Fans of “My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding” were excited when TLC aired “Gypsy Sisters” on 10 February 2013, to follow the daily lives of Romanichal women in the Martinsburg community, West Virginia, USA. This reality TV spin-off shed light on many women who appeared in the sister show and attracted attention, but never got the prominence viewers felt they deserved. Additionally, people were fascinated by the number of family members and children, and how much drama happened behind the scenes.
Despite accusations that some events, particularly conflicts, are scripted, the audience stayed for four seasons until the show wrapped up on 19 July 2015 due to low ratings. Luckily, most memorable TV show personalities still post updates, although some have been arrested, and a few sentenced to probation and/or jail time. Here’s what “Gypsy Sisters” cast members are doing today.
Nettie Stanley
Nettie appeared in all four seasons, but was most prominent during the third. She was the family matriarch and self-titled ‘mother hen’ to other girls. Nettie had eight children in 2023 instead of the nine featured in the show; her stepson Destiny died on 31 March 2015 in a stabbing incident in Kingsport, Tennessee, after a football match. Zachary Morris Gardner turned himself in and received a first-degree murder charge. Destiny left behind an unnamed woman about to give birth to his child, and Nettie left the show out of grief and the need to take care of her family, including many grandchildren, away from the cameras.
She married Huey Stanley in 2004, and the couple renewed their vows for their 10th anniversary during the season three finale of “Gypsy Sisters.” She is still married to Huey as of 2023. However, the West Virginia Department of Corrections caught, processed, and charged them with conspiracy and fraudulent schemes in mid-January 2023.
Her records name her a “pre-trial felon,” meaning that her charge of multiple frauds or cumulative damages is a felony in the state. She and Stanley were held on a $13,000 bond each, which they paid on 19 January. Her fans also noticed that she looked older, unkempt, and had abandoned her signature blonder hair and fancy clothes in her mugshot.
Additionally, this discovery was a thorn in the eye of her followers because over a year ago, she consistently bragged about building a luxurious house, posting tens of photos. Consequently, she made her Facebook group and Instagram account, with over 175,000 followers, private.
Mellie Stanley
Mellie Stanley, the younger sister of Dovie, JoAnn and Nettie, is a self-described ‘black sheep and wild child’ who gained notoriety for her behavior, multiple marriages, and striving to escape the traditional gypsy lifestyle. She has four children in 2023, with four different men; son Richard Joe Whetzel Stanley with Robbie York, born in 2013; daughter Brandy Wyne Leveniya Picolo with Nick Picolo, a heroin addict who was in prison, born in 2015; daughter Divinity Rose Lee born in 2016 with George Lee Jr., whom she married in Kentucky in 2017 as her fifth husband,; and daughter Serenity Faye West, born in 2020, with her current partner, MJ West.
Mellie has been under the spotlight for a long time, and TMZ speculated that TLC canceled the show because her rumored husband, Skott Vuncannon, killed a puppy during an argument with her in 2015, and not due to lacking ratings. Also, two years later, in November 2017, George’s mother shared on Facebook that George and Mellie separated, and accused Mellie of violating his parole and sending him back to Warren County Regional Jail. Melly responded that she didn’t call the police and that the sentence is ‘God looking out for him because he’s on crack, heroin, and methadone.’
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George’s mother was referring to Facebook photos Mellie posted earlier that month, showing her with a black eye, other bruises and a fractured foot, and with descriptions of physical abuse. Fans didn’t pay the rumors of a break-up too much heed as they’d broken-up before reconciling and marrying. However, both were arrested on 21 December 2017 for using counterfeit coupons to buy gift cards in two nearby stores, Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us, totaling $18,075; they divorced shortly afterwards.
Mellie is far away from TV screens in 2023, occasionally updating her Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok followers with posts about her family. She mainly mentions her son Richard, who now plays American football, and her youngest daughter Serenity, especially around holidays. Mellie also has a Rottweiler dog her followers first saw in March 2021. As a businesswoman, she’s recorded custom video messages for fans on Cameo since early 2021, and may simultaneously have planned to start a T-shirt printing business.
Sheila “Kayla” Williams
Sheila “Kayla” Small, best known as Kayla Williams, was a series regular and is Annie’s sister and a mother of five children. Like her sisters, she’s married multiple times – her story started with a brief marriage to a man named Adam Prather before she married her husband of 17 years, Richard Williams. The two divorced around 2014, during season three, and she started living with and perhaps became engaged to Tyler Mumaw.
