Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s partner, Ken Urker, dies at 34

60 Minutes/Channel 9 Australia

Ken Urker , the partner of Gypsy Rose Blanchard , who became the subject of intense media attention for her role in killing her abusive mother, has died.

Urker was found dead at a residence in Raceland, Louisiana, on Thursday evening — his 34th birthday — after police responded to a call at 6:15 p.m., the Lafourche Sheriff’s Office confirmed to CNN Friday. An investigation is underway.

“I’m in disbelief. I can’t think,” Blanchard told People magazine Friday. “I’ve screamed until my throat burns.”

“There are no words that can express the depth of this loss,” she added. “I ask for privacy and compassion for our daughter, our families, and everyone grieving Ken during this incredibly painful time.”

Blanchard met Urker while she was in prison serving eight and a half years for helping in 2015 to kill her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. Dee Dee had convinced doctors and those around her that her daughter was afflicted with ailments that she did not have, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy and asthma.

A victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy — a form of abuse in which a caregiver fakes, exaggerates or induces illness in a child to gain attention — Blanchard became the subject of documentaries such as HBO’s “Mommy Dead and Dearest,” “Gypsy’s Revenge,” and “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,” during her time in prison and after her December 2023 release .

Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Gypsy Rose Blanchard gives birth to her first baby

Urker had written a “supportive letter, not on any kind of romantic level” to Blanchard, and included his phone number, after watching “Mommy Dead and Dearest,” which was released in 2017, Blanchard said on the “We Need to Talk” podcast in June.

She added that she gave Urker a call and “within five minutes of talking on the phone, I felt like we had known each other our whole lives.” After two years of dating, the couple got engaged while she was in prison, but Urker split up with her months later, she said.

Blanchard went on to marry Louisiana teacher Ryan Anderson in a prison wedding ceremony in July 2022, but they parted ways in 2023, and she rekindled her romance with Urker.

Anthony Behar/Sipa USA/AP

Opinion: What our obsession with Gypsy Rose Blanchard says about us

The couple welcomed a child at the end of 2024 , and Urker described the baby girl on Instagram days after her birth as “the greatest gift of all.”

Their child, Aurora, was born exactly a year after Blanchard was released from prison, Blanchard said on the “We Need to Talk” podcast, adding that holding her baby made her feel like “I wanted to give her everything that I wasn’t.”

Asked about her dreams, the 35-year-old added that in her personal life she wanted “to have another child, get married.”

CNN’s Cheri Mossburg and Harmeet Kaur contributed to this report.

澳大利亚第九频道《60分钟》节目

吉普赛·罗斯·布兰查德的伴侣肯·厄克去世了。吉普赛·罗斯·布兰查德因杀死虐待她的母亲而受到媒体的广泛关注。

周四晚间，也就是他34岁生日当天，警方接到报警后赶到路易斯安那州雷斯兰的一处住宅，发现厄克尔已死亡。拉福什县警长办公室周五向CNN证实了这一消息。目前，调查正在进行中。

“我简直不敢相信。我脑子一片空白，”布兰查德周五告诉《人物》杂志。“我尖叫到嗓子都疼了。”

她补充道：“任何言语都无法表达我们失去肯的悲痛之情。我恳请大家尊重我们女儿、我们的家人以及所有在这段无比痛苦的时期里为肯哀悼的人们的隐私和同情。”

布兰查德在狱中结识了厄克。她因在2015年协助杀害自己的母亲迪迪·布兰查德而被判处八年半监禁。迪迪曾让医生和身边的人相信，她的女儿患有她根本没有的疾病，包括白血病、肌肉萎缩症和哮喘。

布兰查德是代理型孟乔森综合征的受害者——这是一种虐待形式，照顾者为了获得关注而假装、夸大或诱发儿童患病——在她服刑期间以及2023年12月获释后，她成为了HBO纪录片《妈妈死了，亲爱的》、《吉普赛的复仇》和《吉普赛·罗斯·布兰查德的狱中自白》等纪录片的主角。

图片来源：Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

吉普赛·罗斯·布兰查德生下了她的第一个孩子

布兰查德在六月份的“我们需要谈谈”播客节目中表示，厄克在观看了 2017 年上映的电影《亲爱的妈妈死了》之后，给她写了一封“支持信，没有任何浪漫关系”，并在信中留下了自己的电话号码。

她补充说，她给厄克打了个电话，“聊了不到五分钟，我就感觉我们好像认识了一辈子似的。”她说，两人交往两年后，在她服刑期间订婚了，但几个月后厄克就和她分手了。

布兰查德于 2022 年 7 月在监狱里与路易斯安那州教师瑞安·安德森举行了婚礼，但他们在 2023 年分道扬镳，之后她与厄克重燃旧情。

Anthony Behar/Sipa USA/AP

观点：我们对吉普赛·罗斯·布兰查德的痴迷反映了我们什么？

这对夫妇在 2024 年底迎来了他们的孩子，乌尔克在女儿出生几天后在 Instagram 上称她为“最棒的礼物”。

布兰查德在“我们需要谈谈”播客节目中表示，他们的孩子奥罗拉出生在她出狱整整一年后。她还说，抱着自己的孩子让她觉得“我想给她我没有的一切”。

当被问及她的梦想时，这位35岁的女子补充说，在她的个人生活中，她希望“再生一个孩子，结婚”。

CNN的Cheri Mossburg和Harmeet Kaur对本报道亦有贡献。