Meet Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Dad and Find Out If He's in Her Life

The world has become obsessed with the life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. The Missouri woman was convicted of killing her mom Dee Dee, who suffered from Munchausen by proxy, after having been abused for years.

While much is known about the single mom who raised the now-freed Gypsy, far less is known about her dad. Is he in her life at all? Where was he during her years of abuse? Read on for answers.

According to BuzzFeed News, Rod Blanchard, Gypsy's dad, met Dee Dee when he was just 17 years old and she was 24 years old at the time.

The Louisiana native — he still lives there — told the outlet in 2016 that they dated for around six months when Dee Dedd became pregnant with Gypsy.

The couple married out of obligation, but as Rod said, “I woke up on my birthday, on my 18th birthday, and realized I wasn't where I was supposed to be." He admitted about Dee Dee, "I wasn't in love with her really. I knew I got married for the wrong reasons.”

They divorced before Gypsy was born in 1991.

Rod would go on to remarry a woman named Kristy and they had two kids together. But all the while, Rod was in Gypsy's life, visiting her, and sending child support and gifts.

He was aware of her medical problems, but didn't see direct evidence that Gypsy was sick — only hearing the details from Dee Dee.

“I think Dee Dee's problem was she started a web of lies, and there was no escaping after,” he observed. "She got so wound up in it, it was like a tornado got started, and then once she was in so deep that there was no escaping. One lie had to cover another lie, had to cover another lie, and that was her way of life.”

When asked by People why she didn't turn to her dad for help while her mom was abusing her, Gypsy said, “I just didn't think he would care because my mother had created that distance there, and she would say so many bad things about him behind his back."

Gypsy added, “And to me, just telling my head with stories that were troubling, and I felt like he was not a source to go to, not that I even knew his phone number because I didn't know his address. So that never crossed my mind. It was kind of like, I'm not going to reach out to him because why would he care?”

Rod — who first learned his daughter could walk and wasn't wheelchair bound along with the rest of the world at her arraignment hearing — admitted to feeling guilty about how Gypsy's life turned out.

"How can I let this happen? Why wasn’t I there for Gypsy more?” he said while speaking to Dr. Phil McGraw during his daughter's imprisonment.

He added, “I could have built that relationship with her. She wouldn’t have hesitated to call me and say, ‘Daddy, this ain’t right.’”

Meanwhile, upon her release, Rod, along with his wife and Gypsy's stepsister Mia, threw a welcome home party for her.