However, the two parted ways, and she started dating Douglas “Doug” Cooper in 2016 or 2017, before tying the knot on 17 October 2017. Sadly, Doug would get arrested two weeks after their wedding, allegedly for having an outstanding warrant, playing music too loud in his pickup truck on a school night, drinking, and being violent toward Kayla. However, she denied the violence claims, stating ‘he never touched her other than to point a finger in her face and hold her hands down since he feared she would hit him.’ The problems started on 25 October, Doug’s birthday and Kayla’s son Richard apparently called the police. He served 90 days in a West Virginia jail before being transferred to a New York prison, since he also violated his probation.
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Kayla moved on from him relatively quickly, and news broke that she married Benny Small in 2018. They are seemingly together as of 2023, although she last mentioned him on social media in mid-2022, and he deleted his only profile on Instagram.
Kayla is focused on at least three business endeavors. She creates custom phone cases, records videos on Cameo, and markets dietary supplements from brands such as Motivation Station Nutrition Spot and BoomBod. Moreover, Kayla promotes her son Richard’s paving and asphalt business, posts motivational quotes and heavily-edited selfies on Instagram, and loves the Harry Potter franchise.
Kayla is also a dog lover and has a female pitbull mix, her best friend since early 2022, and publishes many pictures of her children and grandchildren. She has at least five grandchildren, two granddaughters from her daughter Danielle and a granddaughter and two grandsons from her daughter Kayla “Sissy.” Unfortunately, Sissy’s son Henry suffered second-degree burns and almost died in 2019, when he touched a scorching-hot bath accidentally drawn by his seven-year-old stepsister.
Angela “Annie” Malone
Angela “Annie” Malone, now presumably Annie Cooper, is Kayla Small’s sister and the mother of five children. She was playful and somewhat immature, but was always laughing and made her sisters laugh in the show. Annie’s marriages attracted the most attention; first, she planned to marry her cousin Josh but changed her mind. Instead, she married James “Jay” Malone around 2016. However, Jay was double-dipping, going back and forth between Annie and her cousin Dallas Nichole Williams, with whom he also has children.
Jay left Annie around October 2016, and went back to Dallas shortly before she gave birth to their daughter London. At that time, Annie posted a Facebook conversation explaining that she was looking for Jay’s address to send him divorce papers. Moreover, by posting an image of a mug with a “Future Mrs Cooper” print, and creating a Facebook page entitled Lushy N Annie Cooper, Annie revealed that she wants to marry 19-year-old “Lushy” Cooper, who was in a New York prison. Lushy is tied to both associates in the crime Annie committed shortly afterward; he was engaged to Jett Small and a brother to Dick “Bubba” Cooper.
In mid-January 2017, news broke that Annie was arrested alongside two accomplices in Halifax County, North Carolina, and charged with several felonies, most notably exploitation of an elderly or disabled person’s trust and obtaining property under false pretenses. Her social media followers quickly connected the dots, since she bragged about wearing Armani sunglasses, carrying a Louis Vuitton bag, and traveling to New York City. Mellie Stanley claimed she’d paid her $400 bond, but Annie claimed that TLC footed the bill. She is now known as Annie Johnson, and promoted BoomBod in 2020 on Instagram, but has since deleted all social media profiles.
JoAnn Wells
JoAnn Well, sister of Nettie, Dovie and Mellie, was prominent in seasons two through four. She always came across as friendly and level-headed, lacked the intense personality other sisters exhibited, and was thus uninterested in all the drama. However, some drama unwittingly followed her behind the scenes. First, she was caught in a Target coupon scam in December 2013, when she conspired to ring up expired coupons, run fake barcodes, and use gift cards, and cost Target roughly $14,768. According to Coupons in the News, she pleaded guilty, received 24-months probation, and had to repay the damage to Target.
Second, her marriage was rocky. During season three in 2016, the mother of two proclaimed that she would divorce her husband, Belcher Wells, whom she married on 22 July 2007, However, a year after the show ended, the two reconciled before splitting up again and divorcing at some point. JoAnn reportedly remarried soon afterwards, but no details are available.
She stayed away from the spotlight ,and is only active on Facebook on her official fan page entitled JoAnn The Gypsy Princess, with over 33,000 followers. Although fans suggest she may respond to comments or posts on her sisters’ pages, JoAnn stopped posting updates in August 2017. Around August 2022, JoAnn created TikTok and Instagram accounts under the handle @joannmarie84. Although her sisters promoted her links on their social media, she deleted both accounts by the year’s end.
