Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, who announced on Tuesday, July 9, that she is 11 weeks pregnant, says she "immediately" shared the news with her parole officer.
Blanchard, 32, is expecting her first child with boyfriend Ken Urker in January 2025, she said in a YouTube video where she dropped the news of her pregnancy.
"This was not planned at all, it was completely unexpected, but we're both very excited to take on this new journey of parenthood,” she said in the video.
Blanchard made the announcement a little more than six months after her release from prison where she served a sentence for her role in the murder of her abusive mother in 2015.
A few hours after making the YouTube announcement, Blanchard spoke exclusively with PEOPLE, sharing details about her pregnancy journey — including a mention of her parole officer.
"I let my parole officer know that I was pregnant immediately when I found out, because I keep my parole officer in the loop about everything, even personal stuff," she says.
"But it doesn't affect anything to do with my parole," she adds. "I am still on parole for another 11 months."
Blanchard's time since her prison release has been marked by ups and downs of newfound freedom and decisions — from dyeing her hair to getting matching tattoos with Urker shortly after leaving her now-estranged husband Ryan Anderson, who she married while in prison.
After announcing her separation from Anderson in March, Blanchard rekindl -
ed her relationship with Urker, to whom she previously had been engaged. The couplehad broken off their engagement in 2019, before Blanchard went on tomarry Anderson in 2022while she was still in prison.
Shefiled for divorce from Andersonin April. On June 3,Urker moved to Louisianafrom Texas to be closer to her.
Now, Blanchard, who suffered years of abuse at the hands of her mother Dee Dee, is also sharing her dreams of being a "good mother" for her future child.
"All the things that I wanted in a mother, I want to give to this baby," an emotional Blanchard says in her YouTube announcement.
She adds, "I am a mother now, I am happy, and I just want to be a good mother for my child. I want to be everything my mother wasn't."
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Blanchard maintains she is confident that she can be a good parent despite her own childhood.
"Whenever someone says, 'Do you think that because of what you went through, you're going to do that to your kids?' I say, 'You know what? Absolutely not,' " she previously said. "I have learned what not to do. I have no concerns about my parenting when it comes to that."
Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up airs Mondays at 9/8c on Lifetime. The season airs July 22 at 9/8c on Lifetime.
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