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NEW YORK, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who was released from prison Dec. 28 after serving eight years for conspiring with her former boyfriend to kill her abusive mother in 2015, says she is eager to start living her life as an independent adult. A new Lifetime docuseries is the first step in this journey.
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Blanchard, 32, was granted parole in September after serving more than 85% of her 10-year sentence for second-degree murder, making her eligible to exit Missouri's Chillicothe Correctional Center in late December.
Blanchard was in the house when then-boyfriend Nick Godejohn stabbed her mother, Dee Dee, to death.
Blanchard later confessed to enlisting Godejohn to murder Dee Dee so Blanchard could escape a cycle of abuse that included Dee Dee's false claims about Blanchard having leukemia, asthma and muscular dystrophy so she could garner sympathy and secure disability payments and charitable gifts.
Expert witnesses testified during the trial that Dee Dee had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental condition in which caregivers or parents fabricate or induce physical or psychological harm to someone in their custody for their own personal gain.
Godejohn was sentenced to life in prison for killing Dee Dee.
"I just have a lot of questions about what I had done to me medically and also just questions to my family about things that happened before I was even born," Blanchard, sitting alongside husband Ryan Anderson, told reporters in a recent virtual press conference to promote her Lifetime program, The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
"I have been branded something and I am just trying to remake myself, reinvent myself into something that my family can be proud of, my husband can be proud of."
The docuseries was her way of setting the record straight about her experiences.
"I've wanted to put out something that was very accurate. I wanted to put out something that was the truth," Blanchard said.
"So much of what has already been put out there was either by people, that, honestly, just didn't know the ins and outs of my case -- or they lied. Ultimately, I think, I'm the source. It happened to me, and so no one has the right but me to tell this story," she added.
Blanchard said doesn't want to continue being haunted by what happened.
"This series is me letting go of my past," she said.
Blanchard married Anderson, a teacher, in a prison ceremony in 2022. They were penpals.
"Our life after her release has been a whirlwind. It's been great," Anderson said.
"Everything's moved so fast, but it's been amazing. I've waited for this girl to come out for so long and now that she's home, it feels great to have her here. The support from people has been tremendous. i can't thank people enough. They love my wife just as much as I do."
Anderson said he is looking forward to being a "normal married couple." Cooking together is one of their favorite activities.
"We went shopping and it was great. We walked the store. We had two buggies. I wanted Gypsy to feel free to get whatever she wanted," he said, adding he was surprised when she picked out baby clothes. "I was like: 'We're not there yet! Slow down!'"
Blanchard laughed and explained: "It was so cute. I had to get the outfit for just in case. Later down the road."
She emphasized she is not pregnant.
Her six-part docuseries premiered earlier this month, but is set to re-air in its entirety Friday and Sunday on Lifetime. It also is streaming on the Lifetime app and mylifetime.com until Feb. 6.
After that, it will be available on pay-per-view platforms.
Executive producer Melissa Moore described Chillicothe Correctional Center as "very media friendly" because it allowed her three in-person visits and multiple phone calls to use for the docuseries.
"i've worked with a lot of different prisons [on other projects] that would just flat-out not be as warm and welcoming, but thankfully the prison was accommodating," Moore said.
"I had an hour at a time to talk to Gypsy and that was it, so I had to be really prepared with my questions," she added. "You've really got to be on your A-game and know what questions you want to ask up front and, thankfully, Gypsy is like an open book. She is very easy to talk to."
Blanchard said in the press conference that she thinks the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mom went on so long because people around her then didn't know what to do to help her.
"There were people who had suspicions, family included, but nobody wants to rock the boat," she said. "It wasn't brought up to other people. It wasn't talked about. Some people might have kept their suspicions to themselves, just for fear of upsetting my mom."
Blanchard also blamed the medical doctors who treated her for not intervening on her behalf, explaining they must have known most of her symptoms were induced.
"They were making money off of me, and so I think in their profession that came first," Blanchard said.
Blanchard thinks one of the biggest misconceptions about her story -- particularly in how it has been depicted in dramatizations -- is Dee Dee's personality.
"The reason why she was able to snow-blind the doctors so much -- and the community -- is because she was so friendly. In the shows, they're portraying her as mean all the time," Blanchard said.
"But she was very charming, very relatable. She would give a hug to anyone. She would like to cook for people."
She recalled how Child Protective Services visited her house once and asked to see her arms and legs to determine if Dee Dee had been beating her.
"They weren't asking the right questions," Blanchard said of the abuse inquiry. "There was no follow-up report. They came one time and they closed the file."
Instead of helping Blanchard, the visit actually made her situation worse.
Dee Dee became wary of strangers after that incident, covering windows with garbage bags and removing the doorbell.
"She became increasingly more paranoid after that visit," she said. "She was just so paranoid about them coming back."
