Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s partner, Ken Urker, dies at 34
Ken Urker, Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s partner and father of her child, died Thursday on his 34th birthday, according to multiple media reports.
Video above: Gypsy Rose Blanchard released from prison in 2023
His cause of death is not known at this time.
Urker was found unresponsive at his Louisiana home on Thursday by a family member, according to People. Officers were called to the home at around 6:15 p.m., and Urker was found “dead upon arrival,” the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office confirmed to People.
His death is under investigation.
“I’m in disbelief. I can’t think,” Blanchard told People magazine Friday. “I’ve screamed until my throat burns.”
“There are no words that can express the depth of this loss,” she added. “I ask for privacy and compassion for our daughter, our families, and everyone grieving Ken during this incredibly painful time.”
Jamie McCarthy
Gypsy Rose Blanchard in 2024
Blanchard became infamous due to her role in the killing of her abusive mother. She was released from prison in December 2023 after serving more than seven years of a 10-year prison sentence. Blanchard was the victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which a caregiver fakes their child’s illness or induces symptoms to make their child ill.
Blanchard met Urker while she was in prison. Urker had written a “supportive letter, not on any kind of romantic level” to Blanchard, and included his phone number, after watching “Mommy Dead and Dearest,” which was released in 2017, Blanchard said on the “We Need to Talk” podcast in June.
She added that she gave Urker a call and “within five minutes of talking on the phone, I felt like we had known each other our whole lives.” After two years of dating, the couple got engaged while she was in prison, but Urker split up with her months later, she said.
Blanchard went on to marry Louisiana teacher Ryan Anderson in a prison wedding ceremony in July 2022, but they parted ways in 2023, and she rekindled her romance with Urker.
Urker and Blanchard share a daughter together named Aurora Raina Urker. The couple got engaged in October 2018 and then broke up. They reunited in April 2024, shortly after Blanchard’s divorce from Ryan Anderson, and their daughter was born Dec. 28, 2024.
CNN contributed to this report.