Gypsy-Rose Blanchard's boyfriend Ken Urker on why he initially dumped her

Gypsy-Rose Blanchard and her boyfriend Ken Urker initially called off their wedding due to “outside opinion and influence.”

With the second season of Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up nearing its release, the couple reflected on their earlier split in a new interview.

Urker, who had previously proposed to Gypsy-Rose, a victim of Munchausen by proxy, in 2018 when she was still in prison for the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard.

The couple then broke off their engagement a year later and went separate ways, with Blanchard then marrying Ryan Anderson months before her release from prison.

Urker has now recalled what really led to his breakup before they reconciled in April 2024 following her divorce from Anderson only four months after she was released from prison in December 2023.

“Well, I think one of the biggest things was outside opinion and influence,” Urker said of his decision to end things with Gypsy-Rose, who claims she was blindsided by their split.

“I had listened to a podcast from Dr. Phil, and I had a lot of people in my ear just telling me that the best thing I can do for her is to give her some time to build a self-identity that she's never been able to build before, and even while she's in prison,” he continued in his interview with People Magazine.

“And I felt that, at the time, all those opinions—especially Dr. Phil’s—I felt like that was the right choice to make at the time for both of us,” he continued. “So we went off in separate directions, but fate allowed us to meet back up again.”

Urker went on about how the Dr. Phil host—who had spoken of the Munchausen by proxy victim and mentioned Urker by name in the podcast—made him consider the breakup.

He found the podcaster "one of the biggest outside, I guess, opinions that shaped the way of our relationship at the time."

Blanchard and Urker later welcomed a baby girl together after her divorce from Anderson.

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