Gypsy Rose Blanchard is speaking out in the wake of her boyfriend Ken Urker‘s death.
Hours after police confirmed to E! News that Urker was found dead in Louisiana on Oct. 1, the Life After Lock Up star spoke out about her grief and said the 34-year-old had overdosed before dying in his bed at home in Raceland, an area southwest of New Orleans.
“I don’t know if it was intentional or not,” Blanchard told People. “He was not in a good state of mind lately.”
“I’m in disbelief. I can’t think,” she continued. “I’ve screamed until my throat burns.”
The 35-year-old—who shared daughter Aurora, 21 months, with Urker—said her late partner “endured an unimaginable level of public scrutiny and relentless cyberbullying across social media platforms” prior to his death.
“The cruelty directed toward him was something no human being should have to endure,” she shared. “I believe the tremendous weight of that scrutiny and harassment had a profound impact on him, and I hope his passing serves as a reminder that there is a real person behind every screen, every headline, and every comment.”
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Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Boyfriend Ken Urker Dead at 34
As such, Blanchard is choosing to remember Urker as “an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved.”
“He will forever be my soulmate and my red string, a connection that time, distance, and even death can never erase,” she said. “Above all, Ken loved our daughter, Aurora. She is a beautiful reflection of his enduring spirit, and through her, a part of him will always remain with us.”
“I will make sure she grows up knowing how deeply her father loved her and who he was beyond what strangers on the internet chose to say about him,” Blanchard added. “There are no words that can express the depth of this loss. I ask for privacy and compassion for our daughter, our families, and everyone grieving Ken during this incredibly painful time. He will be deeply missed, forever loved, and never forgotten.”
Blanchard first met Urker in 2017, when she was serving out her prison sentence for her involvement in the 2015 murder of her mom Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard.
“He wrote me a letter of support after watching the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest,”she told E! News in 2019. “It was pretty soon after that that we started talking on the phone. We would spend hours on the phone. I talked to him like I had known him my whole life and vice versa.”
They got engaged while Blanchard was still behind bars. However, the two eventually went their separate ways, with Blanchard going on to marry Ryan Anderson, a special education teacher she met through prison correspondence, in 2020.
Instagram / Gypsy Rose Blanchard
Blanchard rekindled her romance with Urker following her 2023 prison release and 2024 divorce from Anderson.
“When did I know he was the one?” Blanchard mused in 2024 interview with E! News. “Probably the day I met him back in 2017.”
She added, “It wasn’t until I filed for divorce that I kind of really realized that spark, that connection [with Urker] is even better than I expected.”
Read on for a closer look at Blanchard and Urker’s relationship.
TikTok / Gypsy Rose Blanchard
“We are together and in a wonderful place in our relationship,” she told TMZ that April. “We know it is going to be a long road ahead but are excited for the future.”
At the time, she noted that their baby was due in January 2025.
