Gypsy Rose Blanchard is turning her grief into a campaign.
Days after her partner, Kenan “Ken” Urker, was found dead at his Louisiana home, Blanchard started an online petition for what she calls “Kenan’s Law,” a proposal to change how social media companies respond when people repeatedly report harassment. “I only have my daughter and my voice,” Blanchard, 35, wrote on Instagram over the weekend.
What we know about Ken Urker’s death
Urker was found dead on Thursday, Oct. 1, his 34th birthday. Deputies from the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office were called to a home in Raceland, Louisiana, at about 6:15 p.m. after relatives asked for a welfare check.
Capt. Brennan Matherne of the sheriff’s office told CBS News that there were no signs of foul play, and the office told Fox News Digital that the case remains under investigation. No official cause of death has been announced. Blanchard has said she believes an overdose caused Urker’s death. In her petition, she wrote that she “will not speculate about circumstances that have not been determined.”
Blanchard and Urker first connected through a prison pen pal program while she was serving a sentence for her role in the 2015 killing of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. She was paroled in December 2023 after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. The two got engaged in 2018 and later split, then reconnected in 2024 after she separated from her husband, Ryan Anderson. Their daughter was born in December 2024.
Their relationship was also documented on Lifetime’s reality series “Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up,” which followed Blanchard’s life after prison.
“Ken was an amazing father and a man who was deeply loved,” Blanchard said in a statement to People.
What Kenan’s Law would do
Blanchard says Urker was targeted online before his death. “Before his passing, Ken experienced an overwhelming amount of online scrutiny and what we believed crossed the line into targeted harassment and cyberbullying,” she wrote. She said complaints were filed with several platforms, but “far too often, the response was simply: ‘No violation.'”
Her proposal focuses on patterns instead of individual posts. “One post viewed alone may not tell the whole story,” she wrote, “but hundreds of posts, videos and comments directed at one person can reveal a pattern that deserves meaningful review.”
Blanchard stressed that the effort is “not about silencing criticism or taking away anyone’s freedom of speech.” She added: “Public figures can and should be criticized. But public figures are still human beings, and fame should never erase someone’s humanity.”
She told People she has not yet spoken with a committee about the idea, but she has reached out to a lawyer in New Orleans to help her shape the proposal.
‘Pain into purpose’
“Ken’s passing has made me determined to turn pain into purpose,” Blanchard wrote. “I cannot change what happened, but I can advocate for a better system for the next person who feels like no one is listening.”
In an earlier statement to People, she promised that their daughter will grow up knowing who her father was “beyond what strangers on the internet chose to say about him.”
What’s next
For now, Kenan’s Law is a petition and a proposal, not a bill. Blanchard has not said whether any lawmaker has agreed to sponsor it, and she is asking supporters to “sign and share” the petition.
Meanwhile, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office is continuing its investigation into Urker’s death. The office told Fox News Digital it would issue a new statement if that changes or if there is a major update.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
