Gypsy Rose Blanchard says she acted as her mom’s emotional support person

Gypsy Rose Blanchard delves into the enduring effects of her distressing childhood, which included coerced medical treatments and emotional and physical mistreatment. She candidly discusses how she has endeavored to rebuild her life and sense of self in the aftermath.

Gypsy revealed that even as a child, she acted as her mother’s “emotional support surrogate.”

In her book, she writes, “I support the concept of ‘us against the world’ for strong single mothers raising resilient daughters, showcasing the power of unity. However, in our case, it felt more like her clinging to me. In my young age, that attachment felt comforting, like thick molasses.”

She recounted disturbing details of the alleged physical and verbal abuse she endured from her mother.

She described one incident where, after catching her speaking to a man named Dan on the phone, Dee Dee called her a “whore” and punched her legs repeatedly “like she was a boxer and I was a piece of meat hanging in a freezer locker.”

Gypsy previously spoke about Dan, the older man she met online after attending a convention, in previous interviews. She ultimately ran away to be with him a few months after getting in contact. Dee Dee eventually tracked her down to a friend’s house in Springfield where Gypsy was staying with Dan. Dee Dee demanded that Gypsy return home, and Gypsy complied.

“If she fell asleep, I couldn’t move without waking her up,” Gypsy recalled, adding that this went on for two weeks. “I was at her mercy for everything — to go to the bathroom, for food, for everything. As punishment, she would not feed me every day, just a little bit of broth every other day. I would frequently get hunger pains.”

Gypsy claimed her mom “was right beside me and would eat whatever she wanted” and would keep “a knife by her bedside table, which she said was for protection if I attempted to run away or do anything to leave.”

Shortly after her release on parole, Gypsy Rose Blanchard revealed her plans to publish her memoir, sharing her side of the story.

In “My Time to Stand,” co-written with Melissa Moore, Gypsy Rose Blanchard shares the harrowing story of her upbringing under the control of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. Believed by medical experts to have suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, Dee Dee isolated Gypsy from her family to hide the fabricated medical conditions and unnecessary treatments she imposed on her daughter.

“I am in love with the title of my book not only because it addresses the question I get most, but because in our pain and struggle, we can find what it is that we want to stand for,” she shared in a statement to PEOPLE Magazine earlier this year. “That inside our stories, if we dare to sit in the stillness of them, our purpose can be revealed. And we all have a purpose. That’s what I hope people will take away from my book.”

Dee Dee deceived medical professionals, family members, and the public into believing Gypsy suffered from a range of severe illnesses, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, and other chronic conditions. She also allegedly claimed that Gypsy had developmental delays, ensuring her complete dependence on her mother.

Gypsy’s account reveals the devastating toll of her mother’s actions, which included the removal of her teeth and salivary glands, forcing her to use a wheelchair, and the insertion of a feeding tube—all based on fabricated diagnoses.

“Regardless of everything that my mother and I went through with each other — what I did to her and what she did to me — I’m now carrying her grandchild,” Gypsy, who is pregnant with a baby girl, wrote. “Later today, when I see my baby on the doctor’s monitor, I will wish that my mom was here for this.”

“My Time To Stand” is out now.