Gypsy-Rose’s Stepmom Kristy Blanchard Reunited Her and Ken Urker. Now He’s Moving to La. for Her (Exclusive)

Kristy Blanchard opens up about Gypsy-Rose finding love again with Ken Urker amid her divorce from Ryan Anderson

Gypsy-Rose Blanchard found love again with ex-fiancé Ken Urker. But it was her stepmother Kristy Blanchard who reunited them.

"It's all my fault, and I'll gladly take the blame. I wanted them back together," she tells PEOPLE exclusively for the first time — while sitting in a hotel room she's sharing with her stepdaughter in New Orleans on May 21. "I made that happen. Put the heat on me."

"Gypsy will finally get her happily ever after," she continues. "Ken's moving to New Orleans to be with her soon. He found a place. Gypsy is so excited to have him closer. A love like theirs comes once in a lifetime."

Related: All About Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Relationship with Her Stepmother Kristy Blanchard

But before Gypsy-Rose separated from her ex-husband Ryan Anderson in March and filed for divorce a month later, Kristy had orchestrated her stepdaughter's reunion with Urker when she and Gypsy-Rose talked about her love life during a January phone call.

"We begged Gypsy not to marry Ryan, and I'm team Ken always," Kristy says.

According to her, Urker reached out to discuss his past relationship with Gypsy-Rose. After he heard former Bachelor star Nick Viall's podcast The Viall Files on January 8, in which Gypsy-Rose and Anderson discussed her life after lockup, Kristy says her Urker mentioned he had some unresolved feelings.

Related: Gypsy-Rose Blanchard Breaks Down 'Heartbreaking' Divorce from Ryan Anderson: 'It's Been Hard' (Exclusive)

"Ken contacted me and I hadn't called him yet. Then I texted him: 'Okay, I'm ready. Whenever you want to have the conversation, I'm free.' So he called me," Kristy explains.

She remembered thinking that Urker regretted parting ways with Gypsy-Rose, and that he was sad she'd gotten married. At that point, Kristy realized that Urker was the one who'd gotten away.

Gypsy-Rose tells 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 adds: "We had kept a friendship for the longest time." 

But amid her breakup with Anderson, Urker was there to support her when she was going through emotional hardship and pain. "Then I let myself open up to the feelings that I've always had for Ken," Gypsy-Rose continues. Those feelings just don't die."

Recounts Kristy, "Ken told me, 'I wish I wouldn't have let her go.' And I'm like, 'I could hug you and kick your a-- all at the same time.'"

Urker could not be reached by PEOPLE for comment — but their relationship will be covered on the new Lifetime docuseries Gypsy Rose: Life After Lockup, premiering June 3.

Gypsy-Rose dated Urker while serving time in prison for her role in the murder of her 48-year-old mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. The relationship started when Urker became her pen pal: After he watched HBO's 2017 film Mommy Dead and Dearest, chronicling the abuse Gypsy-Rose endured at Dee Dee's hands, he wrote a letter to her in 2018. They eventually became engaged that year before splitting up later on. But now they've found a way back to one another.

After her release, Urker visited Gypsy-Rose in Louisiana from his home in Texas, and on April 1, the two got matching husky dog tattoos that her friend and Kristy's cousin Nadiya Vizier designed and completed in three minutes at Sailor Bob's Tattoo Parlor in La.

When the pair places their arms together, the dogs face each other. "For them, it was even more than their strong bond. It was very personal," Vizier told PEOPLE on April 5. "It was something that brought them together. Ken has a husky, and Gypsy loves them and wants one. They were very excited, happy and a little nervous getting it."

Inside Gypsy-Rose's troubled marriage

Leading up to Urker's visit, Gypsy-Rose sought friendship away from her estranged husband Anderson, whom she married behind bars in 2022. Vizier previously claimed the split happened after a verbal argument ensued in late March and that Gypsy-Rose sometimes feared her husband who she alleged was "controlling" and "manipulative."

Related: Inside Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Troubled Marriage: What Went Wrong with Ryan Anderson? (Exclusive)

Kristy now claims Anderson approached Gypsy-Rose aggressively and angrily during a fight, getting in her face. "It was the second time during an argument that Gypsy went into the spare bedroom, locked the bathroom door and entered the walk-in closet. The first time it happened, my fear was a neighbor was going to call the cops, and she was going to be charged," she says, exhaling.

"Gypsy was scared enough to go to lock herself in the room both times. Can you imagine? She's 4'11" and a guy rushing you like that? My fear was, 'This is how it starts,'" she claims.

