Gypsy Rose Blanchard has broken her silence following the death of her former fiancé Ken Urker.
The 33-year-old Urker was found dead in his Louisiana home in September 2026, on what would have been his 34th birthday. Blanchard, 34, honored him in a social media tribute, writing, “You will always be my greatest love story. You will be remembered and loved forever.”
Their connection began in 2017, when Urker reached out to Blanchard at Missouri’s Chillicothe Correctional Center after watching “Mommy Dead and Dearest,” the documentary detailing the abuse Blanchard suffered at the hands of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, and the murder plot with then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn. Blanchard said in 2019 that Urker’s “letter of support” led them to become “fast friends” and eventually start dating.
The pair quickly grew close behind bars. “We started spending hours on the phone,” Blanchard recalled to the outlet. During his first visit, they shared a kiss “within 30 minutes.”
“He leaned over and gave me the most wonderful kiss of my whole life,” she said. “The level of physical contact that is allowed is limited to holding hands, a brief hug and a closed mouth kiss. The kiss he gave me was quite passionate,” She added that she looked at him and said, “I didn’t even know you liked me like that,” and he replied, “Yeah, I have for a while.”
Urker proposed in 2018 during another prison visit, presenting her with a silver band that was later confiscated. “He held my hands close and told me how much I meant to him,” Blanchard remembered. “He [was] like, ‘I would really, really be honored if I could have your hand in marriage,’ and I said yes.” She noted the proposal wasn’t “out of the blue,” as they had “bounced around the idea.”
The engagement ended in August 2019. In her 2024 memoir “My Time to Stand,” Blanchard wrote that adults in Urker’s life repeatedly told him, “‘If you love her, you’ll set her free.'” She speculated he “believed he was acting in [her] best interest by sacrificing his own needs and wants.”
Blanchard married Louisiana teacher Ryan Scott Anderson while still imprisoned, and they remained together through her December 2023 release before separating months later. She filed for divorce in April 2024, with the marriage legally ending that December.
Days after splitting from Anderson, Blanchard was photographed holding hands with Urker. They got matching tattoos and confirmed their rekindled romance in a PDA-heavy video that same month. By May 2024, Urker was relocating to Louisiana to be near her. “We’re just basically enjoying our time together and, you know, hopeful for what the future has,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “I don’t want to move too fast because, you know, I want to pace myself. I don’t want to put expectations and make things too heavy.”
The couple’s daughter, Aurora, arrived in December 2024. “The unexpected pregnancy was “not planned at all,” Blanchard had told her Instagram followers in July 2024. Urker said at the time of the birth, “Aurora is healthy, and we are so happy.” The new parents called their infant the “greatest gift of all.”
In a March 2025 interview, Blanchard revealed they were attending couples therapy to “improve” their relationship. “I like it because it gives an unbiased opinion,” she shared. “Because you don’t want to go to your family all the time to talk about the bad stuff. … So it’s nice for us to have someone in the middle.” She also confirmed she “absolutely” saw Urker as her “forever,” adding, “I’ve always felt that way about him.”
Following Urker’s death, Blanchard released a lengthy statement calling him an “amazing father” and her “soulmate.” She addressed the “relentless cyberbullying” he had faced, then continued, “Ken loved our daughter. 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 has speculated that Urker died of an overdose, though his cause of death was not yet known. Their exact relationship status at the time also remains unclear, as Urker’s sister Autumn alleged via TikTok Live that the couple were “split up” when he passed.
Blanchard served seven years of her 10-year sentence for second-degree murder before her December 2023 release, having plotted with Godejohn to kill Dee Dee after years of medical child abuse that included unnecessary surgeries and medications.
Aurora will turn one in December 2025.