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ATLANTA — Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who served eight and a half years for helping to kill her abusive mother, announced Tuesday that she is set to become a mother herself.
Blanchard shared the news on social media that and her ex-fiancé, Ken Urker, are expecting their first child.
"We're both very excited," she said in a YouTube video. "This was not planned at all. It was completely unexpected, but we're both very excited to take on this new journey of parenthood."
Blanchard said her life has shifted now that she's expecting and she no longer cares about "drama."
"Suddenly it's not about you," she said. "It's not about anything other than the tiny little life that's inside you that you are now in charge of protecting."
"And that little tiny life is a baby, a little tiny human that's yours," she added as she got emotional. "That you have to make sure you protect, you love, you take care of and all of the things that I wished I could have had when I was little."
Blanchard spent her childhood and early adulthood believing she suffered from a host of medical ailments, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy and asthma, when in reality she was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare syndrome in which a caregiver feigns or exaggerates illness in someone to elicit attention or sympathy.
The young woman became the subject of tabloid fascination after her mother Dee Dee Blanchard was found stabbed to death in 2015 in their home near Springfield, Missouri.
An investigation uncovered not only the elder Blanchard's role in her daughter's childhood of feigned illnesses, but also the fact that her daughter convinced her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to kill her mother as she slept as a way to escape the abuse.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016. Prosecutors eventually sentenced her to 10 years in a plea deal due to the unique circumstances.
She was released in December 2023 and told CNN soon after "For me, getting to prison was a chance to start a life for myself in terms of gaining independence from everyone."
Media attention has continued since her release.
She and Urker met and got engaged while she was in prison but split in 2022.
Soon after their breakup, Blanchard married Louisiana teacher Ryan Anderson in a prison wedding ceremony in July 2022 before parting ways in March.
She and Urker then rekindled their romance.
Blanchard said they look forward to welcoming their baby in January.
Contributing: Elizabeth Wagmeister and Harmeet Kaur
