Gypsy Rose Blanchard Responds to Joke About Her Mother’s Death
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is publicly apologizing after making what appeared to be a joke about the murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard.
“The whole idea behind it is like, um, you know, yes we understand that we’re not perfect, we are influencers, and we have gone through some difficult things but we are focusing on positivity. That was the entire point of the video — is accountability and growth,” Blanchard, who is 34 years old, explained to TMZ in an interview published on Monday, March 23. She was referring to her now-viral TikTok video with social media star Natalie Reynolds, who is 23.
In the video, Blanchard and Reynolds participated in the “We Listen We Don’t Judge” TikTok challenge. After Reynolds confessed to offering a homeless woman, who couldn’t swim, $20 to jump into a lake, Blanchard addressed her mother’s murder.
“I went to prison for eight and a half years because I ‘X’ my own mom,” Blanchard stated, using an “X” motion with her arms.
“Oh my god,” Reynolds replied.
“Hey, we listen and we don’t judge,” Blanchard responded.
Blanchard was released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center on December 28, 2023, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and receiving a 10-year sentence in 2016. She was granted parole in September 2023.
In 2015, Blanchard and her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godgejohn, were arrested after Dee Dee was found dead from multiple stab wounds in her Springfield home at the age of 48.
When asked if she understood the backlash she faced online following her video, Blanchard affirmed that she did.
“I can. I can. Especially, um, with me particularly — I understand that my audience has always followed my journey because they like to see me grow,” she elaborated. “And usually I think I can rely on my audience to understand things well, um, but I’m not one to be very upfront about my past. So, um, this is the first time I tried something different in a direct approach and I just don’t — unfortunately it wasn’t received as we hoped.”
Blanchard also clarified that her intention was not to joke about or trivialize her mother’s murder with the “X” gesture.
“No, that wasn’t the case. The only reason why I did this [makes the gesture] is because I had a conversation with Natalie and TikTok is very sensitive about wording,” she explained. “So we deliberated on the words we could possibly use; everything we considered — homicide, unalive — might have been flagged by TikTok and the video taken down.”
She continued, “So I thought, ‘What if I just do a gesture — an X?’ People know what that means without saying the word. That’s why we chose to do it that way.”
Ultimately, Blanchard — who welcomed her daughter Aurora with partner Ken Urker in December 2025 — expressed her regret to anyone hurt by her video.
“I sincerely apologize to anyone who may have been offended — that was never my intention,” she stated. “I wasn’t laughing about it — it’s not funny to joke about serious topics or my past. I apologize because the delivery was wrong.”
She added, “I am trying to be my authentic self; if that means acknowledging my past while showing how far I’ve come, that’s my angle. But I would never joke about my past. I do apologize if it seemed too harsh.”
