Gypsy Rose Blanchard got back together with her ex-fiancé Ken Urker after her split from husband Ryan Anderson — but she didn’t leave her husband for her ex.
Blanchard, 32, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, May 29, that Urker “honestly wasn’t” the reason she filed for divorce from Anderson in April. However, she admitted that her history with Urker was a point of contention in her marriage.
“It was, I think, an insecurity that was there for a very long time,” she said. “I called Ken two weeks before I got married. Ken has consistently been brought up in a way that I can never let go of my feelings, but I put them on the back burner to do what was best for my marriage. And so, having that be a point of contention has been a thread throughout, but I didn’t leave Ryan for Ken. That was just sort of a realization [of], ‘Hey, we still love each other after the fact.’”
Blanchard met both Urker and Anderson while serving time in prison for the second-degree murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who allegedly abused her throughout her childhood.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
Law & Crime/YouTube Gypsy Rose Blanchard has made headlines for more than just murder. Gypsy was released from prison in December 2023 after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence. She was granted parole in September of that year. Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016, the year after her allegedly abusive mother, Clauddine […]
Gypsy was released in December 2023 after serving seven years. Her former boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn, who murdered Dee Dee in 2015 after planning the crime with Gypsy, is still serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after being convicted of first-degree murder in 2018.
Gypsy and Urker connected through a pen pal program. They got engaged in 2018 but split the following year. Gypsy went on to marry Anderson in 2022 when she was still in prison. She told Us that viewers will see on her upcoming Lifetime series, Gypsy Rose: Life After Lockup, that several factors contributed to her and Anderson’s split.
“It had been over time and people are going to see there was not just one set thing that led to that decision. It was a combination of a bunch of things, [for example] that I wasn’t happy and I wanted to be happy,” she explained. “I think so many women could probably relate to that, where it’s like, you want this relationship to work and so you stick it out, and then you wake up in the middle of the night and you’re like, ‘I’m not happy. The other person is, but I’m not and I’m living in my body. I’m the one that has to walk my path and it’s not fair to the other person to lead them on any further.’”
Some celebrity couples have gone the distance, but others haven’t been as lucky. 2024 kicked off with a handful of Hollywood duos calling it quits. Fans were shocked when The Bachelorette couple Rachel Lindsay and Bryan Abasolo split after four years of marriage. Us Weekly confirmed on January 2 that the chiropractor filed for divorce […]
Although their marriage didn’t work out, Gypsy has no ill-will toward Anderson. She clarified that the restraining order she filed against him in April is based solely on finances and is not a no contact order.
“We have been in communication sparingly since I filed [for divorce], and I wish him the very best,” she said. “Right now we have chosen to not communicate anymore, just because I think it’s probably best for our healing at this point, and we’re going to be going through the divorce and wishing each other the best. … I know the hurt is there, but hopefully we can move on from that and think of each other fondly in the future.”
Now that Gypsy has rekindled her connection with Urker — she confirmed their romance in April — she plans to learn from the relationship lessons she learned with Anderson.
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“[Ken and I] met at a point in our life where I don’t think it would’ve worked out at that point because we had a lot of life and maturing to do. And so now that we’ve had a couple more years under our belt, we’re reconnecting,” she said. “I am learning about relationships and I can take what I’ve learned of what to do [and] what not to do from my relationship with Ryan and apply that to my relationship with Ken going forward, realizing what I will stand for [and] what I won’t stand for. Mutual respect is super important.”
Gypsy is also open to the idea of walking down the aisle again one day.
“I definitely think that marriage is something that I’m open to again. I have to get divorced first,” she quipped. “We’re trying to take it slow right now. As for kids, yes, absolutely I want kids someday. I think that I’m going to be a good mother. I think Ken would be a wonderful father, and so we’ll see what the future holds for us.”
Gypsy Rose: Life After Lockup premieres on Lifetime Monday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
