Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the child abuse victim who was convicted of killing her mother, in 2015, has begun a new life since leaving prison.
But what has become of her ex-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn, who was also convicted in the case?
In 2016, Blanchard, now 32, was convicted of second-degree murder for her role in the 2015 slaying of her allegedly abusive mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard.
Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison after first pleading not guilty to stabbing Dee Dee Blanchard to death in her bedroom.
He spoke out for the first time in a 2019 Oxygen documentary, saying that he regrets killing Dee Dee Blanchard. “If I had to change anything at all, of course, one of the obvious ones is that I would’ve ran away with Gypsy. I don’t want to be staying with a murder on my hands. Being labeled as a killer … I don’t want to stay with that, but I’ll live with it,” he said.
Godejohn said with the “publicity” that comes with the case, he feels a “responsibility to be somewhat of a role model.” He continued, “I want to let everyone know that I’m not this cold killer that doesn’t have any feelings. I’m a human being. Human beings make mistakes.”
Blanchard said in an interview with People prior to her release from prison she wouldn't allowed to have contact with Godejohn as a condition of her parole — and that she doesn't want to contact him.
"A condition of my parole is that I cannot have any contact with him, and I don’t want contact," she said. "I feel responsible for putting him in this situation. However, the acts (to) commit murder was on him as well. I mean, everybody has a choice, and he went through with his, and so he’s paying his sentence. I paid mine, and that’s my thoughts on it."
Read on to learn about Godejohn’s relationship with Blanchard, his role in the 2015 murder of her mother and where he is today.
Who is Gypsy Rose Blanchard?
Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, were arrested in 2015 in connection to the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, who was found stabbed to death in her bedroom at the Blanchard’s Springfield, Missouri, home.
On Dec. 28, 2023, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released three years early from Missouri’s Chillicothe Correctional Center after being granted parole, a spokesperson told NBC News.
Upon her release, Gypsy Rose Blanchard has gained millions of followers on social media, where she’s shared both post-prison selfies and photos of her husband, Ryan Scott Anderson, whom she married in 2022 while in prison, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
Blanchard is set to share her story in the upcoming Lifetime special “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,” which premieres Jan. 5, and will publish a book, “Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom,” later this month.
How did Dee Dee Blanchard allegedly abuse her daughter?
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is believed to be a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological disorder in which a caretaker makes someone ill or creates the illusion of them being ill in order to receive attention.
She testified during her trial that her mother Dee Dee Blanchard took her to medical specialists to seek treatment for various conditions, including leukemia and muscular dystrophy, that she later learned she never had.
In an interview with Dr. Phil McGraw in 2017, Gypsy Rose Blanchard said her mother shaved her head, forced her to eat through a feeding tube. According to the Springfield News-Leader, she was made to use a wheelchair and an oxygen tank, although she required neither.
How did Nicholas Godejohn meet Gypsy Rose Blanchard?
At Godejohn’s 2018 murder trial, Gypsy Rose Blanchard revealed that she met Godejohn, who lived in Big Bend, Wisconsin, on a dating site for Christian singles in October 2012, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
What was the nature of the pair's relationship?
According to hundreds of text messages that were read aloud and shown to the jury during Godejohn’s 2018 trial, he and Gypsy Rose Blanchard were a long-distance couple who dreamed of getting married and having children, according to the Springfield News-Leader. Godejohn confirmed plans for marriage and children in a 2019 Oxygen documentary.
At Godejohn’s 2018 trial, Gypsy Rose Blanchard said she knew her mother would have never have allowed the couple to get married.
“She controlled every aspect of my life,” she told the jury.
Godejohn said in his 2019 interview that the five days he and Gypsy Rose Blanchard were together were “the most intense and magical and awe-inspiring days” he’s ever had.
Did Gypsy Rose Blanchard tell Nicholas Godejohn to kill her mother?
During her trial, Gypsy Rose Blanchard told the jury that she arranged for Godejohn to travel from Wisconsin to the Blanchards’ home in Springfield to kill her mother, according to Ozarks First.
Text messages read aloud and shown at Godejohn’s 2018 trial that Gypsy Rose Blanchard helped Godejohn plan her mother’s murder, the Springfield News-Leader reported.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard took the stand at Godejohn’s trial, where she told jurors that she believed killing her mom was the only way she could escape the abuse and have a life of her own, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
“I wanted to be free of her hold on me,” she said on the stand, adding of Godejohn’s participation in the murder, ‘I talked him into it.”
Godejohn’s trial attorney Dewayne Perry argued in court that his client had been manipulated into murdering. “Nick was so in love with her and so obsessed with her that he would do anything,” Perry told the jury, according to NBC Chicago.
Godejohn said at his trial that after he killed Dee Dee Blanchard, he and Gypsy Rose Blanchard engaged in sex in her bedroom, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
The two then left the Blanchard home and fled to Wisconsin.
In the 2019 Oxygen documentary, Godejohn said he felt “she was not taking responsibility for her actions, but at the same time, due to the way she was raised I can’t say I blame her.”
Were Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Nicholas Godejohn both convicted of murder?
In 2016, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was convicted of second-degree murder for her role in her mom’s 2015 murder.
Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after first pleading not guilty to stabbing Dee Dee Blanchard to death in her bedroom while Gypsy Rose Blanchard hid in a nearby bathroom.
At his sentencing hearing in February 2019, Godejohn reiterated that he murdered Dee Dee Blanchard because he wanted to help free Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
“I was blindly in love. That was always very much the case,” he said, according to The Springfield News-Leader.
Why was Gypsy Rose Blanchard's sentence shorter than Nicholas Godejohn's?
Gypsy Rose Blanchard made a deal with Greene County prosecutor Dan Patterson, who took into consideration the "extraordinary and unusual” abuse she had suffered at her mother’s hand, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced in 2016 to 10 years in prison.
She was released early on Dec. 28, 2023.
Are Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Nicholas Godejohn still a couple?
No. In August 2022, The Springfield News-Leader reported that Gypsy Rose Blanchard had married Ryan Scott Anderson of Saint Charles, Louisiana, in June of that year.
Godejohn called Blanchard his “soul mate” in the 2019 Oxygen documentary. “I will always have feelings for her,” he said.
Is Nicholas Godejohn still in prison today?
Godejohn is still serving a life sentence with no chance of parole at the Potosi Correctional Center, according to The Springfield News-Leader.
In August 2022, Godejohn appeared with new attorneys in a Greene County courtroom, where he asked a judge to set aside his previous conviction and order a new trial on the grounds that he had ineffective counsel in his trial, according to The Springfield News-Leader.
Godejohn’s request was denied, according to NBC Affiliate KYTV of Springfield, Missouri.