Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who was released from prison in 2023 after serving eight years for her involvement in the murder of her mother, is suing a blogger for alleged fraud, breach of contract, and defamation.
In a lawsuit obtained Monday by The Daily Beast, Blanchard says that blogger April Johns, who goes by the alias Franchesca or “Fancy” Macelli, misled her into signing a “Life Rights Option Agreement” to her own sensational story while she was incarcerated.
According to the lawsuit, Johns promised that, in exchange to the rights to her story, she would be able to procure a number of lucrative media projects for Blanchard. Instead, Blanchard says, Johns launched a hate campaign against her and leaked her confidential medical records online.
Blanchard, 32, has long said that her late mother, Dee Dee, was extremely abusive and subjected her to countless medical treatments for ailments she was not suffering from. Dee Dee was stabbed to death in 2015 by Nicholas Godejohn, Gypsy Rose’s boyfriend at the time. The lurid details surrounding the case, along with the speculation that Gypsy Rose was a victim of Dee Dee’s Munchausen syndrome by proxy, catapulted the family into the national spotlight.
Blanchard says that she, her father, and her stepmother provided Johns with sensitive documents and had “countless conversations and interviews” with her “regarding their lives and the circumstances of the murder” over the course of two years.
“At the time Johns/Macelli approached them, Gypsy was in prison in Chillicothe, MO, possessed little formal education and had not obtained her GED,” the lawsuit notes.
According to the lawsuit, when Johns failed to deliver on securing any media opportunities for Blanchard and became “confrontational” about Blanchard’s relationship with ex-fiancé Ken Urker, the family cut ties with her. But that didn’t deter Johns, who touted herself online as the “foremost expert” on Blanchard.
Johns has produced a significant volume of content about Blanchard’s case that has grown steadily more caustic, the suit says, citing a Facebook post written by Johns in 2019: “Call it obsession fine I’m obsessed with the fact a murderer and her lying, con artist step mother are conning the world one paycheck at a time!!!”
The suit also alleges that Johns made “repeated accusations” that the Blanchards were “stalking her and encouraging people to stalk and harass her,” and has stated that “she is in fear that someone will ‘take her out,’” while presenting “no evidence to back up the assertions.”
Johns has “posted police reports, police videos and police photographs; including the crime scene photos of Dee Dee’s body,” the lawsuit says, adding that this year, Johns also said that she would upload Blanchard’s private medical records to her Patreon account for paid subscribers.
Blanchard is seeking a temporary restraining order against Johns, claiming that the content creator “caused, and continues to cause, immediate irreparable harm” to herself, her father, and her stepmother.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Blanchard’s attorney for comment.
