Gypsy Rose Blanchard Says ‘Prison Confessions’ Series Showed Her Story in the ‘Truest Light’

Gypsy Rose Blanchard has opened up about her hit Lifetime docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, saying it was “the way that my story should have been told all along.”

Blanchard was released from prison in December after serving seven years of her 10-year sentence for her part in the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. For years, Dee Dee convinced people her daughter was terminally ill with the mind of a 7-year-old and suffered from various ailments and illnesses, including muscular dystrophy and leukemia.

The Lifetime docuseries premiered on January 5 and featured unprecedented access to Blanchard before her release. Throughout the series, Blanchard shared her story of horrific abuse, being the victim of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, her mother’s murder, and her life behind bars.

“I’m happy with the way that it came across,” Gypsy said during Deadline‘s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted event. “I just feel like this was the way that my story should have been told all along because I know that my story has been told through different other outlets and I feel like there was always margin for error.”

She added, “So, this one definitely really painted the most truest light to what my life was and what my life is.”

Blanchard’s story first came to light in a 2016 Buzzfeed article, which led to the 2017 HBO documentary film Mommy Dead and Dearest. This was followed by Hulu’s 2019 limited series The Act, starring Joey King as Gypsy Rose and Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee.

Melissa Moore, an executive producer on Prison Confessions, revealed how she’d reached out several years ago while Blanchard was serving her ten-year prison sentence. They started to speak weekly by phone, which led to the idea of the Lifetime docuseries.

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“We started talking about her life as a young woman in prison and she said something that I’ll never forget, which was, ‘I feel more free in prison than I’ve ever felt my entire life,'” Moore shared. “And I thought, wow, there is something more to her story. This is a woman coming of age in prison. She’s learning from other inmates how to be a woman. She didn’t get that training from her own mother.”

Fellow exec producer Nicole Vogel said the success of Prison Confessions “surpassed even our wildest expectations.”

“It’s been our number one most downloaded property ever across all of A&E networks. It’s been the highest social-performing property and buzz for us across A&E networks. So, it really has been a hit,” she added.

The series’ success has led to a follow-up, Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, which is set to premiere on Lifetime on June 3. The show will track Blanchard’s post-prison life, including her divorce and upcoming nose surgery.