Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s longtime partner, Ken Urker, has died at 34 after authorities say he was found unresponsive at his Louisiana home on his 34th birthday.
A family member found him inside the home, and the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office says Urker was dead when deputies arrived.
Authorities are now investigating his death, but Blanchard says Urker died of an overdose.
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What happened?
According to TMZ, which was the first to report Urker’s death, Blanchard sent him a “happy birthday” text but never received a response. Her half-brother, Dylan, and his wife then went to the home, where they found Urker dead.
The sheriff’s office has not announced a cause of death, but Blanchard told People that Urker died of an overdose.
“I don’t know if it was intentional or not,” Blanchard told People. “He was not in a good state of mind lately.”
She added that he had faced an “unimaginable level of public scrutiny and relentless cyberbullying” throughout their relationship.
“The cruelty directed toward him was something no human being should have to endure,” Blanchard said. “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.”
Who was Ken Urker?
Urker and Blanchard had a years-long, on-and-off relationship that began while she was in prison.
The two began their relationship as prison penpals while Blanchard was serving a 10-year sentence for her role in the second-degree murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. She was released after serving more than eight years.
After growing close through letters and calls to the prison, Urker proposed to Blanchard during a prison visit in 2018. They called off the engagement the following year.
A few years later, Blanchard married Ryan Anderson while still incarcerated. They remained together after her 2023 release but separated in 2024.
Urker and Blanchard later reconnected, and they welcomed their daughter, Aurora Raina Urker, in December 2024.
“Ken was an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved,” Blanchard told People. “He will forever be my soulmate and my red string, a connection that time, distance, and even death can never erase.”
Blanchard said Urker’s greatest love was their daughter.
“She is a beautiful reflection of his enduring spirit, and through her, a part of him will always remain with us,” she said. “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.”
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