Shari Franke, the eldest daughter of disgraced Utah parenting blogger Ruby Franke, reveals disturbing details about her mother's downfall, including their last conversation, in a new memoir. .
Ruby, a mother of six and creator of the previously successful YouTube channel 8 Passengers, and her friend Jodi Hildebrandt, a mother of two, have teamed up to create a joint project. It was operated. Parenting and lifestyle YouTube channel It's called the Connection Classroom. In February, both men were found guilty of six counts each of second-degree aggravated child abuse in relation to Ruby's two children.
In her memoir, “The House of My Mother,'' which was officially released on Tuesday, Shari, 21, recalls the last conversation she had with her mother shortly before her arrest. At the time, rumors about her mother's abuse began to spread on social media, and Shari took to Instagram to publicly address online discussions about her family life.
“I am aware that there are many rumors circulating online about my family. It is true that I have no contact with my immediate family and I do not support Connections' extreme beliefs. , please remember this is my real family,'' Shari wrote in part on her Instagram Story.
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Utah authorities found two malnourished and emaciated children in their Utah home before arresting Ruby Franke and Jody Hildebrandt. (Instagram/ moms_of_truth)
Ruby and Shari had one brief, contentious exchange before Ruby was arrested. Ruby saw Shari's Instagram story and asked, “Can you promise not to talk about this anymore on social media?”
“No,” Shari answered. As she recalls in her memoir, those were the last words she said to Ruby before her arrest.
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Shari Franke details the last words she said to her mother in her new memoir, “The House of My Mother.” (Handout)
For years, Ruby was obsessed with maintaining a perfect familial image online as part of her YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which generated the majority of her family's income. Her videos, which provide intimate views of her family's life, had more than 2.5 million subscribers before her fall from grace.
But her popularity began to wane after she casually admitted in one of the videos she posted to her account that her eldest son slept on a bean bag for seven months as punishment for his actions.
“That one video destroyed eight passengers' YouTube channels overnight and wiped out 90 percent of our family's income.”
“Hundreds of thousands of people unsubscribed, and brands once eager to be associated with our wholesome family image quickly found themselves unable to distance themselves,” Shari writes in the book. are.
In an earlier video that didn't feature Jodi Hildebrandt, Ruby Franke complained about her children's schools using TikTok to teach about dance, the dangers of sleepovers, bullying, and more. . Some of her videos feature her husband, such as a “Live Couples Workshop” on household finances. (YouTube/Connection)
After eight passengers fall, Hildebrandt enters Ruby's life and the two friends decide to create their own parenting channel together called ConneXions Classrooms.
In an episode of ConneXions Classroom, Ruby tells viewers: “If a child comes up to you with a fire, don't pat them on the head and say, 'It's okay, I'll help you.'” No, you punch them, kick them, hit them with a stick. You can't create a welt swelling on your child's foot and then lovingly apply gauze to it and expect it to heal. ” says the memoir.
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Ruby Franke (right) and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt posted their latest YouTube video about victimhood and responsibility on a page called ConneXions three days ago. He was arrested and charged on Aug. 30 after Santa Clara police received a call around 10 p.m. At 5.50pm, we ask for help. (Instagram/ moms_of_truth)
Hildebrandt quickly became the center of the Franke family's life, with the eight-member family sometimes living together after Shari went to college and Ruby offered Hildebrandt her daughter's room. Shari described Hildebrandt and his inner circle as a “cult.”
In her book, Shari describes the strange relationship that quickly developed between the two women, with Hildebrandt encouraging Ruby and her husband, Kevin, to distance themselves from each other, and eventually ending up with Kevin while he was sleeping. , Hildebrand recalls convincing Ruby to share his bed (his daughter's bed). Alone in the master bedroom.
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Most of the family in the neighborhood knew that Ruby Franke had a YouTube channel called “8Passengers,” her neighbor told Fox News Digital. When she started another vlog called “Moms of Truth”/ConneXions on Facebook with Jodi Hildebrandt, “several” neighbors were “very concerned” about its content, the neighbor said. spoke. (True Moms/Instagram)
According to Shari's memoir, Hildebrandt would suffer from delusions and hallucinations while staying with the Fran family, which Ruby and Kevin helped overcome.
“Jody and Ruby hunkered down in their sanctuary upstairs, rarely venturing out except for ice cream pilgrimages to Dairy Queen.”
