Gypsy Blanchard planned her mother’s murder eight years ago. She wants to meet Taylor Swift upon her release

For most of her life, freedom has been a distant concept for Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Until the age of 24, she was psychologically and physically abused by her own mother and forced to pretend she suffered from a plethora of ailments ranging from asthma to terminal leukaemia.

Blanchard was manipulated into thinking she was still a child and coerced to act the part — which often entailed invasive medical procedures to treat her supposed conditions. When she tried to escape, Blanchard’s mother, Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, reportedly chained her with handcuffs and a dog leash.

The now-32-year-old had a taste of freedom in June 2015, when she escaped her home in Springfield, Missouri, with her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn, whom