Gypsy Rose Blanchard is mourning Ken Urker, her partner and the father of her daughter, after he was found dead Thursday at his home in Raceland, Louisiana. He was 34, on what would have been his birthday.
The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Urker was found unresponsive by a family member and declared dead upon arrival. “We responded to a residence at 107 Double H Drive, Lot 4, in Raceland today after receiving a call at 6:15 p.m. Kenan Urker, 34, was found dead upon arrival,” Captain Brennan Matherne of the sheriff’s department told Variety. “At this time, we are continuing the death investigation.”
Blanchard’s tribute and message
In a statement to TMZ, Blanchard praised Urker’s role as a father and described him as her soulmate. “Ken was an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved,” she said. “He will forever be my soulmate and my red string, a connection that time, distance, and even death can never erase.”
Blanchard also addressed the cyberbullying Urker faced online. “Ken endured an unimaginable level of public scrutiny and relentless cyberbullying across social media platforms, including TikTok and Reddit,” she told Page Six. She said the cruelty directed toward him was something no person should have to endure.
Blanchard, who shares a 1-year-old daughter, Aurora Raina, with Urker, said she will ensure their child knows how much her father loved her. “I will make sure [Aurora] grows up knowing how deeply her father loved her and who he was beyond what strangers on the internet chose to say about him,” she told TMZ.
Urker’s suspected cause of death
Blanchard told TMZ that a substance was found, and she suspects Urker died from an overdose. Officials have not revealed a cause of death. Blanchard said Urker did not have a drug problem and that she had never seen him use drugs.
How Blanchard and Urker met
Blanchard and Urker first connected as prison pen pals in 2017 while she was serving time for her role in the second-degree murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. Urker wrote to her starting in 2017 without initially seeking a romantic relationship, he later explained on the show. Blanchard was released in December 2023 after serving seven to eight years of her sentence.
Urker proposed during a prison visit in October 2018, but they split in 2019. After Blanchard’s release in December 2023, she married and then divorced Ryan Anderson in 2024. She and Urker reconciled, got matching husky tattoos in April 2024, and welcomed Aurora in December 2024.
The couple appeared together on Lifetime’s reality series Gypsy Rose: Life After Lockup, which ran for two seasons. The show documented Blanchard’s transition to life outside prison.
Authorities continue to investigate Urker’s death. Blanchard asked for privacy for her daughter, her family, and everyone grieving Urker during this time.
Reporting from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Page Six and Justjared contributed to this story.