“Their eating habits were a cardiologist's nightmare: a constant diet of sugar, saturated fat, fried foods, and plenty of gallons of ranch dressing, Jody's only contribution to our household. ,” Shari wrote.
Ruby and Franke also went shopping in Mexico and returned with a bag of pills, which Ruby says was her plan to “stockpile antibiotics for end-of-life situations,” the book says.
Blogger Ruby Franke is facing two counts of child abuse following an incident in Utah on August 30th. (Instagram/ moms_of_truth)
Ruby's punishment for what she described as a selfish move was to withhold presents from her two youngest children on Christmas morning, even though her older siblings were allowed to open presents. When he posted a video of himself giving it to others, his followers were even more furious. Afterwards, Hildebrand, who was attending the Christmas show with her, had her two youngest children clean up the torn wrapping paper.
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“As they silently gathered the rubble, Jodie began preaching, her face beaming with self-satisfaction. 'Children don't deserve a magical childhood,' she cried. Every word dripped with poisonous sweetness: “Don't just expect love.'' Many people don't have any,'' Shari recalled.
Shari recalled coming home from college for vacation that year and hearing her brother greet her at the door, saying, “Hello, sis. Welcome to hell.”
Utah State Police found a “panic room” inside Jody Hildebrandt's $5.3 million Ivin home, and Ruby Franke, inset left, had her children live in Hildebrandt's home. (Washington County Attorney's Office)
After years of efforts by Shari to get the Department of Family and Child Services to take action against her mother, Utah authorities finally accused Franke of abusing her two youngest children, a 9-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy. Ruby and Hildebrand were arrested. Some of the abuse occurred at Hildebrandt's multimillion-dollar home in Ivins, Utah.
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The charges against Franke and Hildebrandt were filed after Franke's son ran away from Hildebrandt's Yvin home and alerted neighbors after seeing the malnourished boy with duct tape on his wrists and ankles. It came to light for the first time.
Both Mr. Franke and Mr. Hildebrandt were sentenced to four consecutive terms of imprisonment ranging from a maximum of 60 years to a minimum of 30 years.
Jodi Hildebrandt (left) and Ruby Franke ran a joint lifestyle and parenting YouTube page called “ConneXions Classrooms.” (Instagram/ConneXions Coaching)
Although prosecutors described the physical abuse that Ruby and Hildebrandt inflicted on Ruby's youngest children, much of Shari's memoir blames Hildebrandt's extreme online teachings and apocalyptic religious views on her mother. focuses on severe psychological abuse. Ruby and Hildebrandt made Ruby's children attend Hildebrandt's expensive and mind-boggling “therapy” sessions, whether Shari said it out loud or emailed it to either woman. He relentlessly overanalyzed everything Shari said.
Ruby Franke spoke publicly for the first time at her sentencing hearing last year.
“For the past four years, I have chosen to follow advice and guidance that has led me into dark delusions,” Franke tearfully said in a statement at the time. “My distorted reality went largely unchecked to isolate me from those who would challenge me. I believed that this world was made up of police that ruled, hospitals that hurt people, government agencies that brainwashed, and church leaders that lie. I was led to believe that it was an evil place filled with greed, unwilling husbands, and abusive children.”
Ruby Franke pleaded guilty Monday to four of six counts of aggravated child abuse. (Sheldon Demke/St. George News/Pool)
“To my babies, my six chicks, you are a part of me,” she continued. “I was the mother duck who was always waddling you to safety. … For the past four years, I was always leading you into danger.”
“I was so confused that I believed darkness was light and right was wrong.”
In her memoir, after listening to her mother's court statement, Shari said the idea that Ruby “never admitted that she was anything less than the best mother she could be until Jody came into the family's life” crossed her mind. I remember walking through it.
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Shari Franke's memoir, “The House of My Mother,” will be released Tuesday. (Handout)
“There will be no apology for the years of pain and exploitation that came before Jodi,” Shari wrote. “As I listened to her empty words, I wondered if Ruby, in her narcissistic mind, would ever fully understand the gravity of her actions or experience genuine remorse. ”
In dozens of YouTube videos and social media posts, Franke and Hildebrandt, in their soft voices from their living room couch, coach parents on how to raise their children in truth. did. In a video posted shortly before her arrest, Hildebrandt said pain can be a good thing for children of a certain age.
The case raises questions about how parenting and lifestyle blogs often represent only a small part of an individual's and family's reality, and about the right of children to their own privacy when their parents are social media stars. caused.
