Gypsy Rose Blanchard Reveals ‘Final Straw’ That Led to Mother’s Murder In Memoir

The 33-year-old, who suffered from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP), was convicted of second-degree murder for her part in the brutal 2015 killing of her mother DeeDee. Now, she is about to release her side of the story with her new memoir My Time to Stand, co-authored by Melissa Moore and Michele Matrisciani and available from BenBella Books on Dec. 10.

“It brings me a lot of pride and joy to have this exciting moment,” Blanchard tells PEOPLE ahead of the book’s release. She call the release “nerve-wracking,” adding, “it’s stressful. You want to do your story [justice], you want to tell it with as much honesty and vulnerability as possible. So it was quite a rollercoaster ride.”

Dee Dee subjected Gypsy Rose to years of doctor’s visits, treatments, surgeries and more for a slew of serious diseases it turned out she didn’t have. On June 9, 2015, she was murdered by her daughter’s then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn.

Both Nicholas and Gypsy Rose were found guilty in her murder, with Nicholas getting life on a first-degree murder charge, and Gypsy Rose ten years for second-degree murder. She was released in December 2023 after eight years, and has continued to be a highly-scrutinized public figure.

In a book excerpt shared with PEOPLE, Blanchard reveals how she felt when she chose to take “life from her” mother. She detailed the moment that was “the final straw” after years of trying to heal “emotional and physical” scars.

Gypsy claimed it happened one month before the murder, when she alleged her mother “tried to cut” her throat because her voice all of a sudden became “high-pitched.” She said she pleaded with her mother that there was nothing wrong with her voice, however they still went to the pulmonologist, who she says suggested “exploratory surgery of her larynx.”

She said at this point in her life she had already tried to runaway twice and had shot her with a “BB gun” — this after her mother allegedly “chained” Blanchard to the bed because she believed she was getting older and “harder to control.”

However, the decision to have the operation with the pulmonologist was something that caused Blancard to “truly” fear for the “scope of her malice,” calling the surgery on her voice box “completely unnecessary.”

Her story reached a new level of public awareness with Hulu’s 2019 mini-series The Act, starring Joey King as Gypsy Rose and Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee.

This year marked the first anniversary of Dee Dee’s death which Gypsy Rose marked as a free woman.

“Some days, what I do is I listen to music, I listen to some of her favorite songs and I allow myself that time to grieve — and I do it privately because I don’t want to be judged,” she told E! News in October. 

As for how she’s been able to reconcile her childhood and that complicated relationship with her mother, Gypsy Rose said she has “a level of forgiveness” for her mother, now. She also hopes her mother can return that forgiveness to her.

My Time to Stand is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.