“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin pressed Gypsy Rose Blanchard about orchestrating the murder of her mother during Friday’s episode of the daytime talk show.
“Why resort to murder?” the co-host asked about the infamous Missouri case. Blanchard appeared on the show to talk about her life after serving more than eight years in prison for murder. She pled guilty to killing her abusive mother, Claudine Blanchard, conspiring with her then-boyfriend, who stabbed her to death in her bed.
Experts believe Blanchard’s mother had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological illness in which Claudine – or “Dee Dee” – projected fake illnesses onto her daughter in an effort to receive attention or material items out of sympathy for the victim.
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After Blanchard explained to the co-hosts about how hard her life was with her mother, Hostin confronted her with the tough question. She prefaced it, saying, “You’re very brave for being here – for telling your story. I think it will help a lot of people.”
But she continued, “The question, though, that I think a lot of people have – I don’t have it – is this: Why didn’t you try telling a family member or the police, maybe, that you weren’t sick? Why resort to murder?”
Blanchard replied by explaining how she felt she had no other option at the time because she was so terrified of her mother.
“Well you know, I did try to run away, and I talk about this in the documentary. I talk about the first time that I tried to run away from home. Within four hours – I got as far as just outside of town – within four hours she brought me back to the home, chained me to the bed, left me there for two weeks.”
“Two weeks without a lot of food, water. I had to urinate on myself or in a bucket, as she, you know, held the chain,” she told the sympathetic hosts, before adding, “I was in the mindset of ‘I’m so afraid of her. I’m so afraid that if I reach out for help another time, what will – it will be worse for me.'”
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Co-host Joy Behar then asked about Blanchard’s story of when her mother convinced a doctor to remove her daughter’s salivary glands due to a fake illness.
“So is that why you didn’t say anything to the doctor too, when he removed your salivary glands?” she asked. Blanchard affirmed that, saying, “Exactly. My mother was in the room with me at every single doctor’s appointment, every surgery. The only time that she was ever not with me was actually in the operating room itself.”
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin asked Blanchard about how she feels that her former boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison over the murder while she got less time, to which she said, “I know that we both probably have a lot of regrets. I know I have regrets. I can’t speak for him, so I really don’t know his side of things.”
“All I know is, you know, I did my time, he’s doing his time. That’s the best that I can do at this point. Like for me, I have to focus on myself right now. I can’t look in the past and worry about him or anything else going on. I have to prioritize myself in this moment,” she added.
Blanchard’s appearance comes as she promotes her upcoming book with co-authors Melissa Moore and Michele Matrisciani titled “Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom,” set to be released Jan. 9, as well as her three-night Lifetime special, “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,” set to premiere between Friday and Sunday.
She has amassed nearly 7 million followers on Instagram.
Fox News’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
