From Helena Bonham Carter to acting newcomers, 'The White Lotus' season 4 cast is shaping up to be one of the show’s most intriguing yet.
On Monday, June 9, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard took to Instagram to commemorate the day that has two meanings.
Alongside a photo of herself and her partner Ken Urker holding up sonogram images from when she was pregnant with their daughter Aurora, Blanchard wrote that June 9 is “ONE day, TWO meanings.”
“One year ago, we saw Aurora for the first time in this sonogram and my heart has never been the same,” the new mom wrote. “She is my light, my joy, my greatest blessing.”
Blanchard and Urker announced the birth of their daughter, Aurora Raina, on New Year’s Day.
However, June 9 “also marks 10 years since the death of” Blanchard’s mom, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. Dee Dee Blanchard was murdered in 2015.
During her 2018 testimony, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard admitted she “wanted to be free of her” mother’s hold on her, and persuaded her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to kill Dee Dee Blanchard. “I talked him into it,” NPR reported.
According to Blanchard’s attorney, Michael Stanfield, Dee Dee Blanchard had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, now known as Factitious disorder imposed on another.
The Cleveland Clinic categorizes factitious disorder imposed on another “mental health condition where you pretend that someone within your care is sick when they aren’t. It’s a type of abuse.”
As a result of her involvement in her mother’s murder, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, according to ABC News. She was sentenced to 10 years of prison, but released in December 2023 after serving more than 8 years.
As Gypsy-Rose Blanchard continued her statement, she said her mom was “a woman known not for love, but for the abuse she inflicted on me. That pain shaped my life in ways that led to tragic choices, consequences, and years we BOTH can never get back.”
“I won’t pretend she was a good person,” the 33-year-old continued. “And I won’t pretend I’ve been perfect either. But Aurora… she represents a new beginning.”
Gypsy-Rose Blanchard says her daughter is now “a chance to break every cycle. A chance to raise someone with love, truth, and freedom. A chance to give her a life better than what I had and better than my past choices.”
“I may carry the past, but she carries my future,” the mom continued. “And I pray that who she becomes will be greater than who I was, and greater than the woman who came before me.”
