Gypsy Rose Blanchard is looking to the future after serving eight years behind bars.
In an interview with People published Thursday, Blanchard spoke about the deep bond she shares with her husband, Ryan Scott Anderson, and confirmed that the couple ― who wed last year ― are planning to start a family.
“Ryan has seen me through some really good times, some really hard times. I would say that he is probably the most compassionate soul that I’ve ever met, and the most patient,” she told the publication. “God knows, he’s so patient with me, because I could be a lot to handle. I could be an emotional handful.”
After describing Anderson as her “emotional backbone,” she added: “We’re in love. It’s hard because I’m going into a new life and I’m newly married, and I’m going to have kids one day, and I’m going to have to explain to my kids why their grandmother on mommy’s side isn’t around. And that’s going to be a really hard conversation.”
Blanchard, who was released from Missouri’s Chillicothe Correctional Center this week, celebrated the occasion with a Friday snapshot on Instagram that showed her smiling in what appeared to be a hotel room.
“First selfie of freedom!” she wrote in the caption.
As of Friday afternoon, the photo had received more than 2.6 million likes.
In a 2015 plea deal, Blanchard was found guilty of the second-degree murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who had foisted numerous fake illnesses upon her daughter, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy, brain damage and an unspecified chromosomal disorder.
Blanchard’s mother forced her daughter to use a wheelchair, and also kept her isolated from the outside world while subjecting her to physical abuse. She also shaved her daughter’s head to mimic the side effects of chemotherapy and convinced a doctor to install a feeding tube in her.
Since then, Blanchard’s case has become a hot topic among true crime enthusiasts. It’s also been the subject of several books and documentaries, as well as the acclaimed Hulu series, “The Act,” which starred Patricia Arquette and Joey King.
A new docuseries, “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,” is set to premiere on Lifetime next week.
Elsewhere in her chat with People, Blanchard said she was actively “trying to come to a place of forgiveness” for her mother, who is widely believed to have experienced Munchausen by proxy but was never formally diagnosed.
“I still love my mom,” she said. “And I’m starting to understand that it was something that was maybe out of her control, like an addict with an impulse. That helps me with coping and accepting what happened.”
