Gypsy Rose Blanchard and New Husband Share Fears of Life in the Spotlight: 'Going to Be a Whirlwind' (Exclusive)

Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her husband Ryan Anderson are excited about married life after prison following Gypsy’s Dec. 28 release. But mixed in with the excitement is some anxiety about how life in the spotlight might impact their marriage.

Gypsy, 32, has some apprehension about how the couple, who married in 2022 after meeting in 2020, will navigate disagreements.

“I think the only fear that I have is, honestly, just making sure that we have good conflict [resolution],” she told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview prior to her release. “I’m a very ‘in the moment’ type of person, so I want to make sure if we have an argument, I want to clear it up in the moment. He is … the opposite, where he has to sit on things and think about it, and then come back a couple hours later and resolve it.”

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During Gypsy’s time in prison, her relationship with Anderson, 37, had been entirely long distance, and it lacked the intimacy of Skype or Zoom calls or even text messages. Gypsy is excited about living with Anderson, but says it will be an adjustment.

“I’ve never lived with a man,” she says. “I grew up with a mom, so I didn’t even grow up with a dad in the house. So I’m like, ‘I don’t even know what it’s like to live with a man.’”

Anderson, 37, picked Gypsy up from Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri last Thursday, where the victim of Munchausen by proxy had served more than eight years for her role in the murder of her abusive mother Dee Dee.

Anderson exclusively told PEOPLE about the couple’s plans for Gypsy’s first days of freedom: Anderson planned to make gumbo for Gypsy, give her presents and take her on a “romantic night out."

"Gypsy's never been on a real date where you go and sit somewhere and eat and go to a movie or do whatever," he says.

But he has some uneasiness about the couple’s life in the limelight.

“It’s going to be a whirlwind and there’ll be a lot of attention,” Anderson says. “I’m still very nervous about that. I’m a very private person.”

The couple’s relationship prior to Gypsy’s release will be explored in Lifetime's gripping new docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, premiering Jan. 5.

The pair met after Anderson, a special education teacher from Louisiana who'd watched the 2017 HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest about the case, blindly mailed Gypsy a letter in 2020. Their relationship flowered from there. Even though they were only allowed limited contact, says Anderson, “There’s not much she doesn’t know about me.”

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The couple is focused on maintaining their closeness despite the attention coming their way.

“Now it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, you’re in the public eye now — go out there and experience it,’” says Anderson. “But we’ve decided that every night, we’re going to lay in bed, we’re going to talk to each other and check on each other and see how we’re doing, because it is going to be crazy for a minute.”

He adds, “I’m nervous, but at the same time I know I’m excited because she’ll be right there to help me through it.”

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The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a six-hour special offering unprecedented access to the most popular victim of Munchausen by proxy, premieres Jan. 5 on Lifetime at 8 p.m. ET/PT.