Ruby Franke, a US family vlogger who rose to fame on YouTube, is currently serving a prison sentence for aggravated child abuse. The content creator, 42, who ran a YouTube channel documenting her life with husband Kevin and their six children, was known for sharing parenting advice online.
A new documentary which aired on Channel 5 last night, Abused by Mum: The Ruby Franke Scandal, charts the rise of the parenting blogger and the circumstances leading up to her arrest. The synopsis says 'The rise and fall of popular 'momfluencer' Ruby Franke: behind the facade was a nightmare.'
At its peak, Ruby's channel 8 Passengers had amassed more than two million subscribers since it was started in 2015. However, her controversial parenting techniques, such as withholding food and removing bedroom doors, began to prompt backlash from some of her followers.
In August 2023, Ruby and her former business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, 54, were arrested after her son, 12, escaped Jodi's home and fled to a neighbour, who found the boy malnourished. Ruby and Jodi were charged with six counts of child abuse. In December, they both pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse. The prosecution described the children as being kept in a 'concentration camp-like setting'.
On Tuesday 21 February, Ruby and Jodi were sentenced to four consecutive prison sentences of between one and 15 years. Ruby, who will serve between four and 60 years, broke down in tears as she was given her sentences.
Here's everything we know about Ruby Franke.
Who is Ruby Franke?
Ruby Franke is a former family vlogger who lives in Springville, Utah. She shared videos of her family’s life, from mealtimes to home-schooling, on a YouTube channel, 8 Passengers, which she launched in January 2015.
One year after sharing the channel, she told local news station KSL that her page was a way for her to just 'let [her] heart rate come down and to just enjoy being with the kids as they are right now'. She continued, 'I just want women who are still nursing babies, women who are still trying to get their families, women who are not sleeping through the night to see what it looks like at the finish line, to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it’s beautiful and it’s powerful and it’s worth it, it’s worth all the effort that families put into their family.'
What happened to Ruby Franke and her children?
On 30 August 2023, Ruby was arrested after her 12-year-old son knocked on the door of a neighbour’s house, with visible injuries, malnourishment, and duct tape on his limbs. This prompted the neighbour to call the police.
Investigators also found Ruby’s 10-year-old daughter in Jodi Hildebrandt’s home in a malnourished state. The boy had to be taken to the hospital 'due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with rope and from his malnourishment,’ according to the arrest record. He later told police that Jodi would put cayenne pepper and honey on his wounds.
Ruby was charged with six counts of felony child abuse.
What happened during Ruby Franke's trial?
Ruby and Jodi first appeared in court in September, during which 1,000 people tuned into the livestream. In mid-December, her lawyers said that Ruby would be entering a plea deal, and the YouTuber later pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated second-degree child abuse. Nine days later, Jodi also pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse.
Ruby admitted in a statement to abusing two of her children from May until her arrest. She said that her actions, including the 'physical torture' of her son, were given as 'punishments' as she tried to convince her children they were evil and possessed. However, she said that the abuse was an 'act of love'.
Ruby admitted to forcing her son to work long physical tasks in the sun (during which he sustained 'serious sunburns'), denying him sufficient food, kicking him while wearing boots, holding his head underwater and handcuffing his hands and feet together while he was lying on the ground.
Her daughter, meanwhile, was also 'punished', and forced to go without food and water and work outside, Ruby's statement said.
Who is Ruby Franke’s husband?
Ruby met Kevin Franke, a former professor at Brigham Young University in Utah. while attending college in Idaho. The pair married in June 2002, after which Kevin helped Ruby run 8 Passengers.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Kevin’s attorney Randy Kester described the father as 'a good person' and said he’s been 'distraught' over his wife’s arrest last week.
'He’s a very gentle guy, and no one’s ever made any allegations that he’s ever physically abused those kids or anyone else,' Kester said, adding, 'He just wants to do what’s best for his kids and get them back, get them under his tutelage and his fathership and protect them.'
Is Ruby Franke divorced?
