Gypsy Rose Blanchard Is Supposedly Related To This Iconic Vanderpump Rules Alum
Genealogy is used to track family trees. Sometimes, genetic genealogy can even solve cold cases. Others, it can be used to simply find interesting familial connections that people didn't know about before. Reality TV star Stassi Schroeder was previously a cast member on "Vanderpump Rules" before being fired from the program, alongside three others, for past racist behavior. Schroeder was discovered to be related to Gypsy Rose Blanchard — known for conspiring with her then-boyfriend Nick Godejohn to kill her mother Dee Dee Blanchard in 2015.
It's believed Dee Dee made Gypsy Rose consistently sick due to what's now known as factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), previously called Munchausen syndrome by proxy. After Gypsy Rose was released from prison in December 2023, a genealogist named Dr. Anita Newman dove into her lineage. Newman runs My Family Genie and shares #BravoGenealogy deep dives on her blog, so this is not the first time she's explored a reality star's family tree.
Newman took to Instagram to confirm that she'd looked into Gypsy Rose's ancestry and to explain how she and Schroeder are distantly related. While discussing her exploration of Gypsy Rose's ancestry, Newman commented, "More specifically, I focused on her maternal side." Then, she talked about the ancestral populations that connect the two famous women.
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Stassi Schroeder and Gypsy Rose are very distant cousins
Stassi Schroeder was on "Vanderpump Rules" for eight seasons before being let go. After some public romances, she married Beau Clark in 2020 and they have two children — technically also related to Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Dr. Anita Newman's Instagram post described finding family ties between Gypsy Rose and the podcast host, and how links through the Acadia population came from Schroeder's grandmother on her father's side of the family. Newman noted that there were multiple connections between Gypsy Rose and Schroeder, "But the closest I've found so far is through Antoine Bourg (c.1609-c.1687) and Antoinette Landry (c.1618-c.1693), progenitors of the Bourg line in Acadia."
The genealogist continued, "Stassi and Gypsy Rose are at minimum 11th cousins, Stassi is 10th cousins once removed with Dee Dee [Blanchard]." As People notes, Schroeder loves true crime. Unsurprisingly, then, at the news that she and Gypsy Rose were technically family, the "Straight up with Stassi" host commented, "Omg I'm unwell," with emojis of laughing faces, skulls, and tombstones.
Newman replied, "I love this for you," and Schroeder responded, "Seriously wild. What a way to end the year." Another face from reality TV weighed in when Justin Anderson (Kristin Cavallari's hairstylist and BFF) commented, "I'm too high for this." However, that wasn't the end of the story. After her initial post, Newman connected Gypsy Rose and Schroeder to another "Vanderpump Rules" star.
Another Vanderpump Rules star is a part of the family too
About a day after Dr. Anita Newman shared Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Stassi Schroeder's surprising connection, she revealed that Katie Maloney, a longtime "Vanderpump Rules" star whose former relationship and unexpected divorce from Tom Schwartz was a big source of drama on the show, was genetically linked to them as well. She and Schroeder have also been close friends for a while. According to Us Weekly, Maloney is the godmother of Schroeder's daughter and learned about Schroeder's second pregnancy early on.
Thanks to Newman's research, the friends now know they're family. In an Instagram post, Newman wrote that she'd previously discovered that Schroeder and Maloney were distantly related. They have a few links, one being that same Bourg lineage that Gypsy Rose is a part of too. Schroeder and Maloney, "are 9th cousins once removed. [...] Gypsy is 11th cousins once removed with Katie and 11 cousins with Stassi." Maloney commented on the post: "Didn't have this on my bingo card!" and Newman replied with laughing emojis.
Unlike Schroeder, Maloney is still a cast member on "Vanderpump Rules" and will appear in Season 11. While the transformation of Gypsy Rose Blanchard likely won't include a stint on Bravo, she does have her own television series. Shortly after her release, "The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard" aired on Lifetime.