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Gypsy Rose Blanchard filed a restraining order against her estranged husband amid their divorce: report

Apr 13, 2024, 04:17 IST
Insider
Gypsy Rose Blanchard in prison.Courtesy of the Blanchard Family
  • Gypsy Rose Blanchard filed a temporary restraining order against Ryan Scott Anderson, People reported.
  • People previously reported that Blanchard filed for divorce after announcing their split on Facebook.
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Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the woman who conspired with her then-boyfriend to have her mother killed, has filed for a temporary restraining order against her estranged husband, Ryan Scott Anderson, amid divorce proceedings, People reported on Thursday.

According to People, which obtained the court filing, Blanchard also requested that the court order Anderson to pay her interim and long-term spousal support because she is "in need and defendant has ability to pay and she is not at fault for the dissolution of marriage." She also asked that Anderson be denied any spousal support from her, People reports.

On Monday, Annette M. Fontana, the clerk of court for Lafourche Parish, where Blanchard's father lives, confirmed to the publication that Blanchard had filed her divorce papers to the court for a judge to review.

People previously broke the news on March 28 that Blanchard had announced her separation from Anderson in a statement on her private Facebook account accessed by the publication.

"People have been asking what is going on in my life. Unfortunately my husband and I are going through a separation and I moved in with my parents home down the bayou," the statement read, per People. "I have the support of my family and friends to help guide me through this. I am learning to listen to my heart. Right now I need time to let myself find… who I am."

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Blanchard was granted parole in December 2023 after serving eight years for her role in the death of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, who prosecutors also acknowledged was abusive.

Lifetime, which released Blanchard's documentary "The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard" in January and is acting as a representative for Blanchard, previously told Business Insider:

"Gypsy Rose Blanchard has openly shared her life with Lifetime and our cameras from the moment she was paroled. Her story, including her relationship with Ryan, will continue to unfold on Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, debuting this June on Lifetime."

Anderson hasn't confirmed the separation, but on Saturday he shared a video on Instagram in which he said: "I just want to thank everybody for the support. It's been great. I'm just living my life guys. Y'all will see what really happened on Lifetime. We were filming a lot, so stay tuned for that."

Here's everything we know about Blanchard and Anderson's relationship, including how they met.

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Who is Gypsy Rose Blanchard's estranged husband, Ryan Scott Anderson?

Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Ryan Scott Anderson in January 2024.Raymond Hall / GC Images

According to People, Anderson is a middle school special education teacher from Saint Charles, Louisiana.

Blanchard, 32, married Anderson in 2022 while she was still serving her 10-year prison sentence at the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri, according to the Springfield News-Leader. At the time, she was 30 years old and Anderson was 36 years old.

Anderson is also a big wrestling fan, as he mentioned in the Instagram video he released after his and Blanchard's separation was reported. He made headlines when he picked Blanchard up after her early release from prison in a silver Cadillac with vanity plates that said "HITMAN," according to a photo published by People at the time. (Though some thought it was eerily reminiscent of the circumstances that landed Blanchard in jail in the first place, the vanity plate appeared to be styled after WWE Hall-of-Famer Bret Hart, who often went by the stage name "The Hitman.")

Blanchard told People in an interview before her release that Anderson had been a crucial source of support since they met in 2020. She and Anderson told People that they were planning on consummating their marriage after her release from prison, and expressed the desire to have children.

Sure enough, Blanchard said during a January 2024 appearance on Nick Viall's "Viall Files" podcast that one of the first things she did after her release was consummate her marriage.

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Blanchard told Viall that she was released from prison at around 3 in the morning due to safety concerns regarding the amount of press stationed outside the facility. After Anderson picked her up, she said they drove to a local hotel and spent the night there.

"We had our first intimate moments as husband and wife, and got to consummate our marriage, which was great," Blanchard said on the podcast.

Anderson also told People he had planned a "romantic night out" for Blanchard after her release because she's never been on a real date.

How did Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her husband meet?

Gypsy Rose Blanchard in the 2017 HBO documentary "Mommy Dead and Dearest."HBO

Blanchard and Anderson first met after Anderson wrote her a letter while she was in prison in 2020, he told People.

According to Anderson, he decided to write to her after his coworker said that he wanted to write to Joseph Maldonado, better known as "Joe Exotic," the subject of the Netflix docuseries "Tiger King."

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"It was when 'Tiger King' was really popular," says Anderson of the hit Netflix show about the wildlife businessman and convicted felon.

"I said, 'I'll tell you what, if you write him, I'll write Gypsy Rose Blanchard," Anderson recounted to People. "I never thought she'd be my wife."

Anderson told the publication that he wrote in his letter to Blanchard about the impact she had on him, in addition to plenty of information about himself.

The couple's relationship grew as they corresponded, both Blanchard and Anderson told People. Anderson said that he'd get butterflies when they wrote emails to each other, but hearing her voice for the first time was a tipping point.

"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," Blanchard told People.

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Gypsy Rose Blanchard defended her husband from social media trolls, then deleted her accounts

Amid Blanchard's newfound fame following her prison release, her relationship with Anderson faced scrutiny, and his social media was flooded with negative comments. Blanchard came to her husband's defense in a now-infamous comment on his November 2023 Instagram post.