Ruby and Kevin had been living separately for 13 months prior to her arrest, with Kevin having no contact with the children or knowledge of the abuse, his Randy told Law & Crime. Randy said that Kevin was trying to get back custody of his younger children.
He has since filed for divorce from Ruby. In response, Ruby's lawyers said the YouTuber was 'devastated' by his request for divorce, but understood it.
What happened to 8 Passengers?
8 Passengers was the name of the once-popular YouTube page that Ruby and Kevin launched in 2015, a time when parenting channels were booming online. At the channel’s peak, it had amassed more than two million subscribers.
However, some of the videos sparked criticism over Ruby's harsh parenting styles. In one video, she could be seen telling her sons they would 'lose the privilege to eat dinner' if they continued play-fighting. In another, she said that her six-year-old 'needed' to go hungry after forgetting to take her lunch to school. 'Hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch, because then she's not going to learn,' she told the camera.
The turning point came when Ruby's teenage son made a passing comment that he had been sleeping on a beanbag in a 2020 video, after pranking his sibling. In the same video, Ruby alleged that they had given their son the option to sleep on a pull-out guest bed, an inflatable mattress or somewhere else in the house.
The tone in the video is light, with many people laughing, but it set off alarm bells for some viewers. In June 2020, concerned viewers contacted local child protective services with an online petition created to encourage a CPS Investigation of 8 Passengers.
The outrage around Ruby's parenting techniques on YouTube continued to mount in 2022, when she said that her six-year-old 'needed' to go hungry after forgetting to take her lunch to school. As the backlash grew, TikTokers and YouTubers even created their own videos about the family, which garnered millions of views and led to older clips from 8 Passengers resurfacing.
In response to the controversy, Ruby and Kevin told Insider some accounts had 'malicious' intentions and purposefully took the clips out of context. 'They were purely seeking to throw hate. That was their only objective. A reasonable person would not have seen that video and thought: "She is a child abuser'", Ruby told the site.
Following the controversy, 8 Passengers was deleted in early 2023.
Who is Jodi Nan Hildebrandt?
Jodi Nan Hildebrandt is a life coach and the founder of ConneXions Classroom, an online platform which offers counselling courses. After the 8 Passengers site was taken down, Ruby began sharing advice on ConneXions with Jodi. She continued to cause controversy with these videos, including one in which her and Jodi discuss directives that parents shouldn’t love their children unconditionally.
Jodi was married to a man called Brenten C. Pugh, who is the father of her two children. The couple, who married in 1999, reportedly separated in 2012.
Jodi Hildebrandt was arrested on Thursday 31 August on charges of felony child abuse, and pleaded guilty to four counts one week after Ruby.
During the trial, Ruby's lawyers claimed that Jodi 'took advantage' of Ruby. 'Over an extended period, Ms Hildebrant systematically isolated Ruby Franke from her extended family, older children, and her husband, Kevin Franke,' they claimed. 'This prolonged isolation resulted in Ms Franke being subjected to a distorted sense of morality, shaped by Ms Hildebrandt’s influence.'
How many children does Ruby Franke have and where are they now?
Ruby Franke has six children. After Ruby’s arrest, her children were placed into the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services.
One of Ruby's children, 20-year-old Shari Franke, has made multiple statements about the situation on Instagram following her mother’s arrest. She started off by posting a photo of a police car and an officer and wrote ‘Finally.’
‘Me and my family are so glad justice is being served,' she wrote in another post. 'We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they decided to finally step up. Kids are safe, but there’s a long road ahead.’ Shari also created a document asking followers to share ‘questionable’ or ‘concerning’ information about ConneXions or 8 Passengers.
Ruby’s sisters, Mecham, Julie Deru, and Bonnie Hoellein released a statement saying that, for the last three years, they have kept 'quiet' about their siblings 'for the sake of her children.' They added that they tried everything they could to ensure the children were safe.
Franke apologised to her children at her sentencing, saying she had 'believed dark was light and right was wrong. I would do anything in this world for you. I took from you all that was soft, and safe and good.' She told the court 'For the past four years, I’ve chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion.'