How is Gypsy Blanchard doing in prison in 2019? ‘She’s just looking forward,’ stepmom says

How is Gypsy Blanchard doing in prison in 2019? ‘She’s just looking forward,’ stepmom says

It’s 2019, almost four years since the death of Dee Dee Blanchard and the strange case of medical child abuse surrounding her daughter, Gypsy Blanchard, now 27.

Fictionalized “true crime” adaptations of the Gypsy Blanchard case have proliferated, notably “The Act” on Hulu, which prompted Blanchard and her family to consider legal action against that show’s creators, the News-Leader reported Friday. Gypsy has not seen “The Act” or an HBO documentary but has seen some fictionalized versions of her life, her stepmom told the News-Leader. Sometimes, it’s been too emotional and Gypsy’s had to turn off the TV.

More:Gypsy Blanchard and her family may take legal action against creators of Hulu show ‘The Act’

But how is the 27-year-old Blanchard experiencing her real life as she serves her 10-year prison sentence at Missouri’s Chillicothe Correctional Center? When the News-Leader last checked in with Gypsy’s stepmother in February 2018, she said Gypsy was “thriving.”

“She’s still doing really well,” Kristy Blanchard said late Friday. “You know, she’s got another job, she’s doing photography again. She wakes up, goes to school, she goes to take pictures, back to school again, back to work again.”

“She’s just looking forward,” Gypsy’s stepmother said.

A screenwriter working with the family, Franchesca Macelli, said: “I feel like Gypsy has had a good — you know, she’s getting discipline, she’s getting structure, all of those different things. I do feel when I talk to her, it’s a much more positive conversation we’re having, and I feel she’s progressed. But also looming stress.”

The stress comes in part from the way the public reacts to media “inspired by” or “based on” her story, Macelli said.

“Unfortunately, people don’t know what ‘inspired by’ or ‘based on’ really means,” said the screenwriter. “People watch it and think it’s the truth. But she’s still thriving.”

Macelli added, “It’s just — she’s like, ‘I’m done, these people don’t get it, they don’t know the truth. I’m done.’ The only thing she’s focused on is what we’re doing. She’s focused on getting through her time she has to serve and coming out and being able to be productive in society and being a beacon of truth and light for the community of other children and hoping to save other children from going through what she did.”

More:’The Act’ miniseries based on Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard premieres on Hulu

Regarding the death of her mom, a killing Gypsy helped arrange, “she knows the end result wasn’t the best result,” Macelli said. “She knows what she did wasn’t right.”

Long term, “she hopes she can have a positive impact,” Macelli said. “Most people don’t know what Munchausen by proxy is. Gypsy wants to help other children being abused, hopefully help them. I feel like that’s a very positive thing coming out of this. If she can help one kid, then at least it wasn’t all in vain.”

Macelli and Blanchard noted that Gypsy does experience isolation in prison, like any state prisoner.

“It’s not like she can turn to a guide or a friend or anybody really close to her and get some help on what she’s feeling,” Macelli said.

“I’m 19 hours away,” Kristy Blanchard said. “It’s not like I’m 5 minutes away. It’s not like she can call and say, ‘hey mom.’”

Blanchard says people send her private social media messages about her stepdaughter from around the globe. Some are critical, some are encouraging.

“I get so many messages of positive (comments), that they are praying,” Blanchard said.

Blanchard and Macelli acknowledged that they’re in the middle of a “media circus,” in Macelli’s words.

“(Gypsy’s story) is so different than anything out there that everyone wants the story,” she said. “I think they’ve forgotten there are people involved, families involved. It goes beyond Gypsy and Dee Dee. There are children, there are siblings, they have to deal with this, there’s a marriage being pulled through this.”

The members of the Blanchards’ home community in Louisiana, Cut Off, are very supportive, Kristy said.

“Cut Off is literally — you could walk the whole thing, it’s that small,” she said. “Here they come up (and say), ‘oh, when I see her, I can’t wait to hug her. Tell her we love her.’”

For the family, this is not an easy time, Kristy said.

“Sometimes I wake up,” Gypsy’s stepmother said. “Oh my god, I can’t believe one morning I woke up and this is my life. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, even the people that have drug us through the mud. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. It gets stressful, it really does.”