Screenshots of Gypsy Rose Blanchard's and Ryan Anderson's comments.Instagram

"Ryan, don't listen to the haters. I love you, and you love me. We do not owe anyone anything," she wrote. "Our family is who matters. If you get likes and good comments great, if you get hate then whatever because THEY DON'T MATTER. I love you."

Blanchard added: "Besides they jealous because you are rocking my world every night…yeah I said it, the D is fire happy wife happy life ❤️."

Anderson responded in a comment: "Who said I gave a damn about what these jealous people say anyway, haha...now come get it Baby..."

Earlier in March, Blanchard deleted her public TikTok and Instagram accounts, which had garnered millions of followers. According to The Cut, she explained why in a video: "With public scrutiny as bad as it is, I just don't want to live my life under a microscope."

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In another video shared on TikTok before deleting the account, per People, Blanchard apologized to those she had offended "with a lack of accountability, the first month or so that I was out of prison and the lack of accountability in my interviews."

A source told People at the time that Blanchard had been advised to delete her accounts by her parole officer "so she won't get in trouble and go back to jail."

A close friend of Blanchard told People that the estranged couple had a heated argument the night they split

Gypsy Rose Blanchard-Anderson previously criticized the series.Raymond Hall/Getty Images

Nadiya Vizier, a friend of Blanchard, told People in a story published on April 5 that Blanchard and Anderson had a fight on the night of their breakup, leading to Blanchard locking herself in the bathroom of their home in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Although Vizier, who wasn't there but relayed what she said was Blanchard's account of the situation, didn't say how the fight started. she said Anderson was banging on the door and screaming at Blanchard.

"He got in her face and screamed," Vizier said. "Gypsy said that she was afraid he was going to hit her. He didn't — but that happened in the past with her mother. So, her first instinct was to tighten up and be prepared."

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Vizier said Blanchard phoned a relative to pick her up and, at dawn, took her belongings and drove to her father's house in Cut Off, Louisiana.

"She got to safety and called her lawyer, too. Ryan is a big guy, and she told me it was really scary," Vizier added.

Vizier also said she noticed Anderson becoming more controlling toward Blanchard and that filming the Lifetime series, "Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up," put a strain on their relationship.

"It was like she was on a leash," Vizier said. "What's the difference between being locked in a prison cell and feeling locked in her own home and marriage? She didn't want to put up with it anymore."

Vizier, who will appear in the Lifetime series, said Anderson will also be more affectionate in front of the cameras than when they weren't on camera.

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"He was being very, very loud and just doing things in a way that just seemed like he was trying to show the world he was a good partner — like he wasn't using her or something," Vizier said. "I guess it felt played up for the camera."

A representative for Anderson did not reply to a comment request from Business Insider.

People reported that Anderson did not respond to a request for comment.

Blanchard has reconnected with her ex-fiancé, Ken Urker

Rod, Gypsy Rose, and Kristy Blanchard.Courtesy of the Blanchard Family

On April 2, People reported that Blanchard had met up with her ex-fiancé, Ken Urker, citing Blanchard's cousin and Urker's mother.

Urker got engaged to Blanchard in 2018 after he wrote a letter to her in prison, but they split in 2019.

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A few days after Blanchard's statement about her breakup with Anderson, Urker's mother, Raina Williams, told People that the pair met up for lunch and went to a tattoo parlor.

"They are not back together. They're very cool. Ken is just being a supportive friend to her and that's it," Williams said.

Bobby Pitre, Blanchard's cousin who owned the tattoo parlor the pair visited, told People that they got matching husky dog tattoos together.

People reported that Urker said he and Blanchard were "just friends" during a TikTok live video on Blanchard's account on April 4. Blanchard was also part of the live video.

The murder of Dee Dee Blanchard followed years of alleged abuse

Gypsy Rose Blanchard in 2024, left; right, an undated photo of a young Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard.Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images; Courtesy of the Blanchard family

Blanchard was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2016 after she was found guilty of conspiring to kill her mom Dee Dee Blanchard, who was found dead in 2015.

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Her story received nationwide attention due to the strange and extraordinary circumstances of the situation: Blanchard has said in interviews that for years, her mother has subjected her to medical treatment she never needed, including forcing her to use a wheelchair, eat through a feeding tube, and undergo several surgeries.

One pediatric neurologist told Buzzfeed News in 2016 that he didn't "see any reason why she doesn't walk" after performing numerous tests on Blanchard.

Dee Dee was widely believed to have Munchausen by proxy, a rare behavioral disorder in which a caretaker, such as a mother, imposes a physical or mental illness on someone who is otherwise healthy.

Blanchard has said that she was desperate to get out of the situation, leading her to ask her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to kill her mother.

Godejohn continues to serve a life sentence for first-degree murder at the Potosi Correctional Center in Missouri.

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While Godejohn has said in interviews that he would kill again for the sake of Blanchard, Blanchard told People that she regrets what she did.

"Nobody will ever hear me say I'm glad she's dead or I'm proud of what I did," she said. "I regret it every single day."

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