The abuse victim built a huge following after her prison release — and then suddenly shut down her accounts.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard has spent a lot of time in the public eye since she was released from prison, and now she is taking a step back. Last week, Blanchard deleted her public social-media accounts, explaining in a video, “With public scrutiny as bad as it is, I just don’t want to live my life under a microscope.”
Blanchard, who served a seven-year prison sentence for murdering her abusive mother Dee Dee Blanchard in one of the most publicized cases of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, was released in December to a great deal of fanfare. She quickly garnered millions of followers posting updates on her post-prison life (and the occasional GRWM video).
Earlier last week, Blanchard deleted her Instagram account, and on Thursday she took to her public TikTok page to explain her decision. “I do my best to live my authentic life and what’s real to me,” she reportedly said in the since-deleted videos, “and what’s not real is social media. Social media is literally a doorway to hell.” She added that she’d set up a private verified Instagram account after having “a really good conversation with my dad,” but, acknowledging her explosion in followers, said, “I could give a F about a following. Like, that’s not real life.”
In another video posted to TikTok Thursday, Blanchard reportedly apologized for “a lack of accountability in my interviews,” suggesting she regrets some of the choices she made during the first month she was out of prison. “Feeling freedom for the first time felt amazing,” she said, claiming she “got carried away in the hype of everything.” She cited a comment she made on Nick Viall’s podcast about not identifying as a murderer that she said “confused a lot of people.”
“I did a bad thing,” Blanchard said. “But I’ve also been given a second chance at life. So please give me a little grace. Let my actions match my words.” She added, “I think I’m just now starting to get around to listening to my inner self instead of all the noise that’s been on social media.” She concluded, “I’m trying to take steps forward, if that makes sense.” Though she said in those videos she intended to keep her public TikTok account in addition to a new private one, she appears to have deleted the page a few hours later.
A source speaking with People claims Blanchard took down her accounts “at the advisement of her parole officer, so she won’t get in trouble and go back to jail.” At the time she was released, Blanchard had served 85 percent of her original prison sentence, and her parole conditions reportedly include completing an outpatient mental-health program and not contacting her ex-boyfriend, who’s serving a life sentence for carrying out Dee Dee’s murder. It’s not clear how exactly her social-media accounts might have violated parole — but whatever her reasoning, it sounds like Blanchard is getting some much-needed privacy.
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