‘Forever soulmate’: Gypsy-Rose Blanchard pays tribute to ex-fiancé Ken Urker following his sudden death

Convicted murderer Gypsy-Rose Blanchard has claimed that her former fiancé and the father of her child was the victim of ‘relentless cyberbullying’ before his sudden death.

Mr Urker was discovered unresponsive in Louisiana on Thursday, TMZ reported, on the same day that he is believed to have been celebrating his 34th birthday.

Ms Blanchard had reportedly texted Mr Urker ‘Happy Birthday,’ but never received a response.

It is understood that his body was later found by Ms Blanchard’s brother, who arrived at the property after making prior arrangements to go out for dinner that evening.

The Lafourche Sherriff’s Office said in a statement to E! News: “We were notified about this at 6:15 p.m. CDT and responded. He was found dead upon arrival. At this time, we are continuing the death investigation.”

His cause of death has not yet been revealed.

Speaking to People magazine following the shocking announcement of his death, Ms Blanchard paid tribute to “an amazing father and man who was deeply loved.”

“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,” she told the publication.

Ms Blanchard went on to claim that her on-off partner had endured an “unimaginable level of public scrutiny” and “relentless cyberbullying” on social media, adding the “cruelty directed toward him was something no human being should have to endure.”

The former couple share a 21-month old daughter named Aurora Urker, whom they welcomed on December 28, 2024.

The 35-year-old added that she would make sure their daughter “grows up knowing how deeply her father loved her and who he was beyond what strangers on the internet chose to say about him.

“He will be deeply missed, forever loved, and never forgotten.”

Ms Blanchard and Mr Urker met as prison pen pals in 2017 while she was still incarcerated for her part in the murder of her abusive mother, Claudine ‘Dee Dee’ Blanchard.

What followed was an on-off relationship, with the couple getting engaged in October 2018, before separating several months later only to reunite in August 2019.

They split once again several years later, with Ms Blanchard going on to tie the knot with Ryan Anderson in 2022 while still behind bars.

In March 2024, just three months after her prison release, Ms Blanchard announced that she had separated from Mr Anderson and had reconciled with Mr Urker.

As a child, Ms Blanchard was a victim of Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, after her mother drugged and forced her to use a wheelchair to convince the world that she had muscular dystrophy and was battling leukaemia.

Their warped relationship came to an end in 2015, when Gypsy-Rose’s then boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, came into their home in Springfield, Missouri, and stabbed Dee Dee to death.

The disturbing story gained worldwide attention, and even went on to become an eight-part biographical crime drama The Act, starring Joey King as Gypsy-Rose Blanchard.