Gypsy Rose Blanchard has said Ken Urker was subjected to “relentless cyberbullying” before his death, claiming the online harassment had a profound impact on her former fiancé.
Urker was found dead inside a home in Louisiana earlier today, on what would have been his 34th birthday. The circumstances of his death have not been provided.
In a statement, Blanchard described Urker as “an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved”. She added: “He will forever be my soulmate and my red string, a connection that time, distance, and even death can never erase.”
Blanchard said Urker had endured an “unimaginable level of public scrutiny” and repeated online abuse, describing the cruelty directed towards him as something “no human being should have to endure”.
She said the scrutiny and harassment had a “profound impact” on him, without specifying how it had affected him.
Urker was the father of the couple’s daughter, Aurora. Blanchard said she would ensure their daughter grew up knowing “how deeply her father loved her and who he was beyond what strangers on the internet chose to say about him”.
The pair met through a penpal programme while Blanchard was serving a prison sentence for her role in her mother’s death. Urker proposed during a prison visit in October 2018.
They later split, and Blanchard began a relationship with Ryan Anderson, whom she married before her release from prison. After separating from Anderson, she rekindled her relationship with Urker following her release.
Blanchard has asked for privacy for herself and her family.
