As Gypsy Rose Blanchard prepares for the debut of her Lifetime show Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, she tells E! what it’s been like dealing with public scrutiny following her prison release.
While the world is familiar with Gypsy Rose Blanchard‘s case, she now finds herself facing a new, metaphorical judge and jury—the internet.
Because months after she was released from prison for her role in the murder of her mom Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, a large part of navigating life beyond bars for the 32-year-old is dealing with social media scrutiny.
“I have struggled the last five months to kind of figure out, like, what do you want from me?” Gypsy told E! News’ Keltie Knight about her critics. “I am trying to be put together, but then I’m trying to have my freedom. And I feel like there was no grace for me right now—trying to figure out who I am, trying to figure out the little missteps and mistakes, and learning from them—from the public eye. And so, navigating that has been damn near impossible.”
So instead of focusing on trying to please everyone else, she’s concentrating on doing what makes her happy.
“The only thing I can do is be my authentic self,” Gypsy continued. “I kind of raised my hands up and said, ‘You know what? I’m tired of trying to fit myself into a box to appease you. I’m gonna be myself. And if you like me, great. If you don’t, well, I don’t know you anyway, so it doesn’t bother me.”
Not only did she temporarily delete her social media accounts (though she’s since returned to TikTok), but she also underwent rhinoplasty in April and changed up her main supporting character. After filing for divorce from husband Ryan Anderson that same month, she rekindled her romance with former fiancé Ken Urker.
And fans will get to see her explore her new chapter in the upcoming Lifetime series Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, which premieres June 3.
“I think that viewers will see my life from the moment that I got out of prison to currently,” Gypsy explained. “And I think that people will see everything in a long, broader format because I think people have gotten snippets of what my life has been like for these last five months—here and there on social media, here and there in articles—but to actually be in the room and the fly on the wall that gets to see the actual events behind these articles that they’ve read about and actually see it play out without any discrepancies or any confusion that they might have about a certain topic of what happened.”
In fact, she said it was her desire for the public to better understand her, and not just the headlines associated with her name, that led her to do her first Lifetime special The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, which debuted in January shortly after her release.
“I was like, I’m so tired of being labeled Gypsy Rose Blanchard the prisoner, the girl who did that to her mom. I was so tired of labels,” she shared. “And so, I wanted to come out and show the public who I am as a person and not a story, not a label, not this or that, but me. And so that drive was why I wanted to do this documentary follow-up.”
However, Gypsy knows opening up about her life also opens up the possibility of more public criticism.
“Now, I’m getting to the point where I feel like I’ve done that,” she continued. “I feel like I put my best foot forward with this. And what the public takes from that, I hope it’s positive. And that’s really all I can do.”
As fans wait for the premiere, they can keep reading to learn more about Gypsy’s life following her prison release.