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Topics: Crime, Ruby Franke, True Crime, US News, TV, Documentaries
Warning: This article contains discussions of child abuse that some readers may find upsetting
Kevin Franke, the estranged husband of former YouTuber vlogger and convicted child abuser Ruby Franke, has spoken out for the first time since his now ex-wife's conviction and has explained why he's asked her to not contact him from behind bars.
Kevin first his former spouse in August 2000 and by October, they were engaged, with the pair saying ‘I do’ just two months later.
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Before filing for divorce just months after his wife’s arrest, Kevin, 46, and Ruby, 43, welcomed six children into the world. The ‘picture-perfect’ Mormon families lives were broadcast on the once-popular 8 Passengers YouTube channel, which was launched back in 2015.
The Franke clan’s platform had amassed 2.5 million followers by 2020, according to The Cut, and saw up to five videos being posted per week.
However, in 2022, Ruby stopped posting von 8 Passengers and instead began co-fronting the ConneXions YouTube channel and Moms of Truth Instagram account with family therapist Jodi Hildebrandt.
According to PEOPLE, the 55-year-old convicted child abuser soon convinced Ruby to separate from her husband and asked her to swap her family home in Springville, Utah, for the therapist’s abode in Ivins.
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There, some of the younger children were discovered by officials to be in an ‘emaciated and malnourished’ condition with ‘open wounds’ on their arms and legs
In 2023, Ruby and Hildebrandt were convicted after pleading guilty to felony child abuse.
The disgraced vlogger, sentenced to a minimum of four and a maximum of 30 years in prison for four counts of aggravated child abuse, has recently been transferred to Utah State Correctional Facility, as per KSL NewsRadio.
According to her estranged husband Kevin, she hasn’t written to him since ‘maybe March or April’ of 2024. And despite her crimes and her apparent forced silence, he does ‘truly still love her’.
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“I'm not ashamed to say that after being married over 20 years to that woman, I truly did and still do love her,” the engineering consult told PEOPLE.
“But that doesn't excuse what she did, and it doesn't excuse how she hurt our children and how she hurt me. There's some bridges that you just can't cross and then cross back. She burned the bridges, and so I'm moving on.”
Kevin claims he is now going to do what is ‘best’ for himself and his kids - which includes asking Ruby to stop contacting him.
“I requested the Department of Corrections to ask her to stop writing me," he admitted. "I didn't want to hear anymore. I didn't like what she was saying.”
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Kevin reportedly refused to explain what he wrote in the letters, claiming the contents were ‘between her and [him]’.
“But it just didn't feel right and it didn't feel good, and I'm very angry. I'm still very angry.”
Tomorrow (February 27), the first episode of Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke is set to air on Hulu in the US.
The three-part docuseries features Kevin as well as his and Ruby’s eldest children, Shari and Chad Franke.
Earlier this year, Shari appeared on Good Morning America to speak about her mother and her new memoir, The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom
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“What [Ruby] has done is so bad that I don’t think her mind allows her to kind of fully comprehend the guilt of all that,” she told Eva Pilgrim.
“And so I think that she probably genuinely believed everything she said. I don’t believe it though.”
Shari also said that she believes her mother is probably ‘as sorry’ as she can be, and that in the months since her sentencing, she’s been grappling with the concept of forgiveness.
“Forgiveness is something I've had to study a lot and kind of think about what it means," she said. "But for me, forgiveness would look like not letting that consume every moment of my life and all of my thoughts.
“I am just trying to move on with my life and trust that things are gonna work out the way they're supposed to.”
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.