Gypsy-Rose Blanchard Shares Chilling Details of ‘Despicable’ County Jail Ordeal

Gypsy-Rose Blanchard has opened up about the harrowing experiences she endured during her time behind bars in her new memoir, My Time to Stand: A Memoir. The media personality, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, shared raw and shocking details of her imprisonment as she reflected on her journey.

Ahead of the book’s release on December 10, Blanchard spoke exclusively to PEOPLE, explaining her motivation for sharing her story. “You want to tell it with as much honesty and vulnerability as possible. So, it was quite a rollercoaster ride,” she said, emphasizing her desire to do her story “justice.”

In her memoir, Blanchard described the harsh conditions of her first year in Missouri’s Greene County Jail, which she called “a despicable place.” “It was dirty and crowded, the food was expired and toxic, and the people were ruthless, no matter the tier they were on,” she wrote.

After her time in Greene County, Blanchard was transferred to Chillicothe Correctional Center, where she served eight of her 10-year sentence. While the conditions were less harsh, she recounted a particularly traumatic experience with a cellmate.

“Roommates came and went. I never knew what the next naked lady would do,” she wrote, recalling a disturbing four-month period. Blanchard revealed one cellmate “liked to play in her own poop,” a memory that still haunts her.

“When you are under this type of watch, you don’t leave the cell. There isn’t even one hour of rec time in a yard. We only were allowed one ten-minute phone call a day and one shower. So, pretty much all day long, I was forced to watch my naked roommate delight in her excrement.

As if it were Play-Doh, y’all,” she recounted. Blanchard admitted the experience left her deeply unsettled. “I was horrified, confused, and trapped like this for four months,” she wrote.

The memoir provides readers with an unfiltered look at Blanchard’s struggles, shedding light on the trauma she faced both before and during her incarceration. As she continues to navigate life post-prison, Blanchard’s story serves as a powerful testament to resilience and survival.