Gypsy Rose Blanchard separates from husband three months after prison release
Gypsy Rose Blanchard has separated from her husband, Ryan Anderson.
Blanchard took to her private Facebook account to announce the news, according to People. The separation comes three months after Blanchard was released from Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri after serving more than eight years in prison for plotting to murder her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, with then-boyfriend Nicholas “Nick” Godejohn.
On Thursday 28 March, Blanchard wrote on Facebook: “People have been asking what is going on in my life. Unfortunately my husband and I are going through a separation and I moved in with my parents home down the bayou. I have the support of my family and friends to help guide me through this. I am learning to listen to my heart. Right now I need time to let myself find… who I am.”
The couple were married in July 2022 during a small ceremony at the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri, where Blanchard was released on 28 December after serving eight years of her sentence. Blanchard pleaded guilty in 2016 to the second-degree murder of her mother, after an investigation found that she was forced by her mother to pretend she was suffering from several serious illnesses.
She met the special education teacher in 2020 after he sent her letters in prison, but it appears that Anderson wasn’t the only one. When asked by Entertainment Tonight how many men wrote to her during that time, Blanchard responded: “A lot, over 250 from all countries.”
As for what made Anderson stand out among the men wanting to date her, Blanchard revealed that their similar backgrounds inspired her to send him a letter back. “Well, Ryan’s from Louisiana and I’m originally from Louisiana. So, I saw that and I’m kinda like: ‘Hey, someone from my home state we probably have a lot in common,’” she recalled. “We became friends and, of course, more than friends and then now we’re married.”
While the couple had been married for more than one year, Anderson explained when Blanchard was released that they were referring to themselves as “newly-together-wed” since they’re finally able to spend everyday life together. “It’s nice, it’s what I’ve been waiting for,” the teacher said, adding: “We’re still learning [about] each other but it’s been great.”
Blanchard shared that, since her release from prison, the couple cooked their first dinner together and she’d already told her husband “to put the toilet seat down several times”. Despite their families encouraging them to wait until Blanchard was released from prison to tie the knot, the couple maintained at the time that they had no regrets about their decision to get married.
“I think that, spending eight and a half years in prison, all I was was all alone. And I was tired of sleeping in a bed by myself. I was tired of feeling like I had no one to share memories with,” Blanchard said. “I always knew that I wanted to share it with someone, I just didn’t know who. And, now I know who.”
Prior to Blanchard’s release in December 2023, she’d opened up in an interview with People about her plans to have a more formal wedding with Anderson.
“We do plan on having a reception/redo wedding with all of our family and our friends and the dress and the cake and everything because we deserve that. I deserve that. He deserves that,” she said. “Our prison wedding was just something to where we can make our vows to each other. It was something that meant something to us. And I think the party is kind of for everybody else and us, but mostly for everybody else.”
