Gypsy Rose Blanchard married the man who sent her letters while she was in prison. Now they've split.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard has announced she's separating from her husband Ryan Anderson, just three months after finishing her prison sentence.

The pair married while Blanchard was still in prison — where she'd spent eight years for conspiring with her then boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to murder her mother Dee Dee, following a lifetime of medical abuse. 

The now-32-year-old was released from prison on December 28, 2023 after spending eight years behind bars for the crime.

Watch: Gypsy Rose speaks exclusively to Dr Phil. Post continues below.

In 2020, Ryan — a primary school teacher who was working at a hospital — first made contact with Gypsy via a letter he sent after watching the documentary about her life.

After a colleague told Ryan she wanted to write a letter to the star of Tiger King, Joe Exotic, Ryan decided on a whim to write to her.

"I said, 'I'll tell you what, if you write him, I'll write Gypsy Rose Blanchard.' And I had watched her documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest, like three years before that," he told PEOPLE. 

"And then The Act [a dramatised series detailing the events of Gypsy's life] had came out and I've never watched The Act, but I remember my friends talking about The Act and I was like, 'I'll watch the documentary again.' So it was kind of fresh on my mind."

He didn't expect to hear back from her but within a few weeks, Gypsy made contact, and the pair began a friendly email exchange. Gypsy liked that Ryan was from Louisiana, telling Entertainment News following her release that his being from the area made her believe they'd have common interests.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Ryan Anderson. Image: Instagram @ryan_s_anderson_.

Due to COVID restrictions, the pair couldn't meet in person until July 2021, but Gypsy credited Ryan for helping her through, calling him her "emotional backboard".

"We met in 2020 when the pandemic was really, really strong, and I had a lot of emotional ups and downs because of COVID," she told PEOPLE soon after her release. "Unfortunately, it put the prison in a position where it restricted our freedom even more ... So Ryan has seen me through some really good times, some really hard times."

While Gypsy said she could "be a handful", the pair's relationship grew stronger, despite the unusual circumstances upon which it was built.

"I would say that he is probably the most compassionate soul that I've ever met, and the most patient," she shared. "God knows, he's so patient with me because I could be a little bit of a lot to handle. I could be a handful, an emotional handful."

Because of her imprisonment and the distance, the couple spent most of their time getting to know each other over the phone — and over time, Gypsy said, Ryan could tell how she was feeling just by the sound of her voice.

"We've been able to build this emotional bond that within two seconds of talking on the phone, he knows my emotions. And he'll be like, 'Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?' So I'm thankful that I have a man that is open enough with his own emotions so I could let my emotions flow."

Two years after Ryan sent his first letter to Gypsy, whilst she was still in jail, the pair married. On July 21, 2022, in a small ceremony, without any guests, the pair said 'I do'. Ryan gifted Gypsy his mother's wedding ring for their nuptials.

But while the ceremony went off without a hitch, Gypsy had her reservations about marriage.

"Everybody would tell her, you need to do this, you need to do that," Ryan recalled. "'Oh, don't get married because you're going to go around and play the field and go out and experience life.' And so that weighed heavy on her, but at the same time, she knew she wanted a family. She knew she wanted a husband and [to] eventually have kids."

The idea of marriage concerned their family too, particularly Gypsy's stepmother Kristy, who was opposed to her typing the knot in prison. 

"Kristy, her stepmom, was pushing her really hard — even two days before our wedding — was really pushing her not to get married," Ryan said. "And I remember talking with Gypsy and then I was like, 'Do you want to get married?' And she was like, 'I do.' And then I was like, 'Well, I do too.' And then so we just kind of were like, 'You know what? We're going to do what we want to do.'"

Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Ryan Anderson. Image: Instagram @gypsyrose_a_blanchard.

But Ryan did ask for permission — specifically from Gypsy's father, Rod Blanchard, whose approval he wanted before proceeding. 

"I wanted to make sure he understood that I was with Gypsy for the right reasons," he said. "I had already met Kristy once and she liked me but still didn't want Gypsy to get married. But after I met her dad, the only person that Gypsy said to me, 'If my dad tells me he doesn't want me to get married, I will not get married.' 

"That was the only person's approval we had to get," he added. "And I got her dad's approval and it was, 'Let's get married.' It was just one of those things. We got married and, now married, she can come home to me and we can start her life."

On the day of Gypsy's release, Ryan waited outside the prison doors to take her home, and with the pair very much in their honeymoon phase, she shared glimpses of their personal life on social media with her 3 million followers. 

Less than three months later, she has shared much sadder news with many of those same followers via her private Facebook page, according to PEOPLE. 

"People have been asking what is going on in my life," she wrote. 

"Unfortunately my husband and I are going through a separation and I moved in with my parent's home down the bayou. I have the support of my family and friends to help guide me through this. I am learning to listen to my heart. Right now I need time to let myself find… who I am," she wrote in a statement. 

She is yet to comment further.

This article was originally published on January 7, 2024, and has since been updated with new information.

Feature Image: Instagram @ryan_s_anderson.