Gypsy Rose Blanchard Says Media Storm After Prison Release Hurt Her Mental Health

Gypsy Rose Blanchard is reflecting on how some of the attention she’s received since her release from prison has had a negative impact on her mental health.

The 32-year-old, who became widely known for her involvement in the 2015 murder of her abusive mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, discussed some of her recent experiences on a panel at An Evening With Lifetime: Conversations On Controversies FYC Event in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday.

“I’m very much an introvert. And so coming out and this media storm hit me, and I was… At first, I really, really was touched by the positivity that people were showing me,” Gypsy Rose Blanchard told People magazine editor-at-large and panel moderator Janine Rubenstein. “And then, as social media began, and how it always does, it turned negative. It started to have a negative effect on my mental health.”

Blanchard, who shut down her public Instagram and TikTok accounts in March, later said during the panel event that she “got back into” social media and learned not to read the comment sections.

“I’m just trying to live my life in the best way that I can,” she added.

In 2016, Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after she admitted to persuading her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to kill her mother.

Dee Dee Blanchard was suspected to have had an undiagnosed case of factitious disorder, formerly called Munchausen syndrome by proxy. The psychological disorder can cause caregivers to “falsely present others, such as children, as being ill, injured or impaired,” the Mayo Clinic states.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released on parole in December after serving eight years of a decade-long prison sentence.

In March, she announced her separation from her husband, Ryan