- Ken Urker, 34, the partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and father of her daughter, was found dead at a home in Raceland, Louisiana, on Thursday evening, his birthday.
- The Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office took a call at 6:15 p.m. and says the investigation into his death is ongoing.
- Blanchard told People magazine she is in "disbelief" and that he overdosed. Authorities have not announced a cause of death.
Ken Urker, the partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and the father of her young daughter, was found dead at his home in Raceland, Louisiana, on Thursday evening. He was 34. It was his birthday.
Deputies with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office were called to the residence at about 6:15 p.m. Captain Brennan Matherne told Variety that Kenan Urker, the name he is formally listed under, was dead when officers arrived. The office said it is continuing its death investigation. In the coverage available on Friday, no official cause of death had been announced.
A source close to the family told People that a relative found Urker unresponsive inside the home. TMZ, which was first to report the death, also named a relative, though outlets disagree on whose brother it was. That detail is best treated as unsettled for now.
TMZ, citing family sources, said Blanchard had texted him a birthday message earlier that day and never got a reply. Both families were described to the outlet as being in shock.
His sister went live on TikTok on Thursday night to confirm the news, People reported. She said his last words to her were "I love you."
Blanchard spoke to People on Friday. "I've screamed until my throat burns," she said. NBC News reported that she also told the magazine he had overdosed. The sheriff's office has not publicly confirmed that account in the statements published so far, and the investigation remains open.
Blanchard said her partner lived under a harsh spotlight. By her account, he faced a constant run of public judgment and online abuse, much of it on TikTok and Reddit, ever since the two became a public couple.
The couple did not keep a low profile. They sat for a 2024 interview on Australia's Channel 9 "60 Minutes," and later appeared together on reality television, which kept their private life in front of a large audience.
That scrutiny was part of the package from the beginning. Blanchard became a household name after the 2015 killing of her mother, Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard, a crime that followed years of abuse. The case fed HBO's 2017 documentary "Mommy Dead and Dearest" and Hulu's 2019 series "The Act." Blanchard served time for her part in the killing and was released early on parole in 2023.
Urker was drawn in by the documentary. Blanchard said on the "We Need to Talk" podcast in June that he wrote to her after watching it, a "supportive letter, not on any kind of romantic level," with his phone number included. She was still in prison.
The two became engaged in October 2018. By August 2019 it was over. Urker later told People that outside opinion played a big part, including a Dr. Phil podcast and friends who told him she needed time to build an identity of her own.
Blanchard went on to marry Ryan Anderson, and that marriage also ended. She and Urker got back together in April 2024, and she announced soon after that she was expecting her first child with him. Their daughter, Aurora Raina Urker, was born that December.
Raceland sits in Lafourche Parish, southwest of New Orleans, which is where Urker lived and where the sheriff's office responded on Thursday.
Cameras followed much of it. Lifetime's "Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up" covered her divorce, the reunion with Urker, the pregnancy and the birth. The second season premiered in March 2025 and its finale showed the couple working through tension during the pregnancy and reconciling.
Nothing about funeral arrangements has been made public. Details are still moving, and early reports have not always lined up. Some outlets gave Urker's age as 33, but the sheriff's office statement says 34, and that is the figure used here. Outlets also describe his relationship to Blanchard in different ways. Some call him her partner, others her boyfriend, others her ex-fiancé, a label that dates back to their 2018 engagement. People and NBC News used partner, so this article does too.
For now the sheriff's office has said only that it is continuing its investigation.
