Gypsy Rose Blanchard recalls mother deceived doctor into removing glands

Gypsy Rose Blanchard revealed new details about the unnecessary medical procedures she endured at the hands of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard.

Speaking on Paul C. Brunson’s We Need to Talk podcast, Blanchard recalled how her mother convinced a doctor to remove her salivary glands. 

“So my salivary glands that produce saliva was removed from my neck,” she said. “My mom would put Orajel before we would go into the doctor’s appointment on my mouth, to make me drool. Okay, so upon examination, the doctor saw me drool. It’s excessive drooling. ‘There is a way to take care of that. So let’s remove the salivary glands.’”

Blanchard, who spent more than eight years in prison for her role in Dee Dee’s 2015 murder, has long maintained that her mother subjected her to years of fabricated illnesses and unnecessary treatments, including falsely claiming she had cancer.

She also recounted visiting a physician who suspected Dee Dee was suffering from Munchausen by proxy, a disorder in which a caregiver fabricates or induces illness in someone under their care. “That doctor had put in the medical records in his notes from that day: ‘suspicion of mother with Munchausen by proxy,’” Blanchard said. “He put that in the medical record. My mom would always request a copy of the medical records after every appointment. We guessed … we all think that she’d seen that in the medical record and chose to leave, and not go to that doctor again.”

Blanchard was released from prison in 2023. She and her then‑boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn conspired to kill Dee Dee after meeting online; Godejohn is serving life without parole.

Reflecting on her past during the podcast, Blanchard acknowledged the gravity of her crime while expressing gratitude for a second chance. “I feel like if I would have spent the rest of my life in prison, that would have been fair, for the crime that was committed,” she said.