Gypsy Rose Blanchard is speaking out after the unexpected passing of her baby daddy, Ken Urker, saying he was the victim of relentless cyberbullying in the days leading up to his death. As we previously reported, Urker, the father of her little girl, was found dead in his bed at his home in Raceland, Louisiana, on October 1, his 34th birthday.
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Speaking to TMZ and PEOPLE,  Blanchard texted Urker a birthday greeting and never got a response. Her brother Dylan found him at the house. The Lafourche Sheriff’s Office said deputies were called to the residence around 6:15 p.m. and that Urker was found dead on arrival, with the death investigation still ongoing. No official cause of death has been released.
However, Blanchard has her own read on what happened. She told PEOPLE that Urker died of an overdose, but she isn’t sure what was behind it. “I don’t know if it was intentional or not,” she said, adding that he hadn’t been in a good state of mind lately. She told the outlet she’s in disbelief, saying “I’ve screamed until my throat burns.” She also told TMZ that an unidentified substance was found at the scene and that she had never seen him use drugs. That’s her account, and investigators haven’t confirmed it.
In her statement to TMZ, Blanchard put the spotlight on the internet. She said Urker lived under an unimaginable level of public scrutiny and nonstop cyberbullying on social media, and that the cruelty aimed at him was something no human being should have to endure. She believes that weight took a profound toll on him. If you’ve seen how fast strangers will dogpile a regular person who got pulled into the spotlight, you know that’s not hard to believe. Urker never signed up to be a celebrity.
She also made sure the world knows what he meant to her and to their daughter. She called him an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved. She said he “will forever be my soulmate and my red string.” She promised to make sure their daughter, Aurora, grows up knowing how deeply her father loved her and who he really was, beyond whatever strangers online chose to say about him.
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Ken and Gypsy met through a penpal program while she was in prison for her role in her mother’s death, and he proposed during a prison visit in October 2018. They split shortly after, she married Ryan Anderson, and she rekindled things with Ken once she was out. By the time of his death, the two were no longer romantically involved but were co-parenting Aurora.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard, 35, is a Louisiana native whose story became one of the most talked-about true-crime cases in recent years. She grew up believing she was seriously ill, because her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, told doctors, family, and the public that Gypsy had leukemia, muscular dystrophy, and other conditions, and kept her in a wheelchair and on a feeding tube. In reality, Gypsy was healthy, and the case has been widely described as medical child abuse, often linked to Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
In 2015, Dee Dee was murdered by Nicholas Godejohn, a man Gypsy met online, after Gypsy pushed him to do it as a way to escape. Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016 and was sentenced to 10 years, and she was released on parole in December 2023. Her story was told in the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest and the Hulu series The Act, and since her release she has become a public figure with a memoir and the Lifetime series Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up. She welcomed her daughter, Aurora, with Ken Urker in December 2024.
For now, Blanchard has asked for privacy for herself and her family as they grieve. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, the SAMHSA National Helpline is available at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).