Gypsy Rose Blanchard Opens Up About Her Sobriety: ‘I Wanted to Come Out of Prison a New Woman’ (Exclusive)

Gypsy Rose Blanchard opens up about her sober life after getting out of prison.

The 32-year-old — who was released from prison on Dec. 28 — spoke exclusively to PEOPLE about staying sober after previously battling addiction.

“You know, it was really nice not to feel like I had to deal with drug use or opiate use,” Blanchard said at the premiere of her Lifetime docuseries, Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, on Friday in New York.

“I think now my coping skills have grown to the point that I can take a breath, even if there’s something chaotic going on in my life, and I don’t automatically turn to drugs,” she continued. “I pick up the rhythm and just think, use the moment of solidarity and come back to your center.”

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Blanchard discussed her sobriety at the premiere of her docu-series in New York on Friday.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Blanchard was released from Missouri’s Chillicothe Correctional Center in December after eight years in prison after pleading guilty to the 2015 murder of her abusive mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard.

The Munchausen by proxy victim said she decided to get sober before being released from prison for the sake of herself and her family, which now includes husband Ryan Anderson, whom she married in prison on July 21, 2022.

“I didn’t want to come out of prison as an addict anymore,” Blanchard explained. “I so wanted to get out of prison as a new woman and I knew it was something I had to do. It was something I had to get over.”

Blanchard was joined at the premiere by husband Ryan Anderson.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

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Anderson, 37 — who maintained a relationship with Blanchard after first writing to her while she was incarcerated in 2020 — told PEOPLE that he has seen his wife in a new light since she decided to get sober.

“You know, I never knew her like that [an addict]”, said the special education teacher. “So, like, as long as I’ve known her, she hasn’t been that. So it’s one of those where I know the new Gypsy.”

“I just want her to know that I’m there for her. You know, I show her and tell her all the time,” Anderson continued. “It’s one of those where no matter what we’re going through, we’re still going to be together. It’s one of those where we have that ‘it’ factor, as people say.”

“We have that… We had that connection,” he added. “In prison, we had to create that to create this relationship, you know? So we had the emotional part, but now it’s physical, so it’s all coming together, coming full circle. It’s even better than I could have ever imagined.”

Blanchard says she got sober for herself and husband Anderson.

Ryan Anderson/Instagram

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Blanchard’s relationship with Anderson is explored in her new documentary, which premiered on January 5.

As for the future, Blanchard said she is looking forward to “being safe with her family” and traveling the world with her husband after years spent physically apart.

“I think Hawaii would be amazing,” she told PEOPLE. “Somewhere in the tropics.”

“I would love to see this girl in a bathing suit. So that’s what I want,” Anderson added.

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Source: HIS Education