Gypsy Rose Blanchard's grandfather has responded to the allegations that he sexually abused her as a child.
The now-32-year-old was released from prison on Thursday (December 28) after serving eight years for the 2015 murder of her abusive mother, Clauddine 'Dee Dee' Blanchard.
While her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn was sentenced to life in prison for committing the murder, she was given 10 years but was allowed to leave prison early, having served eight.
Before she was released, the victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy - now known as factitious disorder imposed on another - opened up about her traumatic upbringing in Lifetime's The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, which is set to premiere on January 5.
Watch The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard trailer below:Gypsy Rose shared her claim that she was molested by her grandfather Claude Pitre in an exclusive interview with People, claiming that the alleged sexual abuse went on for about a year.
"I've gotten to a point where I can stand on my own two feet and say, this happened to me and I'm not going to let it affect me anymore," she told the outlet. "And that's why I'm talking about it now. And I think for me, making it known that it happened might prevent him from doing the same thing to another family member or another child or another person because he's still alive."
Pitre denied the claim in the forthcoming documentary, and made a mind-boggling allegation of his own, accusing his granddaughter - who was a child at the time - of touching him inappropriately.
"She was the one that was trying to touch me, and I’d say no, don’t do that," he claimed in the docuseries. "She started doing that when she was about four years old." Upon hearing about her grandfather’s allegation, Gypsy Rose told the interviewing producer that she wants "nothing to do with him".
In addition to this, Gypsy Rose revealed to the outlet that she was 19 years old when she mustered up the courage to open up about the abuse, which began a decade prior, to her late mother.
"I fully told her everything that happened, and she proceeded to let me know that he had done the same thing to her when she was a child as well," she said. "It was hard for us to both come to grips with the fact that we had both been abused by the same person. And I think it makes me wonder what else, what other kind of forms of abuse did she suffer that I don't know about?"
Throughout her childhood, Gypsy Rose's mother made her believe she was suffering from several serious health conditions.
Due to Dee Dee’s fabrications, her daughter was prescribed a litany of extreme medications and had to sleep using a breathing machine and a wheelchair. She also went through several surgeries, including procedures on her eyes and the removal of her salivary glands, which still cause side effects to this day.
The late mom garnered massive media attention for the fabricated lies that her daughter was developmentally delayed, and the pair were gifted a Disney World trip and even moved into a new home in Springfield, Missouri, which was built by Habitat for Humanity.
Having spent her life under the control of Dee Dee, Gypsy Rose enlisted the help of her then-boyfriend, whom she met on a Christian dating website, to murder her mother. In June 2015, Nicholas fatally stabbed Dee Dee while she slept.
Gypsy pleaded guilty in 2016 to second-degree murder, receiving a 10-year sentence in exchange for her testimony against Nicholas, who received life without parole.
After eight years behind bars, she was released from prison and shared her joy with a selfie posted to Instagram, captioning it: "First selfie of freedom!"
Now, Gypsy Rose is at home with her husband, Ryan Scott Anderson, whom she first came into contact with after he sent a letter in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. The couple tied the knot two years later in a small prison ceremony at Chillicothe Correctional Center where she was incarcerated.
They have since shared several heartwarming pictures of their affection on Instagram, including a sweet New Year's Eve kiss and a recent mirror snap.
The sweet couple now hope to kickstart their new life by starting a family.
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