Anderson denies such behavior.

"I'm not a controlling person," he says via phone to PEOPLE. "Was I mad? Yeah. Were we arguing? Yes. But it never got to the point of where it seemed dangerous."

He adds, "Honestly, I feel like [Ken] was going to pop up at some point. He was going to render his head in some way — and at some point — we'd have to deal with this. The snowball effect just happened so fast. So that's all I really can say. I'm still processing things. We're still going through a divorce, so it's one of those where I can't say too much. She's suing me for counsel support. I have to be careful."

After the fight, Gypsy-Rose took her belongings and spent hours on a drive back to her father Rod and Kristy's home in Cut Off, La., to begin her new life again. She desperately wanted a fresh start and announced her split with Anderson on social media shortly after.

"People have been asking what is going on in my life. Unfortunately my husband and I are going through a separation and I moved in with my parents' home down the bayou," she wrote in a statement obtained by PEOPLE from her private Facebook account at the time. "I have the support of my family and friends to help guide me through this. I am learning to listen to my heart. Right now, I need time to let myself find… who I am."

The separation came three months after Gypsy-Rose was released from a Missouri prison in Dec. 2023. She served her sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in 2016 for plotting the murder of her mother with then-boyfriend Nicholas "Nick" Godejohn.

Related: Where Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Ex-Boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn Now? All About His Prison Sentence

For decades, Dee Dee had abused and controlled her daughter. It's believed she had the psychological disorder Munchausen syndrome by proxy — a form of child abuse in which a caregiver might induce illness to draw public sympathy, care, concern and material gifts.

'A million reasons why I like Ken'

In the midst of all the major transitions in Gypsy-Rose's life this year, she also underwent rhinoplasty and fixed her teeth. But before surgery, she spent time with Urker in Louisiana in early April. The pair dined and shopped at convenience stores—they laughed, held hands and playfully embraced each other with their matching bracelets. They even drove to New Orleans and posed in front of the St. Louis Cathedral. 

Related: Inside Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Troubled Marriage: What Went Wrong with Ryan Anderson? (Exclusive)

At the time, Urker's mother, Raina Williams, told PEOPLE on April 2 that the pair were just good friends, stating, "Ken is just being a supportive friend to her and that's it." But the two took their relationship to the next stage a few weeks later even though Williams advised her son to take it slowly. On April 27, Gypsy-Rose and Urker were seen holding hands, cuddling and kissing at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Two days later, they announced they were officially back together.

Related: New Photos Show Gypsy-Rose Blanchard Cuddling and Holding Hands with Ex-Fiancé Ken Urker

"There's a million reasons why I like Ken," says Kristy, who was also at the concert with the couple along with her husband Rod. "We've met Ken years ago when they were together, and we've always kept in touch. But as the years passed and he had a girlfriend, it got less and less. But his birthday's October 1, and mine's October 4, and we mesh." 

She says Urker is very supportive of her stepdaughter in a way in which Anderson, she claims, was not. "He wants Gypsy to grow. He wants her to have as many friends as she wants and travel," Kristy says. "Even if it's without him, he's okay. He is so pumped— where Ryan wanted her in those closed walls of that apartment. They had a pool there and he didn't even let her go swimming."

Although Gypsy-Rose is healing, she believes it's time to focus on her happiness now. She's eager for fans to see her relationship blossom with Urker on the new docuseries, and reveals he will be featured on the upcoming episodes. "I would say that Ken is my first love because that's when I honestly felt like a mature love. It wasn't based off of a fantasy. It was actually based on a connection that two people have for each other," she says, beaming.

Related: Gypsy-Rose Blanchard Explains How New Romance Blossomed with Former Fiancé Ken Urker: 'He Is My First Love' (Exclusive)

Moments later, while adjusting her silk blouse, Kristy says Urker told her that he got advice about Gypsy-Rose while she was still in prison and after her release. He said he was told that if he loved her enough, he should let her go. At the time, he thought it was best for her to find herself and be on her own. But Kristy says he's not making the same mistake again. 

"I would love if they got married the day after she gets her freaking divorce," Kristy continues, even though the legal proceedings with Anderson were pushed to a later court date. "Ken is a great guy. He listens to her and he doesn't care about money. Whatever she wants to do—he'll sign a prenup. He just wants Gypsy," she adds.

With him, Gypsy-Rose has experienced what it was like to feel truly safe. Their love led her out of a labyrinth of turmoil. "When you see them together, it's like the world stops. They don't care who is watching," Kristy says. "It's like nobody else is there... and that's true love."

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