Gypsy Rose Blanchard is speaking publicly for the first time since the death of Ken Urker, her former fiancé and the father of her daughter, Aurora. In a statement to TMZ.com, Blanchard said Urker had been the target of sustained online abuse in the period leading up to his death.
Urker was found dead inside a Louisiana home on Thursday, October 1, 2026, according to TMZ.com, which first reported the death. The date would have been his 34th birthday.
Blanchard described Urker as a devoted parent and said the harassment he faced was unrelenting. "Ken was an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved," she told TMZ.com. She also said he "will forever be my soulmate and my red string, a connection that time, distance, and even death can never erase," in the same statement to TMZ.com.
According to Blanchard, Urker withstood what she characterized as an extraordinary degree of public attention and online hostility. She said the cruelty aimed at him was more than any person should be expected to bear, and she expressed her belief that the pressure of that scrutiny and harassment weighed heavily on her former fiancé.
Blanchard also spoke about Urker's role as a father to Aurora, saying he 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, she told TMZ.com. She asked for privacy for herself and her family.
The two met through a penpal program while Blanchard was incarcerated for her involvement in her mother's death. Urker proposed during a prison visit in October 2018. The relationship ended not long afterward, and Blanchard went on to date Ryan Anderson, whom she married before her release from prison. After she and Ryan separated, she and Ken reconnected once she was no longer behind bars.