Gypsy Rose Blanchard is navigating a death in her family.
The Life After Lock Upstar’s boyfriend Ken Urkerdied on Oct. 1, the Lafourche Sherriff’s Office confirmed to E! News. He was 33.
“We were notified about this at 6:15 p.m. CDT and responded,” a spokesperson told E!. “He was found dead upon arrival. At this time, we are continuing the death investigation.”
His cause of death has not been revealed.
Blanchard, 35, and Urker—who share daughter Aurora Raina Urker, 21 months—first connected while she was serving time in prison for the 2015 murderofher mom Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. She pled guilty to second-degree murder for conspiring with her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to kill her mom after suffering from abuse and fake medical diagnoses as a child.
“[Urker] wrote me a letter of support after watching the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest back in 2017,” Blanchard told E! News in 2019. “I wrote him back and pretty soon we just started writing on a weekly basis. We became fast friends.”
She and Urker spent hours on the phone at the time, with her noting, “I talked to him like I had known him my whole life and vice versa.”
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Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Life After Prison Release
The pair got engaged while she was behind bars, but they broke up in 2019 to focus on “personal growth,” she told E!, adding, “We were so connected at one time that I felt like he was a soul mate.”
Blanchard went on to marry Ryan Anderson, a special education teacher from Louisiana, after similarly meeting him through prison correspondence in 2020.
“We’ve been able to build this emotional bond that within two seconds of talking on the phone, he knows my emotions,” she told People. “And he’ll be like, ‘Are you OK? Do you want to talk about it?’ So I’m thankful that I have a man that is open enough with his own emotions so I could let my emotions flow.”
She married Anderson in 2022 while she was still incarcerated.
Blanchard—who was portrayed by actress Joey Kingin the acclaimed miniseries The Act—was ultimately released from prison in December 2023 after serving seven years, but by March 2024, the couple had cut ties.
“Unfortunately my husband and I are going through a separation and I moved in with my parents home down the bayou. I have the support of my family and friends to help guide me through this,” she shared on Facebook at the time. “I am learning to listen to my heart.”
As for Anderson, he attributed their divorce to “outside influences.”
“I’m still trying to figure out, how did it happen so fast?” he told E!. “I’m blindsided about how fast things occur. It’s like a snowball and I haven’t been able to stop it. It’s just one of those where it’s gonna continue to roll.”
Instagram/Gypsy Rose Blanchard
Less than a week after sharing news of the split, Blanchard reunited with Urker in Louisiana, and it was like no time had passed.
“When did I know he was the one?” she told E! in May 2024. “Probably the day I met him back in 2017.”
Noting the pair had “kept a friendship this whole time,” she explained, “It wasn’t until I filed for divorce that I kind of really realized that that spark, that connection [with Urker] is even better than I expected. And we’ve grown a lot. I’ve matured. He’s grown. And so I think right now is the time in our lives that it’s the right time, right place, right everything.”
Instagram / Gypsy Rose Blanchard
The couple went on to reveal her pregnancy two months later.
“We’re both very excited. This was not planned at all, it was completely unexpected,” she shared on YouTube. “We’re both very excited to take on this new journey of parenthood.”
Urker announced the arrival of their daughter Aurora in December 2024, calling her the “greatest gift of all.”
Read on for a look back at Blanchard’s life with Urker before his death.
TikTok / Gypsy Rose Blanchard
“We are together and in a wonderful place in our relationship,” she told TMZ on April 30. “We know it is going to be a long road ahead but are excited for the future.”
She noted that their baby was scheduled to be due in January 2025.
