After a lifetime of abuse at the hands of her mother, and spending seven and a half years in prison, Gypsy Rose Blanchard appears to finally be embracing her new life as a free woman—and the latest news is that she’s pregnant.
On July 9, Blanchard announced on her Instagram that she and her boyfriend Ken Urker are expecting their first child together. The couple also released a series of pregnancy announcement photos, and revealed that the baby is due in January.
As someone who has constantly attracted media attention, Blanchard’s announcement was met with a flurry of commentary and opinions. And while most people seem happy for the couple, one TikToker says that Blanchard has made a huge mistake by announcing the pregnancy because of an outdated divorce law.
Tiny Sparks (@tinysparksvixen) posted a video to TikTok in which she explained why Blanchard should not have made a public pregnancy announcement.
“She should not have told anybody this until her divorce was finalized. I can tell she did not talk to her lawyer,” says the TikToker.
“Here’s the problem,” she says, launching into her explanation.
“In the state that Gypsy lives in, you can’t divorce while you’re pregnant because if you have a baby while you are married, whoever you are married to automatically goes on that birth certificate,” she says.
The TikToker continues to explain, “And then comes the next step. After that, they’re gonna have to do a DNA test to prove that it’s Ken’s baby and not Ryan’s cause that’s what it’s gonna take to get Ryan’s name off the birth certificate. Which means that until Ryan’s name is off of that birth certificate, he is gonna be financially, medically, and educationally responsible for that child, whether it’s his of Ken’s.”
According to Parade, Blanchard and Urker met as pen pals while she was in prison, but despite a wedding proposal, the two split in 2019. Blanchard married Ryan Scott Anderson in 2022 but the two filed for divorce in April 2024, after less than two years of marriage. That same month, Blanchard confirmed that she and Urker had rekindled their romance.
So, what does the law say about getting divorced while pregnant in the state of Louisiana, where Blanchard currently lives?
There are four states in the country where courts will not grant a divorce to a pregnant person as they prefer to wait for the baby is born in order to establish paternity and determine appropriate child-related orders, like custody and child support. These states are Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas.
Although Blanchard did her prison time in Missouri, her marriage license to Anderson is from Lake Charles, Louisiana, which puts her divorce and the question of her pregnancy in the jurisdiction of that state. Louisiana does not bar pregnant people from getting divorced, but it does have another law in the books that might cause issues for Blanchard.
The legal definition of “father” varies from state to state, as listed on FindLaw. In Louisiana, “A ‘parent’ means any living person who is presumed to be a parent under the Civil Code or a biological or adoptive mother or father of a child.”
According Louisiana Civil Code, as cited in A Primer on Divorce in Louisiana by Monica Hof Wallace, “The husband of the mother is presumed to be the father of a child born during the marriage or within three hundred days from the date of termination of the marriage.” Wallace notes that this means “spouses must wait the full 365 days of living separate and apart” from the day that the divorce was filed.
So, Blanchard, who filed for divorce in April 2024, will need to list Anderson as the father on her child’s birth certificate. As the TikToker says, Blanchard will also eventually need to get a paternity test to prove that it is Urker’s baby in order to change the name on the birth document.
Tiny Sparks’ video received 7.5 million views. Many commenters shared that they had gone through this scenario with their own ex-husbands.
“Literally was divorced a month before i found out i was actually pregnant and i still had to get my ex husband to sign papers saying he wasn’t the father and a dna test … she really just created more work for herself,” wrote one person.
“I can confirm this!! My ex and I were separated for 2 yrs and my son has his last name because we weren’t legally divorced until he was 10 months old,” shared another.
@tinysparksvixen #gypsy #gypsyrose #gypsyroseblanchard #gypsyrosecase #pregnant #pregnancyannouncement #pregnancy #announcement #media #lawyer #legal #paperwork ♬ original sound – Tiny Sparks
“But also, wouldn’t the divorce go ever more in his favor if she became pregnant by another man while still married even if separated?” asked someone else.
The Daily Dot reached out to Tiny Sparks via TikTok direct message.
