The news of Ruby Franke's abuse of her six children rocked the nation, after she was arrested in September 2023. While she is now serving time behind bars, a new Hulu documentary has brought her case back to light.
Ruby once appeared the picture-perfect parent to her large family, with an incredible 2.5 million followers on YouTube, things took a dark turn by 2022. She joined forces with controversial family therapist Jodi Hildebrandt, with the two sharing their controversial parenting advice under the handle "Moms of Truth" together, which led to Ruby separating from her husband, Kevin, and moving into the therapist's home.
© Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock PhotoIt was in August 2023 that news came to light of her abusive behavior, as Ruby's youngest son Russell escaped Hildebrandt's home, seeking help from a neighbor. Authorities found Ruby's youngest kids "emaciated and malnourished" with "open wounds" on their arms and legs.
Now, Ruby is in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse, after she was sentenced to 4 to 60 years in prison.
“She filmed everything, and I was so uncomfortable with it,” her former husband Kevin said in the new series.
"When I came in the door, wherever Ruby was, the camera was. All of a sudden, it wasn’t enough to just interact with her, I had to interact with the camera.”
But where are the former vlogger's kids? Here's everything we know.
Who are Ruby's children
Ruby had six children with her ex-husband Kevin: Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell and Eve, all born between March 2003 and September 2013. The former couple began their YouTube series in 2015, when their eldest, Shari, was 11, and their youngest, Eve was one.
Ruby's vlogging
8 Passengers followed the family through their children growing up, often giving a deep look into their personal experiences, from potty training to puberty.
Although Ruby was convicted of aggravated child abuse in 2023, the family faced criticism for their controversial approach to discipline, which they showcased on their blog. This included, but was not limited to, taking away Chad's bed for seven months because he pranked one of his siblings, and making Eve sleep on the bathroom floor after she wet the bed.
In 2020, 18,000 viewers signed an online petition requesting child protective services investigate the family. Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services did go to investigate the family, interviewing all of the children individually, but the case was dropped due to a lack of evidence.
© Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock PhotoRuby stopped posting on the channel by 2022, and she then not only forced her husband out of the house, she cut off his contact with the children and moved 300 miles away to live with Jodi Hildebrandt.
She reportedly left her teenage daughters, Abby and Julie, alone in the family home — four to five hours from Hildebrandt's home in Ivins — for weeks at a time without supervision.
Meanwhile, at the so-called family therapist's home, her two youngest children, Russell and Eve, were tortured by Ruby and Jodi. Meanwhile, the business partners continued to run their controversial podcast.
Where they are now
When Ruby was arrested, her two eldest children, Shari and Chad, were no longer living at home.
Shari took to Instagram to share an emotional reflection on the "big day," as she said: "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."
Now a student at Brigham Young University, Shari has been the most vocal about what happened to her family, and she's addressed Utah's lawmakers, urging them to legislate the family vlogging industry and protect child influencers.
“Our entire schedule revolved around YouTube, and I think that’s where I started to have issues,” Shari said in the new series, adding that their family home turned into something that “felt more like a set than a house.”
Her book, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom, was released in January 2025.
Meanwhile, Chad, Ruby's second oldest child, is active on social media and is shown to be living a relatively normal life, as he's attending real estate school.
“I really didn’t want anything to do with YouTube. It bugged the crap out of me,” he said in the episode. “I hated it. And there was a time, maybe even a year or more, where I truly hated her.”
Chad was behaving more rebrllious as he grew older, and he said that he was given therapy session with Hildebrandt.
“She really kind of just read through me,” Chad said. “And that really excited my mom, that there’s finally someone out there who isn’t gonna take my bullcrap anymore. So she was hooked onto [Hildebrandt] from that moment on.”
Abby, Julie, Russell and Eve were all taken into custody by the Division of Child and Family Services, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
The two youngest have "undergone medical care and have been subjected to psychological assessments and ongoing mental health treatment" following the abuse they experienced, according to Kevin's attorney.
They did not appear in the documentary at the request of their father and older siblings.
Kevin filed for custody of his four youngest children following his ex-wife's arrest, and the custody case has been sealed from the public but is reportedly ongoing.
