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We’re not even a week into the new year and items of the 2025 bingo card are being ticked off with surprising haste — this time in the form of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her first child.
The notorious true crime figure welcomed her daughter, Aurora Raina Urker, on Dec. 28, with her boyfriend and father of the child Ken Urker sharing news of their baby’s arrival on social media earlier this week. “Welcoming 2025 with the greatest gift of all,” Urker wrote on Jan. 1, alongside an image of Blanchard holding her first child. Coincidentally, Aurora arrived on the one year anniversary date of Blanchard’s release from prison, where she was serving time for her involvement in the 2015 murder of her mother, Dee Dee.
For those unaware (or those who haven’t seen The Act), Blanchard was a victim of Munchausen by proxy at the hands of Dee Dee, and spent eight years in prison for her role in the 2015 murder of her mother after enduring years of painful medical procedures she never needed. She met Urker through a prison pen pal program and pursued a relationship with him upon her release from prison last year, with a full-circle moment arriving courtesy of their new child.
Teasing the birth late last year, Blanchard told People that her baby’s name was inspired by her “fascination with the Northern Lights,” which she shares with Urker. “I think it was maybe in 2018, we wrote each other’s future kid’s name on pieces of paper and Aurora is what we both picked without even knowing each other was picking it.” Blanchard has plans to visit the Northern Lights once she’s off parole, so here’s hoping Aurora isn’t too restless on the eventual plane trip to Scandinavia.
The pair first shared news of their pregnancy last July, after rekindling their romance amid Blanchard’s divorce from her estranged husband, Ryan Anderson. In a YouTube video announcing the pregnancy, Blanchard said Aurora was “not at all planned,” but that she and Urker were nonetheless “very excited to take on this new journey of parenthood.” In the same video, Blanchard also alluded to Dee Dee, saying she hoped to provide Aurora with all “the things that I wanted in a mother” and “want[ed] to be everything my mother wasn’t.”
While they are currently unmarried, Blanchard has previously spoken about ensuring her relationship with Urker is long-term, especially if there was a child involved. “When we have a child, we will stick together for the long haul,” she told People last July. “This is a forever thing because we don’t want our child to grow up in a broken home.” Much of Blanchard’s post-prison experience, including her pregnancy journey, was documented in Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, the Lifetime original series that aired last June.
Since then, Blanchard has been active on social media, as the public continues to show intense interest in her past relationships, her boyfriend’s parents, and her potential appearance on Dancing With The Stars. Elsewhere, she has commented on fellow infamous true crime figures the Menendez Brothers, who were likewise the subject of a splashy dramatized TV series last year. “I’m one of those people that feels that they did their time for the crime,” Blanchard said amid calls for the siblings to be released from prison. “Let them have their freedom.”