Gypsy, now 33 years-old, was released on parole in December 2023 after serving eight and a half years in prison. She became ‘infamous’ during her time behind bars following high public interest in her story.

Speaking to ABC News after her release, she spoke about her popularity. “Fame is not what I’m looking for. I think I’m infamous and then I came out famous, that’s not what I want. I want to be an influence for change,” she stated.

Her current social media presence has gained her a following of around 11mn on her TikTok and Instagram channels, with fans also supporting her financially. Biography.com listed her among its new celebrities list for 2024, due to her status as a ‘social media celebrity’.

The ‘creator’ also has a reality TV show named Gypsy Rose: Life after Lockup, and has had both TV mini series and documentaries made about her.

Gypsy’s childhood ‘illnesses’

Born in Louisiana, US, Gypsy grew up with her mother Dee Dee, who falsely claimed Gypsy had a number of illnesses from birth, including leukaemia, asthma, seizures, and muscular dystrophy, the latter her mother claimed she needed a wheelchair for. But in reality, Gypsy did not suffer from most of the illnesses.

During the publicity surrounding her book Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom, Gypsy is described as having been ‘falsely told that she suffered from debilitating, chronic illnesses’, growing up ‘enduring physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her mother Dee Dee, including unnecessary medication and surgery’.

This ‘act’ took place over the course of Gypsy’s childhood until she was 19 years old. Reflecting on the events, Gypsy told People Magazine that she was “still coming to grips with her past” adding how “If I had another chance to redo everything, I don’t know if I would go back to when I was a child and tell my aunts and uncles that I’m not sick and mommy makes me sick”.

Her mother had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which is, as defined by Cleveland Clinic, a ‘mental illness in which a person acts as if an individual he or she is caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick’.

The motivation behind these actions are unknown, but her mother was reportedly making Gypsy sick to gain attention and to gain free trips and donations.

After Gypsy’s mothers death it was discovered that there were no real medical records of all the claimed illnesses and the only health issues that she did suffer from was minor vision impairment in her left eye.

Gypsy’s relationship with her mother

Gypsy described how she was at her mother’s “mercy” and that among the abuse she suffered included an incident of being “chained” to the bed. But now she has experienced “more freedom in prison” than she had done living with her mother.

Gypsy met her ex-boyfriend Nick Godejohn on a Christian dating app back in October 2012, with the help of a computer Gypsy got in secret. The communication between them went down for more than two years online and then in 2015 the pair planned her mothers murder.,

Despite the complicated history with her mother, Gypsy reflected on her relationship with her with ABC News. Gypsy said: “She had a lot of demons herself that she was struggling with. I didn’t want her dead. I just wanted out of my situation. And I thought that was the only way out.”

Gypsy’s love life

Following her relationship with Nick, Gypsy began a new love life in prison when she started corresponding with pen pal Ken Urker in 2017, after he saw the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest. The pair sent each other letters and Ken also visited her behind bars.

In 2018, while Gypsy was still incarcerated, they got engaged, though this did not last long and the couple broke up the following year.

Gypsy later struck up a relationship with Ryan Anderson, when he wrote to her in prison. The pair married in 2022 while Gypsy was in prison, but this relationship also did not last and they divorced in 2024. The couple appeared together in the documentary Gypsy Rose: Life after Lockup.

After the breakup with Ryan, Gypsy reconnected with Ken and the two of them have recently announced they are expecting a baby girl together.

She is now trying to “live her best life”.