For Ryan Anderson and his newly freed wife Gypsy Rose Blanchard, they have got a busy end-of-year calendar. They have good things lined up.
Anderson, 37, a Louisiana special education teacher, picked Gypsy up from Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri on Thursday, where the victim of Munchausen by proxy had served eight years for her role in the murder of her abusive mother Dee Dee.
Gypsy and Ryan Anderson’s relationship prior to her release, will be shown in Lifetime’s gripping new docu-series The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, premiering Jan. 5, and the pair opened up to PEOPLE in exclusive interviews ahead of her release.
One thing his wife has asked for to celebrate being free: “My gumbo, “I’m from Louisiana and Gypsy loves my gumbo, so I plan on making a big gumbo for everybody. That’s what she wants.”
Gypsy was released days after Christmas, so Anderson and her family, including dad Rod, stepmom Kristy and her half siblings, are gathering to welcome her home and recreate the holiday for her.
“Of course I have presents that I bought her and stuff,” says Anderson, “so we’re going to have a nice little get together. Then, the day after, Gypsy has a spa day planned.”
Right after that, says Anderson, it’ll be time to hit the town. “That night is when I’m going to get her to myself and have a romantic night out and take her on her first date,” he says. “Gypsy’s never been on a real date where you go and sit somewhere and eat and go to a movie or do whatever.”
The one time Anderson says she did go out, was a chaperoned date in her early 20s with ex Nicholas “Nick” Godejohn, the man she met online and who is now currently serving life in prison for carrying out the 2015 murder of her mom Dee Dee.
When it comes to intimacy, though Anderson and Gypsy weren’t allowed conjugal visits during her prison stay, they were still able to create a deep connection. “You have to develop ways of intimacy,” he says. For instance, “we make sounds when we want to hug each other,” he describes of their pre-release phone conversations.
Although Gypsy’s dad and stepmom wanted her to wait to marry until after her release, the couple feels they are solid and have what it takes to make it. “It is going to be hard,” says Anderson. “But me and Gypsy are up for the challenge. We love proving people wrong.”
