[4] Given the sensational aspects of Gypsy's childhood, including her mother forcing her to pretend to be disabled and terminally ill, she gained widespread media attention.
During their time there, Gypsy-Rose was honored by the Oley Foundation, which advocates for the rights of feeding-tube recipients, as its 2007 Child of the Year.
In 2008, Habitat for Humanity built them a small home with a wheelchair ramp and hot tub as part of a larger project on the north side of Springfield, to the east, and the two moved there.
[8] Her 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m) height, nearly toothless mouth, large glasses, and high, childlike voice reinforced the perception that she had all the problems her mother claimed she had.
When Gypsy-Rose said something that suggested she was not genuinely sick or seemed beyond her purported mental capacity, she recalls that her mother would squeeze her hand very tightly.
[12] Gypsy-Rose had attended science fiction and fantasy conventions since 2001,[13] sometimes in costume since she could blend into their diverse and inclusive communities in her wheelchair.
At a 2011 event, she made what may have been an escape attempt that ended when her mother found her in a hotel room with a man she had met online.
[14] Sometime around 2012, Gypsy-Rose, who continued to use the Internet and phone freely, made contact online with Nicholas Godejohn, a man around her age from Big Bend, Wisconsin, whom she said she had met on a Christian singles website.
Gypsy-Rose, who had five separate Facebook accounts,[14] and Godejohn flirted online, their exchanges sometimes using BDSM elements, which she has since claimed was more what he was interested in.
She planned to pretend to meet Godejohn for the first time at a movie theater with her mother,[11] then appear to strike up a relationship based on the supposed chance encounter.
They fled to a motel outside Springfield, where they stayed a few days while planning their next move; during that time, they were seen on security cameras at several stores.
Several witnesses who saw the pair on their way to the Greyhound station noted that Gypsy wore a blonde wig and walked unassisted.
When the police arrived, they had to wait for a search warrant to be issued before they could enter, but they allowed one of the neighbors to climb through a window.
It turned out to be in Wisconsin, and the next day police agencies in Waukesha County raided the Godejohns' Big Bend home.
[18] The news that Gypsy-Rose was safe was greeted with relief in Springfield, where she and Godejohn were soon extradited to and held on $1 million bond.
The media in Springfield soon reported the truth of the Blanchards' lives: that Gypsy-Rose had never been sick and had always been able to walk, but her mother had made her pretend otherwise, using physical abuse to control her.
[19] Godejohn was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole[20] and an additional 25 years for armed criminal action.
While in prison, Blanchard got engaged to a man named Ken Urker, whom she met through a pen pal program.
In July 2022, she married Ryan Anderson, a teacher who was from the state of Louisiana, in a prison ceremony with no guests present.
On March 28, 2024, Blanchard announced she had separated from Anderson in a statement posted to her private Facebook account obtained by People magazine.