Dr. Phil’s Insights Lead to Shocking Breakup: Gypsy-Rose Blanchard’s Romance with Ken Urker Takes a Twisted Turn!

Gypsy-Rose Blanchard and her boyfriend Ken Urker’s brief separation was primarily attributed to “external opinions and influences” — including that of Dr. Phil, Urker states.

The pair shared the highs and lows of their partnership in an exclusive discussion with PEOPLE prior to the premiere of Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up season 2. During the conversation, Urker disclosed his thoughts during their breakup before their reconciliation in April 2024.

Urker initially connected with Gypsy-Rose, a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, while she was incarcerated for the homicide of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. He proposed to Gypsy-Rose, 33, in October 2018, and the duo briefly annulled their engagement before reuniting in August 2019.

They subsequently parted ways again for several years, during which Gypsy-Rose entered matrimony and later divorced her estranged spouse Ryan Anderson. (She made her separation from Anderson public four months after her release from prison in December 2023.)

The Dr. Phil host, Urker tells PEOPLE, “was one of the largest external, I suppose, opinions that influenced the direction of our relationship at that time.”

Following their second engagement cancellation — and after Gypsy-Rose’s relationship with her now-estranged husband Anderson came to an end — the Life After Lock Up stars rekindled their connection and now share a baby daughter, Aurora, who was born on Dec. 28.

Reflecting on how he and Gypsy-Rose reunited, Urker tells PEOPLE, “The very first weekend of April [2024] is when I came to visit her for the first time after she had been released. We spent that weekend together and had an phenomenal time.”

After that initial encounter, things progressed quickly when the couple, now residing in Missouri with their daughter, met again a month later for a jazz festival. “Then soon after that, we discovered we were expecting a baby,” Urker recalls. “So then I moved down here.”

Moreover, Urker’s earlier concerns about allowing Gypsy-Rose “time to cultivate a self-identity” have since faded. It has been remarkable, he remarks, to witness how she’s “thrived into an extraordinary individual” since her release from incarceration.

“I couldn’t be prouder to have her as the mother of our child and as a life companion. And I believe that even after all she has endured, that was one of the aspects I admired about her from the start,” Urker states, adding, “I couldn’t be more delighted to have her by my side in this journey.”

Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up season 2 debuts Monday, March 10 at 9 p.m. ET on Lifetime.