Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s partner, Ken Urker, has died at the age of 34, a Louisiana sheriff said.
The Lafourche Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to a residence in Raceland, Louisiana, around 6:15 p.m. Thursday. Capt. Brennan Matherne of the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office told CBS News that Urker was found dead upon arrival. An investigation into Urker’s death is underway.
Urker turned 34 on Thursday.
TMZ was first to report the news.
In a statement to People magazine, Blanchard said Urker’s death was a shock. Blanchard, 35, and Urker connected while she was in prison for the 2015 murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. They share a 21-month-old daughter, Aurora.
“Ken was an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved,” Gypsy Rose Blanchard told People magazine.
“I’m in disbelief,” she told the outlet. “I can’t think. I’ve screamed until my throat burns.”
On Instagram, Blanchard wrote that Urker “will always be (her) greatest love story” and “will be remembered and loved forever.”
Blanchard was previously engaged to Urker in 2018 and started dating him following her separation from ex-husband Ryan Anderson.
Blanchard and Anderson split up in early 2024, three months after they wed while she was in prison for her role in the murder of her mother. She had been sentenced to 10 years for second-degree murder over the death of her mother, who was killed by Blanchard’s then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn. Blanchard, who accused her mother of subjecting her to years of medical child abuse, was released in 2023 after seven years in prison. Godejohn was sentenced to life in prison.
Police have not confirmed Urker’s cause of death. Blanchard told People magazine that he died from an overdose. She told the outlet he “wasn’t in a good state of mind lately” and had recently been a victim of cyberbullying.
Blanchard said on her Instagram story that the “cruelty directed toward” Urker “was something no human should have to endure.”
“I believe the tremendous weight of that scrutiny and harassment had a profound impact on him, and I hope his passing serves as a reminder that there is a real person behind every screen, every headline, and every comment,” she wrote.
CBS News has reached out to Blanchard’s rep for comment.
