Father of Gypsy Rose Blanchard's child Ken Urker is dead at 34
Ken Urker, who was previously engaged to Gypsy Rose Blanchard, has died aged 34.
In a statement shared with LADbible, Lafourche Sheriff’s Office said officers had responded to a call at around 6.15pm on 1 October, where Urker was 'found dead upon arrival'.
His cause of death has not been revealed and the Sheriff’s Office is 'continuing the death investigation'.
According to a report in TMZ, Urker was found unresponsive at his home in Louisiana on his birthday (1 October).
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The publication says Blanchard sent him a message wishing him a ‘happy birthday’ that reportedly went unanswered.
The couple were in an on-and-off relationship for almost a decade after first meeting as pen pals while Blanchard was in prison.
Blanchard was serving a 10-year-sentence after pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of her mother, Clauddine ‘Dee Dee’ Blanchard, in 2015.
Speaking to E! News in 2019, Blanchard said Urker reached out to her after seeing her story on TV.
She shared: "He wrote me a letter of support after watching the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest back in 2017.
"I wrote him back and pretty soon we just started writing on a weekly basis. We became fast friends."
From there, the two began chatting on the phone, with Blanchard saying: "I talked to him like I had known him my whole life and vice versa."
The year after Urker and Blanchard began speaking the pair got engaged, but the relationship broke down the following year.
She later went on to marry Ryan Anderson while still incarcerated in 2022, but the pair went their separate ways.
Blanchard and Urker then rekindled their relationship in 2024 following her release from prison.
She told E! News in 2024: "It wasn't until I filed for divorce that I kind of really realised 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."
In December 2024, the couple welcomed their little girl, Aurora Raina Urker.
He also appeared on the show Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up alongside Blanchard.
Who is Gypsy Rose Blanchard?
Blanchard became famous worldwide due to her unusual case.
Her mother Dee Dee had spent years pretending that Blanchard had various illnesses including leukaemia, muscular dystrophy and developmental issues.
Dee Dee is suspected of having Munchausen by proxy, which is now known as factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), and is a serious and rare form of abuse in which a caregiver - often a parent - fabricates, exaggerates, or induces physical or mental illness in a person under their care.
Throughout Blanchard’s childhood, her mother would force her to use a wheelchair and had her fitted with a feeding tube and go through surgeries that she didn’t need
As a teen, Blanchard began an online relationship with Nicholas Godejohn and the pair hatched a plan to kill Dee Dee.
In June 2015, Godejohn fatally stabbed Dee Dee.
At trial, Blanchard pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was given a 10 year sentence. She was released from Chillicothe Correctional Center prison in December 2023.
Godejohn was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole and an additional 25 years for armed criminal action.
Topics: US News, Gypsy Rose Blanchard
Claire Reid