Gypsy-Rose Blanchard has announced she will be campaigning for stronger harassment and cyberbullying laws in the United States after her ex-fiancee Ken Urker died last week.
Mr Urker was found dead at his home in Louisiana on October 1, which was his 34th birthday, reportedly alongside drug paraphernalia and a handgun, according to People.
The pair were in a relationship which began when Ms Blanchard, 35, was still in prison for the second-degree murder of her mother Dee Dee Blanchard, and were engaged in 2018 before separating.
They rekindled their on-off relationship in 2024 after Ms Blanchard was released from prison, and their daughter Aurora was born in December that year.
It is believed the couple had split at the time of Mr Urker’s death.
Ms Blanchard took to social media on Sunday local time, asking her followers to sign a petition in support of “Kenan’s Law”, which she says is aimed at “changing how major social-media platforms respond” when “ someone repeatedly reports targeted online harassment”.
“Before his passing, Ken experienced an overwhelming amount of online scrutiny and what we believed crossed the line into targeted harassment and cyberbullying,” Ms Blanchard said.
“Reports were made across multiple platforms, and far too often, the response was simply: ‘No violation’.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/DeEgwIyRCUg/?hl=en
Ms Blanchard says her ex-fiancee’s passing has made her “determined to turn pain into purpose” in campaigning for Kenan’s Law.
“I cannot change what happened, but I can advocate for a better system for the next person who feels like no one is listening,” she said.
“Public figures can and should be criticized. But public figures are still human beings, and fame should never erase someone’s humanity.
“Fame does not erase humanity. A pattern cannot always be understood one post at a time.”
The petition has more than 5000 signatures at time of publication.
It is not known which jurisdiction Kenan’s Law will be implemented in.
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