Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s new boyfriend, Ken Urker, was once her fiancé while she was serving time in prison. She has rekindled her romance with Urker amid divorce proceedings with her estranged husband, Ryan Scott Peterson. The former inmate filed for divorce from Peterson in April 2024, months after her prison release. Gypsy, who pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of her mother Dee Dee Blanchard, served nearly eight years in prison. She left Missouri’s Chillicothe Correctional Center on December 28, 2023.
Lifetime’s latest documentary, Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, looks into her present life after incarceration. The four-part series premiered on June 3 and drops a new episode every Monday. In the first episode, Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her now-estranged husband, Ryan Peterson, delved into their marriage. The former couple has also appeared in several interviews to disclose details about their divorce.
Additionally, Gypsy Rose Blanchard has clarified that her new boyfriend, Ken Urker, was not the reason behind the divorce. Urker will also make an appearance in Lifetime’s documentary series Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up. Episode 2 airs on June 10, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET on the network.
How did Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her new boyfriend Ken Urker first meet?
According to US Weekly, Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her ex-fiancé, now her new boyfriend, Ken Urker, met during her incarceration. Urker wrote a “letter of support” to her after the premiere of HBO’s Mommy Dead and Dearest, which chronicled the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard. Gypsy and her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, had plotted Dee Dee’s murder. Godejohn then fatally stabbed Dee Dee, who suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in June 2015. Godejohn continues to serve a life sentence in prison.
Gypsy Rose told E! News in 2019 that Urker visited her while she was in prison, “He came and it was kind of a funny story.” She claimed that after the “first 30 minutes, he leaned over and gave me the most wonderful kiss of my whole life.” Gypsy described the kiss to be “quite passionate.” She recalled telling Urker at the time, “I didn’t even know you liked me like that,” to which he responded, “Yeah, I have for a while.”
The outlet stated Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s new boyfriend Ken Urker had first asked her to marry him in 2018. She revealed that during one of his visits, Urker proposed to her in October of that year. She was still in prison at the time. Later, the duo eventually went their separate ways, and Gypsy tied the knot with her now-estranged husband Ryan Anderson in 2022. After her prison release in December 2023, the couple “got to consummate their marriage,” revealed People Magazine. They are now in the middle of their divorce proceedings.
Amid speculation about Gypsy Rose Blanchard and husband Ryan Peterson’s divorce, she claimed her new boyfriend was not responsible. In an exclusive by People Magazine, Gypsy claimed she and Ken Urker “reconnected as friends” and had “kept a friendship for the longest time.” She said she only turned to Urker after “I knew that my marriage was over.”
Gypsy stated Urker “was that support for me when going through this emotional hardship of crying and then being okay and then crying.” She then opened up to feelings “that I’ve always had for Ken. Those feelings just don’t die.” Gypsy believes Urker “is my first love because that’s when I honestly felt like a mature love.” She says their love “wasn’t based off of a fantasy” but “on a connection that two people have for each other.”
Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s new boyfriend, Ken Urker, also takes part in Lifetime’s Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up documentary series.
