In August 2023, American YouTuber Ruby Franke was charged with six counts of felony aggravated child abuse, and sentenced to a maximum of 30 years behind bars.
At one-point, the 43-year-old devout Christian was considered among the US' most successful parenting vloggers, and posted 'daily life' videos with her husband Kevin and their six kids.
To achieve such a level of fame, however, Ruby's eldest daughter Shari has this week revealed that she exploited each one of her children to an extreme degree, and made several unnerving requests about the layout of their family home.
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Speaking in a brand new Hulu documentary titled Devil In The Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, Shari claimed her mum was so obsessed with being considered 'America's mother' that she forced her own kids to appear in her videos or risk physical punishment.
Who is Ruby Franke?
The social media influencer was handed four consecutive one to 15-year sentences after confessing in her plea agreement that she'd physically and mentally hurt her two youngest children.
She said the two children were 'evil and possessed', having admitted to denying them of both food and water on several occasions, handcuffing her son's wrists and ankles and holding him underwater.
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Ruby's abuse came hand-in-hand with her collaboration with a strict parental discipline-advocating therapist named Jodi Hildebrandt, with whom she hosted a podcast.
In the years prior to the partnership, however, the vlogger had already made a name for herself in parental influencing, having previously fronted a largely-successful YouTube channel called '8 Passengers' - referring to herself, Kevin, and their six kids' journey through life.
'8 Passengers' YouTube channel
"Our entire schedule revolved around YouTube," Shari says in the brand new three-part true-crime documentary.
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"And I think that's where I started to have issues. We always had to keep the house clean."
The published author went on to claim that her mother at one point requested all of the lightbulbs in the property be changed 'from our yellow shade to like, a bright white'.
"It felt like more a set than a house," Shari continued.
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Prior to the release of the harrowing documentary, Ruby's family and children provided producers with 'an archive of over 1,000 hours of unseen footage' - a huge proportion of which she'd filmed, but opted not to post on her YouTube channel.
Several particularly distressing scenes see the vlogger verbally abusing her children for interrupting her recordings, and in one scene, she grabs the face of one of her youngest children to keep them quiet.
Her brother and Ruby's eldest son Chad also speaks about his mother's content creating career in the documentary, admitting he 'hated' having the ins and outs of his personal life on full display.
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"That was when I just wanted to be with my friends," he added. "I really didn't want anything to do with YouTube.
"It bugged the c**p out of me, I hated it. There was a time - maybe even a year or more - where I truly hated her.
"But when it came to brand deals and the sponsorships, that's what really put me on edge, because it felt like a script. It felt like I was being controlled."
Elsewhere in the documentary, Shari claimed she and her siblings were considered 'employees' of their mother's online business, revealing the youngest was 'four or five' at the time.
"That kids were all employees - is how we were referred to," she recalled. "And Ruby was the CEO."
The 'beanbag' video
The most controversial video Ruby filmed was posted in 2020, and heard Chad telling viewers he'd recently been forced to go to bed on a bean bag for the last seven months after losing 'his bedroom privileges'.
In the video, Chad revealed the bean bag had been used as punishment after his mother caught him pulling pranks on his brother.
The clip sparked widespread backlash, with many YouTube newbies accusing Ruby of abusing her children and causing hundreds of formerly loyal fans to unsubscribe from her channel.
Both Shari and her father Kevin - who has since divorced Ruby - claim in the documentary that this incident saw her catapulted into Jodi Hildebrandt's influence.
Ruby turned her back on YouTube in 2022 following uproar sparked by the 'beanbag' video, and joined Mormon therapist Hildebrandt's ConneXions podcast.
This move subsequently saw her kicking Chad, Kevin and Shari out of the family home, and welcoming Hildebrandt to move in.
Ruby Franke's arrest
In August 2023, she and Hildebrandt were arrested on child abuse charges after a neighbour was alerted by Ruby's 'emaciated' 12-year-old son who'd escaped to knock on their door to ask for help.
The Santa Clara Public Safety Department were called to the Ivins neighbourhood in Utah, discovering that the youngster had visible marks and wounds from duct tape put around his ankles.
Police found his 10-year-old sister in a 'similar physical condition of malnourishment' in Hildebrandt's house.
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. Due to a law in the area, their sentences are capped at a maximum of 30 years.
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."
Shari has since released a book detailing the abuse that she and her siblings endured, titled The House of My Mother, A Daughter's Quest for Freedom.
Devil In The Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke is now available to streaming on Hulu.
Topics: Ruby Franke, US News, News, Documentaries, TV And Film, Crime, True Crime
Rhianna Benson