Inside Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Big Year Since Her Release From Prison

Pregnant Gypsy Rose Blanchard Reveals Daughter's Name at Baby Shower

Gypsy Rose Blanchard wasted no time getting on with the rest of her life after spending seven years of it behind bars.

The 33-year-old, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for her role in the death of her mother Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard, was released from prison on Dec. 28, 2023. And if all she had done in the 12 months since was write a book, or sit down for some interviews, or star in a reality show, or just have dental surgery and chill—that timeline would have been understandable.

But Gypsy did all of those things. And she broke up with husband Ryan Anderson, reunited with ex-fiancé Ken Urker and is pregnant with a daughter they plan to name Aurora Raina Urker.

"Back whenever Ken and I were together seven years ago, both of us have a fascination with the Northern Lights, and the proper term is the Aurora Borealis," the My Time to Stand author told People of the inspiration behind their baby's name. "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."

She was previously engaged to Ken, whom she met in 2017 after he wrote to her in prison (touched by what he saw in the harrowing HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest), but he broke up with her after two years.

"Right before we were going to get married, he ended the relationship," Gypsy shared in her Lifetime series Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up. "It devastated me. I think he pretty much gave me every breakup line in the book."

Then Ryan came into her life, and they married in July 2022. Once she got out of prison, however, having served seven years of a 10-year sentence, Gypsy came to the conclusion that she was "settling" when she took the plunge with Ryan. Three months after her release, they were living apart.

"I have struggled the last five months to kind of figure out, like, what do you want from me?" she told Keltie in June, referring to her online critics. "I am trying to be put together, but then I'm trying to have my freedom. And I feel like there was no grace for me right now—trying to figure out who I am, trying to figure out the little missteps and mistakes, and learning from them—from the public eye. And so, navigating that has been damn near impossible." 

But, she concluded, "The only thing I can do is be my authentic self. I kind of raised my hands up and said, 'You know what? I'm tired of trying to fit myself into a box to appease you. I'm gonna be myself. And if you like me, great. If you don't, well, I don't know you anyway, so it doesn't bother me.'"