Ken Urker, the partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, has died aged 34 in Raceland, Louisiana, according to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies were called to a residence at about 6.15pm on Thursday, where Urker was found dead on arrival. An investigation into his death is under way, but police have not confirmed the cause.
Urker turned 34 on the day he died. Blanchard, 35, said he had recently been struggling and told People magazine that he died from an overdose.
“Ken was an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved,” Blanchard said. “I’m in disbelief. I can’t think. I’ve screamed until my throat burns.”
The couple first connected while Blanchard was serving a prison sentence for her role in the 2015 murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. They share a 21-month-old daughter, Aurora.
Blanchard and Urker had previously been engaged in 2018. They began dating again after Blanchard separated from her former husband, Ryan Anderson, in early 2024, three months after they married while she was in prison.
Blanchard was released in 2023 after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence for second-degree murder. She said her mother had subjected her to years of medical child abuse. Nicholas Godejohn, Blanchard’s then-boyfriend, killed her mother and was sentenced to life in prison.
In an Instagram post, Blanchard described Urker as her “greatest love story” and said he would “be remembered and loved forever”. She also said he had recently been subjected to cyberbullying.
“The cruelty directed toward” Urker was “something no human should have to endure”, she wrote, adding that the scrutiny and harassment had had a profound impact on him.
