Gypsy Rose Blanchard is expecting her first child with her boyfriend Ken Urker, per an announcement video Blanchard shared on her YouTube channel on Tuesday. Blanchard, a survivor of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, served an eight-and-a-half-year prison stint for her involvement in the death of her mother Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard.
"I know the rumors have been flying around for quite some time now," Blanchard says in the video, "and I'm happy to announce that I am 11 weeks pregnant. . . .Ken and I are expecting our very first child come January of 2025."
Blanchard also addressed concerns from her fans and the public, saying, "I know that there are going to be people who feel like I'm not ready to be a mother, and I don't know if anyone's really ready to be a mother.
"All the things that I wanted in a mother, I want to give to this baby," she said, becoming emotional. "I am a mother now, I am happy, and I just want to be a good mother for my child. I want to be everything my mother wasn't.
"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 was paroled in December. Not long after being released, she divorced her then-husband, Ryan Anderson, whom she met while in prison. She rekindled a past connection with Urker, who was previously her pen pal, according to PEOPLE. "Ken and I reconnected as friends. It wasn't like, jump out of a marriage and then let me meet up with you, and boom, we're in a relationship," she shared. "We had kept a friendship for the longest time. He was in a relationship. I was with Ryan, and so we were living different lives with respect to our partners, a 'wish you the best' type of thing."
