The eldest daughter of Ruby Franke has described what it was like having her childhood filmed and posted online.
Franke was a prolific family YouTuber who ran the '8 Passengers' channel and pleaded guilty to multiple counts of child abuse after one of her children ran to the neighbours for help, with the 12-year-old boy having been tied up with duct tape and covered in lacerations.
Franke and another woman, the Mormon therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, will spend up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated child abuse, and her eldest daughter Shari has spoken about the impact having her childhood filmed for content had on her.
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Shari has released a new book, The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom, which details the allegations of abuse made against Ruby Franke.
Speaking to People, she explained that she became cut off from her family when she left to to to college, and in her younger days, the abuse her mother inflicted on her children was 'really physical', including things like 'a slap to the lip' or a 'slap to the cheek'.
Shari recounted that her mum was 'never warm or kind' as a parent but at first she saw sharing private moments from her childhood on camera as a 'fair trade-off'.
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However, when she got older, she started to become more concerned with her younger years being turned into content to boost her mum's YouTube channel.
"I was 18, and we went bra shopping, and she was filming it, I was like, ‘This is kind of weird and inappropriate'," Shari said of a particular moment from her life, which had her thinking that her being used for content wasn't good.
It was a sentiment echoed by some of Franke's viewers, as some fans started calling out the content which Shari said drove her mother 'deeper in delusion'.
She's said that she doesn't want to be anything like her mother, and now, she's focused on building her relationships with her siblings and her dad.
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Full timeline of the Ruby Franke case
Starting a YouTube channel and initial suspicions
Franke started her parenting YouTube channel '8 Passengers' with now ex-husband Kevin, amassing over 2.5 million subscribers before it was deleted in 2023 following the arrest.
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Several subscribers became suspicious of child abuse, with a petition being signed for the police to investigate the family, citing the numerous questionable videos uploaded.
Franke joins ConneXions with Jodi Hildebrandt
The mum told critics in a 2021 interview for The Wrap that she was showing everyone 'what a responsible mother looks like'.
She stopped uploading videos to the channel in 2022, joining Mormon therapist Hildebrandt's ConneXions podcast.
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Their divisive opinions on subjects such as eating disorders, blaming rape victims, and criticising immigrants drew the wrong kind of attention.
Franke and Hildebrandt's arrest
Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on child abuse charges in August 2023.
The Santa Clara Public Safety Department were called to the Ivins neighbourhood in Utah after a neighbour was alerted by Franke's 'emaciated' 12-year-old son, who escaped to knock on their door to ask for help.
He had visible marks and wounds from duct tape put around his ankles, and asked for some food and water.
Police found his 10-year-old sister in a 'similar physical condition of malnourishment' in Hildebrandt's house.
Family members speak out
Franke's oldest daughter, Shari, wrote on Instagram on the day of the arrests: “Today has been a big day."
She continued: "Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We've been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up."
In November, Kevin also officially filed for divorce from Franke, and called her actions to their children 'horrific and inhumane'.
Franke and Hildebrandt are charged with six counts of child abuse
Just one week after their arrests, the pair were charged with six counts of felony child abuse.
YouTube banned Franke, deleting both 8 Passengers and ConneXions channels and blocking her from the social media platform.
Franke blames the abuse on Hildebrandt
Her attorneys released a statement that said: “Initially, Ms. Franke believed that Jodi Hildebrandt had the insight to offer a path to continual improvement. Ms. Hildebrandt took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous," according to Fox13.
It blamed Hildebrandt solely for isolating Franke from her family completely, distorting her morality.
Franke pleads guilty
Just three days after the statement was released, Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. A court had heard how she had tried to convince her youngest children they were 'evil and possessed'.
Franke and Hildebrandt are sentenced to prison for child abuse
On 20 February 2024, Franke and Hildebrandt were convicted and given four separate prison sentences for one to 15 years, with the length of each sentence decided by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
During sentencing Franke apologised to her children and said she would 'never stop crying for hurting their tender souls'.
She said: "My willingness to sacrifice all for you was masterfully manipulated into something very ugly.
"I took from you all that was soft and safe and good."
The two women will not serve more than 30 years in a Federal Penitentiary because of a Utah law about consecutive sentences.
Additional words by Anish Vij.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.
Topics: Crime, US News, Parenting, YouTube, Social Media
Joe Harker