, and the many unnecessary medications she was taking.
Speech experts have weighed in on why her voice was so high pitched, with some reasoning that she was doing it almost unconsciously in response to being infantilized by her mother, Dee Dee, who had convinced her that she was years younger than she was.
Experts believe Dee Dee had a mental illness known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy (also called factitious disorder imposed on another), which made her fabricate her daughter's ill health in order to receive attention and sympathy for taking care of a sick child.
On-screen performances aside, The Act also highlights a psychological disorder called Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Dee Dee Blanchard, Gypsy Rose's mother, reportedly had Munchhausen syndrome by proxy which caused her to fabricate Gypsy's physical wellbeing.
Dee Dee Blanchard kept Gypsy's head shaved and forced her to use a wheelchair even though there was nothing wrong with her legs. Dee Dee Blanchard also convinced a physician to put a feeding tube into Gypsy and would tell people that Gypsy was mentally incompetent.
She was also seen expressing immediate regret at the murder of her mother, and was desperately attempting to cover her up. However, in an interview following her arrest, Gypsy didn't think she was going to be caught at all – in fact, she thought their entire plan was faultless.
When she turned 5, Dee Dee declared Gypsy could no longer walk, because she had muscular dystrophy and epilepsy. She put her daughter in a wheelchair.
“I couldn't just jump out of the wheelchair because I was afraid and I didn't know what my mother would do. I didn't have anyone to trust,” Gypsy says in an exclusive clip from Investigation Discovery's documentary Gypsy's Revenge, airing on Nov.
The Act took inspiration from Dee Dee's real coverup of Gypsy's age. According to the Buzzfeed article upon which The Act is based, on Gypsy's 18th birthday her father called to say "hello." Dee Dee told him not to tell Gypsy how old she was, because supposedly Gypsy thought she was still 14.
Factitious disorder imposed on another (previously called Munchausen syndrome by proxy) is when someone falsely claims that another person has physical or psychological signs or symptoms of illness, or causes injury or disease in another person with the intention of deceiving others.
When Gypsy was a child, her mom Dee Dee told her that she suffered from leukemia and a host of other health issues. Gypsy revealed in a 20/20 interview that the only medical condition she actually has is a lazy eye.
Experts say that Gypsy Rose was the victim of a condition previously known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy—now referred to as factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA)—a mental health disorder where a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury to a person under their care for attention and sympathy.
As it turns out, some anti-seizure medications do have oral health side effects, which could have caused Gypsy's dental issues — although Dee Dee alleged that Gypsy was allergic to sugar. (She also numbed her gums so that she would drool, and convinced doctors to have her salivary glands surgically removed.)
The meeting did not go as planned—Dee Dee hated Godejohn—but Gypsy was still able to sneak away and lose her virginity to Godejohn in a bathroom stall, according to her testimony at his trial.
Rod and Gypsy have reconnected since she's been in prison.
"We email each other. She can call me anytime, and she does. I'm keeping tabs on all of her accomplishments in school.
In addition to being told she had leukemia, muscular dystrophy and epilepsy, Gypsy Rose Blanchard never even knew her real age.
It would later be revealed Gypsy Rose convinced her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to murder her mother while she slept. Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee 17 times in her back. Gypsy hid in the bathroom and covered her ears so that she could not hear her mother screaming.
She was 23 when Dee Dee was killed, but had been told by her mother that she was just a teenager with the mental capacity of a 7-year-old.