Gypsy Rose Blanchard announced her pregnancy on Tuesday with boyfriend Ken Urker.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard views her newly announced pregnancy as a fresh start and a way to break a cycle of abuse.
A day after sharing the news that she and her boyfriend, Ken Urker, will soon welcome their first child -- seven months after her release from prison and three months after filing for divorce from her estranged husband, Ryan Anderson -- the 32-year-old TLC star is opening up about the impending arrival of her bundle of joy. In an interview with People, Gypsy spills the beans on how she found out she is pregnant, why she is so excited to become a parent and what steps she plans to take to give her son or daughter a better life than she had.
"All the things that I wanted in a mother, I want to give to this baby," Gypsy explains. "My mother told me I was never going to get married, raise a family, have kids or do any of that. So, to be here, standing on my own two feet and expecting my first baby, that's something I've reached as an achievement and a personal goal. I thank God every day that I am now having this second chance at life with a kid of my own."
Gypsy became famous after her life was the subject of a Hulu series starring Joey King and Patricia Arquette. The Act told the story of Gypsy's mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, who purposely made Gypsy sick and fictitiously reported her daughter having several illnesses in order to receive charity. After finding out, Gypsy plotted with her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to kill her mother.
Hulu's dramatized story of the Munchausen-by-proxy survivor and her mother's murder captivated millions and received two Emmy nominations. Arquette -- who played Dee Dee -- even won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited/Anthology Series back in 2019. Gypsy was still in prison at the time of the show's release after she was sentenced to 10 years for her role in the crime. She ultimately was released in December after seven years, while Godejohn is still behind bars serving a life sentence.
Explaining her desire to avoid a similar (and incredibly rare) scenario with her own baby, Gypsy -- who is due in January 2025, nearly a full decade after her mother's murder in June 2015 at the age of 48 -- explains that she is hoping to be the best mom possible as she knows better than anyone what not to do.
Gypsy tells the outlet, "The way my mother parented me is definitely not the way I'm going to be. We always say for the next generation, we want to be better than we were raised. And so, for me, I think that couldn't be any more truthful [...] I have learned from the experience of the trauma of everything not to do."
Gypsy actually echoed these thoughts in her initial YouTube announcement, where she strongly expressed her desire to give her baby a better life than she had.
"All the things that I wanted in a mother, I want to give to this baby," she said in her pregnancy announcement on July 9. "Knowing that I am a mother now, and I'm happy, and I just want to be a good mother for my child. I want to be everything my mother wasn't."
In that video, she also joyously shared that she is early on in her pregnancy, 11 weeks and counting. Wearing a flowing white dress to make the announcement, Gypsy told fans, "Ken and I are expecting our very first child come January 2025. We're both very excited. This was not planned at all, it was completely unexpected. But we're both very excited to take on this new journey of parenthood."
Gypsy previously dated Urker, 31, and was engaged to him while she was in prison, but the pair called in quits back in 2019. After her split from Anderson in the spring, the couple reconnected and were seen getting very comfy with each other before later confirming their relationship status.
In June, Gypsy confirmed that she's the happiest she's ever been since being released from prison and rekindling her relationship with Urker -- who recently relocated to Louisiana to be closer to her.
"I filed for divorce and I followed my heart to true love," she said, referencing her current relationship with her former fiancé. "I felt like I made that choice as a free woman. I made that choice as an independent woman, and I think everyone should follow their heart." As for her pending divorce proceedings with Anderson, their first hearing will take place later this month.
In May, Gypsy spoke to ET about the divine timing that brought her and Urker back together.
"When my marriage was over and I walked away, that's when Ken and I were developing a reconnection and starting to find that back in 2019, back in 2017, it wasn't the right time for us," she told ET of where she and her new beau are now. "Now that I'm free, we're able to reconnect and see if that right time is now."
For now, Gyspy says she is focusing on her health and happiness and that of her soon-to-be child. She tells People that they will be finding out the baby's sex soon with a reveal party, but that she is mostly concerned with having a happy and healthy baby.
"As long as the baby is healthy, I think that's what anybody would want," she says.
RELATED CONTENT:
