Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the 32-year-old Munchausen by proxy victim, was seen in public for the first time since her release from prison as she checked out of a hotel to begin her life as a free woman. Blanchard, who spent her childhood posing as a wheelchair-bound invalid, was jailed for convincing her ex-boyfriend to kill her abusive mother in 2015.
DailyMail.com captured photos of Blanchard leaving a Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott in Chillicothe, Missouri, where she had stayed overnight after her release from Chillicothe Correctional Center. Wearing a distressed sweatshirt, jeans, and only socks on her feet, Blanchard was assisted by her husband, Ryan Scott Anderson, as she carried her belongings, including two plastic grocery bags full of snacks, to their silver Cadillac sedan.
The couple then drove to a mall where Blanchard bought two pairs of sneakers. They left the hotel around 11.15 am in a convoy of cars, including producers and a camera crew documenting her release for an upcoming film project. Their first stop was at an Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse in Liberty, Missouri, just outside Kansas City, to buy Blanchard two new pairs of sneakers. “I love them,” Blanchard said, showing off her new shoes to DailyMail.com. When asked about her plans for the day, she replied, “Lots of them.”
Blanchard and her husband then drove to a four-bedroom Airbnb in a Kansas City suburb. She is expected to attend Sunday’s Kansas City Chiefs game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Arrowhead Stadium, where she hopes to meet Taylor Swift.
Anderson had picked Blanchard up from the prison facility in the early hours of Thursday. His Cadillac sedan, adorned with a Bret ‘the Hitman’ Hart wrestling decal, whisked Blanchard away to the budget hotel for her first night of freedom.
Blanchard’s story has already been covered in various media, including Dr. Phil, Good Morning America, and 20/20, and has inspired TV dramas on Hulu, Netflix, and Lifetime. She participated in the 2017 HBO documentary “Mommy Dead and Dearest” and has an upcoming three-part docuseries, “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,” airing on Lifetime.
Blanchard married Anderson, a 37-year-old teacher and wrestling fan, behind bars last year. It’s unclear whether she plans to live with him or with her father and stepmother, Rod and Kristy Blanchard, in Louisiana.
Titania Gisclair, a family friend, expressed her hopes for Blanchard’s healing and successful post-prison life. “The best thing that she can do for herself is to heal her inner child. If she gets the help she needs, she will thrive. We are hoping for great things for her,” Gisclair said.