Dallas Nichole Williams
Dallas Nichole Williams is Nettie Stanley’s eldest daughter, and has six children; she came to prominence for all the wrong reasons. First, Dallas drew heat by dating Robbie York, her aunt Mellie Stanley’s ex-husband, and potentially even marrying him. In October 2014, she posted a romantic picture of them, captioned with, ‘I enjoyed my man’s lips last night. He always seems to find a way to make me happy despite anything else. I would kill for this man; I will stand by him through thick & thin, good or bad.’
Her followers disliked this, accusing her of breaking the unspoken “girl code” of not dating someone her family members dated. However, Dallas replied, ‘I do not care if anyone is okay with this; we are together and will stay together regardless of what anyone says or how they feel.’ She added that they ‘live for God and their happiness’ and pointed out that she dated Robbie before Mellie. Mellie responded by notifying her fan base that she called Robbie’s probation officer because he had a restraining order, and broke it by visiting Nettie’s house to see Dallas.
Dallas then caused more drama by simultaneously dating James “Jay” Malone as Annie Malone. Although he returned to her before Christmas 2016 and broke up with Annie before promising to stay with her and their newborn daughter London, this was short-lived, and the couple parted ways in early 2017.
She now only has a Facebook profile under the handle @dedumbidy, listing two jobs she had since leaving the show. Since February 2010, she’s been a sales associate at Huey’s Paving company, led by her father, Huey Stanley. Dallas also worked at Gold N’ Diamonds in Capital City Mall in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, between August 2018 and January 2019.
Nettie “Nuckie” Williams
Nettie “Nuckie” Williams is best known for her tumultuous marriage to Pookie Small, whom she started dating when she was 14 and he 16; they ran away home and relocated to Florida at one point. On 28 November 2014, she gave birth to the couple’s first son, Henry Huey Harry Small, who had some breathing problems at birth and had to have additional bloodwork.
Unfortunately, Nuckie left the family afterward, and traveled the world with an unnamed heroin-addicted boyfriend for roughly two years. In December 2016, her ex-husband and his girlfriend Samantha found and returned Nuckie home to her mom in West Virginia. Samantha left Pookie in February 2017, and Nuckie reconciled with him immediately, posting a romantic selfie in March. Their daughter, Ivory was born in November of that year. The couple welcomed their third child, daughter Delilah Dee Small in 2019, and Nuckie remains close to her mom.
Laura Jonhston
Laura Johnston was briefly mentioned in the first season of “Gypsy Sisters” as the sister-in-law to Annie Malone and Kayla Williams. She married their brother Gus Johnson, and the couple has three daughters named Bella, Hailey and Savannah. She quit the cast in February 2013 and promised not to return. Still, Laura retains a small online presence by posting homemaking and parenthood tips and tricks and sharing her opinions on her TikTok profile under the handle @laurajohnstongypsysister.
Dovie Carter
Dovie Carter only appeared during the show’s fourth season and never really made a splash. She is JoAnn, Mellie and Nettie’s sister and has a good-natured personality, which became apparent during family arguments she would try to prevent. Dovie has yet to establish a social media presence.
— Dovie Carter (@GypsySisDovie) July 19, 2015
Sheena Small
Sheena Small is the first cousin to Mellie, Nettie Stanley and other sisters. She drew some attention to herself during the second season when she married Henry, Nettie and Mellie’s brother, but the two later divorced. Sheena and Henry have four girls, Frankie, Shirley, Shakira, and Shania.
Her biggest drama-fueled event was a major in-person and Facebook fight with Nettie Stanley in August 2014, prompting her to exit the show. However, she stated that Kayla Williams is ‘good and classy, and so are her girls. Without her, no one would care to watch the show.’
Are “Gypsy Sisters” coming back?
Rumors circulated that a reboot of “Gypsy Sisters” may be in the works in early 2017, according to Starcasm.net. Nettie Stanley posted text messages about a conversation with Kirsty Smith, producer for Firecracker Films, which produced the TLC show. Kirsty wrote, ‘My execs want to move forward in possibly getting you your own show again.’ That confused viewers, since it needed to be clarified whether ‘your show’ meant the family show or a spin-off with Nettie and her family.
Mellie chimed in from a friend’s Facebook account ‘because she had no service on her phone’ saying, ‘None of the gypsy sisters wants to do it. I don’t know ’bout Nettie, but me, Kayla, Annie, JoAnn and Dovie are not [interested].’ Mellie reiterated this in an Instagram Live video her niece posted in February 2022. Since the Facebook post led nowhere, the sisters seem indifferent, and no other announcements have since come out, so it’s safe to say that the show won’t return.
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