Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s ex-husband Ryan Anderson reacts to her ex-fiance’s sudden death at 34
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Reality star and convicted murderer Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s ex-husband Ryan Anderson has spoken out about the sudden death of her ex-fiance, Ken Urker.
Urker – who had a daughter Aurora, one, with Blanchard – was found dead at his Louisiana home on Thursday, his 34th birthday. Authorities said they were “continuing the death investigation” but had “found no evidence of foul play”.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s ex-husband Ryan Anderson has spoken out about the sudden death of her ex-fiancé, Ken Urker. The former couple are pictured in 2024. Getty
Anderson – who was married to Blanchard, 35, from July 2022 to December 2024 – said his initial thoughts were “shock” and worry for his ex-wife after discovering the tragic news via Instagram.
“I didn’t believe it at first. I was like, no,” he said on the Oct. 2 episode of The Sarah Fraser Show. “My immediate thought went to, ‘How’s Gypsy? How’s she doing. And what about their kid?’”
Anderson, who fell for Blanchard while she was in prison for her role in the murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, said that while he never saw eye-to-eye with Urker, he was sad over what had happened.
“We never met in person, but we had exchanges on the phone and we’ve had text messages. We’ve interacted and they were never good,” he said. "You still hate to hear that somebody passed away, you know what I mean?”
He added that had messaged Blanchard's father Rod in the wake of his passing.
“I said, ‘Hey, man, I’m hearing this news. If it’s true, tell Gypsy I’m sorry. Tell her I’m here for her if she needs me,’” he explained. “I was always somebody who could make her laugh when she was sad or give her comfort.”
He said that while he and Blanchard hadn’t spoken for a year, “if she [reaches out] I would be there for her strictly as just being there for her because I always was.”
It emerged this week that Blanchard and Urker had ended their on/off relationship about a month before his death and had been living apart.
Blanchard and Urker had an on-off relationship of the course of a decade. Instagram/@Gypsy Rose Blanchard
The former couple first connected as prison pen pals in 2017.
Blanchard was serving her 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the 2015 killing of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard.
She endured medical and psychological abuse from Dee Dee, who suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy and fabricated chronic illnesses such as leukaemia and muscular dystrophy.
Acknowledging the extreme, lifelong abuse Blanchard suffered, prosecutors allowed her to plead guilty to second-degree murder in 2016, for which she served eight years of a 10-year sentence before being released on parole in December 2023.
Urker was found dead at his Louisiana home on Thursday, his 34th birthday. He and Blanchard share one-year-old daughter Aurora. Instagram/@gypsyrose_a_blanchard
Blanchard and Urker got engaged in October 2018 before splitting up in August 2019.
During their separation, Blanchard married and later separated from Anderson.
Blanchard and Urker rekindled their romance in April 2024 after her release from prison and split from Anderson.
They split again in late 2026, reportedly over the legal complexity regarding paternity laws due to Blanchard’s divorce from her ex-husband.
A prenatal DNA test officially confirmed Urker as the biological father.
In a statement to TMZ after his death, Blanchard said of Urker: “Ken was an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved. He will forever be my soulmate and my red string, a connection that time, distance and even death can never erase.”
