Gypsy Rose Blanchard.Photo:Jamie McCarthy/Getty
Jamie McCarthy/Getty
Gypsy Rose Blanchardis opening up about sober life following her release from prison.
The 32-year-old — who wasfreed from prison on Dec. 28— spoke exclusively to PEOPLE about staying sober after previously struggling with addiction.
“You know, it’s been really nice not feeling like I had to cope using drugs or opiates,” Blanchard said at the premiere of her Lifetime docuseries,The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,in New York City on Friday.
“I think now my coping skills have grown to the fact that I can take a breath, even if something chaotic is going on in my life, and I don’t automatically go to drugs," she continued. “I take a beat and just kind of reflect, and take a moment of solidarity and bring myself back to my center.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Blanchard discussed her sobriety at the N.Y.C premiere of her docuseries Friday.Jamie McCarthy/Getty
Blanchard was released from Chillicothe Correctional Centerprison in Missouri in December following an eight-year stint after pleading guilty to the murder of her abusive mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, in 2015.
“I didn’t want to come out of prison being an addict anymore,” Blanchard explained. “So I wanted to come out of prison a new woman, and I knew that it was something that I had to do. It was something I had to get over.”
Anderson, 37 — who maintained a relationship with Blanchard after first writing to her while she was in prison in 2020 — told PEOPLE that he has seen his wife in a new light since she decided to get sober.
“You know, I’ve never known her as [an addict],” the special education teacher said. “So she, like, ever since 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 I’m here for her. You know, I show her and I tell her all the time,” Anderson continued. “It’s one of those where it doesn’t matter what we go through, we’re still going to be together. It’s one of those where we have that ‘it’ factor, that people say.”
“We have it … We’ve had that bond,” he added. “In prison, we had to create that to create this relationship, you know? So we had the emotional part down, but now it’s the physical, so it’s all coming together, it’s coming full circle. It’s even better than I ever could imagine.”
Blanchard says she got sober for herself and husband Anderson.Ryan Anderson/Instagram
Ryan Anderson/Instagram
Blanchard’s relationship with Anderson is explored in her new docuseries, which premiered on Jan. 5.
As for the future, Blanchard shared that she is looking forward to “family for sure” and traveling the world with her husband after years spent physically apart.
“I think Hawaii would be amazing,” she told PEOPLE. “Somewhere tropical.”
“I’d love to see this girl in a bathing suit. So that’s what I want,” Anderson added.
source: people.com
