Gypsy Rose Blanchard Claims She Was Her Mom’s ‘Emotional Support Surrogate’

In her new memoir, “My Time to Stand,” Gypsy Rose Blanchard opens up about how her feelings toward her late mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, have shifted over the years.

Once consumed by resentment and anger over the abuse she endured, Gypsy is now reflecting on their complicated relationship with a mix of sorrow and understanding. In the memoir, she also makes several shocking revelations about the abuse, manipulation, and control she experienced under Dee Dee’s care, shedding light on the extreme measures her mother allegedly took to maintain power over her.

From forced medical treatments to emotional and physical abuse, Gypsy Rose Blanchard candidly examines the lasting impact of her traumatic upbringing and how she has worked to reclaim her life and identity.

Gypsy revealed that even as a child, she acted as her mother’s “emotional support surrogate.”

“I’m all for the idea of ‘us against the world’ if you are a fierce single mom, raising strong daughters, modeling what can be accomplished when you stick together,” she wrote in her book. “But our ‘us against the world’ looked more like her sticking to me. While I was very young, that stickiness was sweet like molasses.”

She recounted disturbing details of the alleged physical and verbal abuse she endured from her mother.

She described one incident where, after catching her speaking to a man named Dan on the phone, Dee Dee called her a “whore” and punched her legs repeatedly “like she was a boxer and I was a piece of meat hanging in a freezer locker.”

Gypsy previously spoke about Dan, the older man she met online after attending a convention, in previous interviews. She ultimately ran away to be with him a few months after getting in contact. Dee Dee eventually tracked her down to a friend’s house in Springfield where Gypsy was staying with Dan. Dee Dee demanded that Gypsy return home, and Gypsy complied.

After another interaction with Dan, Dee Dee allegedly “handcuffed” Gypsy to a dog leash and secured it to her body, further showcasing the extent of the abuse.

“If she fell asleep, I couldn’t move without waking her up,” Gypsy recalled, adding that this went on for two weeks. “I was at her mercy for everything — to go to the bathroom, for food, for everything. As punishment, she would not feed me every day, just a little bit of broth every other day. I would frequently get hunger pains.”

Gypsy claimed her mom “was right beside me and would eat whatever she wanted” and would keep “a knife by her bedside table, which she said was for protection if I attempted to run away or do anything to leave.”

Shortly after her release on parole, Gypsy Rose Blanchard revealed her plans to publish her memoir, sharing her side of the story.

In “My Time to Stand,” co-written with Melissa Moore, Gypsy Rose Blanchard shares the harrowing story of her upbringing under the control of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. Believed by medical experts to have suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, Dee Dee isolated Gypsy from her family to hide the fabricated medical conditions and unnecessary treatments she imposed on her daughter.

“I am in love with the title of my book not only because it addresses the question I get most, but because in our pain and struggle, we can find what it is that we want to stand for,” she shared in a statement to PEOPLE Magazine earlier this year. “That inside our stories, if we dare to sit in the stillness of them, our purpose can be revealed. And we all have a purpose. That’s what I hope people will take away from my book.”

Dee Dee deceived medical professionals, family members, and the public into believing Gypsy suffered from a range of severe illnesses, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, and other chronic conditions. She also allegedly claimed that Gypsy had developmental delays, ensuring her complete dependence on her mother.

Gypsy’s account reveals the devastating toll of her mother’s actions, which included the removal of her teeth and salivary glands, forcing her to use a wheelchair, and the insertion of a feeding tube—all based on fabricated diagnoses.

“Regardless of everything that my mother and I went through with each other — what I did to her and what she did to me — I’m now carrying her grandchild,” Gypsy, who is pregnant with a baby girl, wrote. “Later today, when I see my baby on the doctor’s monitor, I will wish that my mom was here for this.”

“My Time To Stand” is out now.