The ex-husband of Gypsy Rose Blanchard has said he was “shocked” by the recent death in Louisiana of her former partner Ken Urker – and that he would be there for Blanchard and her daughter “if she needs me”.
Ryan Anderson made those remarks during an appearance on The Sarah Fraser Show podcast on Friday, providing a noteworthy reaction to the latest chapter involving Blanchard, who achieved an unusual level of celebrity in the US after spending time imprisoned for a role in the murder of her abusive mother in Missouri.
Urker was found dead inside his Lafourche parish, Louisiana, home on Thursday on his ۳۴th birthday in what was reported to the local sheriff’s office as an apparent drug overdose.
A Lafourche sheriff’s office report said Blanchard’s half-brother and his wife went to Urker’s home, saw him lying unconscious through an outside window, and called authorities. Deputies reported that they then went into the home and – among other things – found syringes and a spoon “next to a brown powdery substance” in a bathroom.
Meanwhile, deputies also reported, Urker was dead in a bed next to a nightstand on which was a syringe and a handgun.
Anderson on Friday told Sarah Fraser that his initial reaction to the news of Urker’s death was one of disbelief.
“I was like, ‘No,’” Anderson, ۴۰, said. “My initial thought was shock, like, ‘Hmm, how’d that happen?’ … Shocked that he passed away.”
He also said “my immediate thought went to” Blanchard, ۳۲, and the one-year-old daughter she had with Urker after her marriage to Anderson.
Anderson conceded to Fraser that “exchanges on the phone and … text messages” that he had with Urker “were never good”. But he said he nonetheless reached out to Blanchard’s father, Rod, after learning of Urker’s death.
“I said … ‘Tell Gypsy I’m sorry,’” Anderson recounted. “Tell her I’m here for her if she needs me.
Though Anderson said he “was always somebody who could make her laugh when she was sad or give her comfort”, he described being unsure whether Blanchard would take him up on his offer to be there for her as a friend “strictly”.
A social media statement from Blanchard on Friday said Urker “endured an unimaginable level of public scrutiny and relentless cyberbullying across social media platforms, including TikTok and Reddit” before his death.
“The cruelty directed toward him was something no human being should have to endure,” Blanchard wrote. “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.”
Separately, in an interview with People published on Friday, Blanchard said she did not know whether Urker’s suspected overdose death was intentional.
Despite Urker’s death being reported to the local sheriff’s office as an evident drug overdose, a sheriff’s office captain said the case remained under investigation as of Friday. Capt Brennan Matherne also said that investigators as of Friday had not discovered “any signs of foul play”.
Blanchard spent eight years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the ۲۰۱۵ stabbing death of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard.
Dee Dee Blanchard was found stabbed to death in her home in Springfield, Missouri, in June ۲۰۱۵. Gypsy Rose Blanchard gave her then boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, a knife that he used to kill her mother.
Blanchard, who hid in a bathroom during her mother’s slaying, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Godejohn, whom Blanchard met online, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Dee Dee Blanchard’s murder drew widespread attention after it was revealed that she had forced Gypsy Rose to pretend she was seriously ill and undergo unnecessary medical procedures.
Blanchard met Urker while serving her sentence in prison, from which she was released in late December ۲۰۲۳. She said on the We Need to Talk podcast in June that Urker had gotten in touch with her while she was incarcerated after he watched Mommy Dead and Dearest, a ۲۰۱۷ documentary about Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee.
Urker proposed in October ۲۰۱۸. But the pair later ended their engagement – before reuniting in August ۲۰۱۹. They eventually broke up again and spent several years apart.
Then, in ۲۰۲۲, while she was still imprisoned, Blanchard married Anderson. She memorably spoke about her marriage to Anderson on the ABC News show ۲۰/۲۰ in January ۲۰۲۴, after her prison release – and defended her public boasting about the intimate satisfaction her then husband provided her.
Blanchard announced that she had separated from Anderson about two months after that interview.
Blanchard and Urker rekindled their relationship in April ۲۰۲۴. Eight months later, they welcomed their daughter, Aurora, in late December ۲۰۲۴.
“Ken was an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved,” Blanchard wrote in her social media statement on Friday. “He will forever be my soulmate and my red string, a connection that time, distance and even death can never erase.”
