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Gypsy Rose Blanchard, 32, told PEOPLE in a new interview that she learned how to use a tampon in prison. Gypsy Rose, who spent over seven years behind bars for her involvement in her mother Dee Dee Blanchard‘s murder in 2015, revealed that she was unaware about menstruation because of the abuse she was dealing with as a victim of Munchausen by proxy.
“It was not your typical, ‘OK, so I’m going to take you to a store and we’re going to get you a training bra, we’re going to get you pads and tampons,’ ” she explained in the interview published January 4. “There was none of that. So it was very abnormally learned, and unfortunately, I had to basically come to prison with the skills that [Dee Dee] taught me, which was not much.”
Gypsy Rose was in her 20s when she began her prison sentence in 2016 after pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of her mom. Her then-boyfriend, Nick Godejohn, killed Dee Dee and was sentenced to life in prison. During the almost eight years that she was locked up at Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri, Gypsy Rose learned a lot about her woman parts thanks to her fellow inmates.
“[In prison] I’m around women that have been around the block or two, and they have a lot of life experience,” she told PEOPLE. “Maybe it’s not the best life experience, but I’ve been able to gain some positives from being around other inmates,” she added.
Gypsy Rose was released from prison on December 28. She will tell her story in The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a new Lifetime documentary special that airs over the course of three nights starting on January 5. According to PEOPLE, Gypsy Rose reveals in the series that Dee Dee made her wear a diaper during her menstruation before she went to prison.
During Gypsy’s childhood, Dee Dee convinced everyone that her daughter was suffering from multiple illnesses, including muscular dystrophy and leukemia. Dee Dee even had Gypsy’s head regularly shaved in order to maintain the appearance of a cancer victim. Dee Dee also forced Gypsy to take medications that she didn’t need and put her in a wheelchair, despite the fact that Gypsy was able to walk.
Since being released from prison, Gypsy Rose has been adjusting to normal life with her husband, Ryan Scott Anderson. Gypsy Rose told PEOPLE in a separate interview that she wants to have children with Ryan. “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,” she said. “And that’s going to be a really hard conversation.”
