But Dee Dee convinced everyone, receiving donations from various charities to help Gypsy 'get well.' In a 2016 with Buzzfeed, Gypsy said of Dee Dee: 'She would have been the perfect mom for someone that actually was sick.'Įventually, Gypsy met Nicholas Godejohn online, and the two struck up a relationship that ended with Godejohn stabbing Dee Dee to death.

She listed mental and physical abuse, with Dee Dee going so far as to put Gypsy through unnecessary testing and procedures to cure ailments Gypsy never really had. When Gypsy learned all she thought she knew about herself had been lies, she plotted to kill her mother to escape her. Dee Dee controlled who Gypsy could see (or not), she told Gypsy she had the mental capacity of a 7-year-old, and claimed she suffered from muscular dystrophy, leukemia, and asthma from a premature birth. On the surface, Dee Dee appeared as any caring parent would with a child who suffered from painful, debilitating diseases like Gypsy seemed to. Hulu's description said The Act is about 'a girl trying to escape the toxic relationship she has with her overprotective mother,' but you can be the judge after watching how this all plays out. It's considered child abuse when a caregiver fakes disease or illness - or even helps it manifest in the child - for said attention because, obviously, they're inflicting pain on an otherwise healthy child. It's when a guardian gains attention through a 'sick' child. Her mom apparently suffered from Munchausen Syndrome proxy, which is a mental illness, as described by The Cleveland Clinic.

Gypsy was convicted of killing her mother in 2015 because, according to Gypsy, she'd been forced to pretend to be sick her whole life, including staying in a wheelchair and being fed through a feeding tube. If you're not familiar, they're the mother-daughter pair with an incredibly dysfunctional lifestyle. The sad, but shocking truth is, yep, The Act is going to be a tough one to watch because it's based on the true story of Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard. I can't tell you that knowing beforehand if The Act is based on a true story will change your perception or not, but it's one of the darker, more hyped crime sagas and worth checking out. The series follows a story so bizarre, you can't help but Google the heck out of it to untangle the twisted web. One of the latest seasonal crime anthologies - The Act - is headed to Hulu. It's hard to believe what people are capable of - especially when the crime revolves around family matters. True crime shows are a secret indulgence of many, including myself.

The act hulu based on a true story