Husband of Ruby Franke, Utah mommy blogger convicted of child abuse, has 'regrets' after wife's fall from fame

Kevin Franke, estranged husband of disgraced Utah parenting blogger and convicted child abuser Ruby Franke, says he has "regrets" about how he handled his wife's descent into chaos.

Ruby Franke, a 43-year-old mother of six, and Jodi Hildebrandt, a 55-year-old mother of two, ran a joint parenting and lifestyle YouTube channel called ConneXions Classrooms before they were arrested and pleaded guilty to four of six counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse in a St. George courtroom in December 2023.

"The bottom line is: I was choosing to trust a licensed professional mental health counselor and my wife, and they gave some terrible counsel. And I have regrets. And I wish I hadn't done those things," Kevin Franke told "Good Morning America" in an interview that aired Tuesday morning.

Ruby and Hildebrandt had partnered to create a joint parenting and lifestyle vlog, or video blog, called ConneXions Classrooms that sold counseling sessions, packages and retreats ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

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Blogger Ruby Franke is imprisoned in Utah for child abuse. (Instagram/ moms_of_truth)

"I don't think I'll ever stop loving her," Kevin said when asked if he still loves Ruby. "Does that mean that I want to let her back into my life? Let her back into my kids' lives? Absolutely not."

Prior to ConneXions Classrooms, Franke ran her own parenting vlog on social media for years called 8Passengers, representing herself, her husband and their six children. Her 8Passengers social media pages generated the majority of the family's income when it gained popularity. Ruby's videos shared an intimate view of her family's seemingly perfect life and had more than 2.5 million subscribers before her downfall.

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The popularity began to dwindle, however, after her eldest son admitted nonchalantly in one of the videos she posted to her account that he had been sleeping on a beanbag for seven months as punishment for his behavior. Hildebrandt entered Ruby's life after 8 Passengers fell apart, and the two pals decided to create ConneXions Classrooms. 

In one ConneXions Classroom episode, Ruby tells her viewers, "If your child comes to you on fire, you don’t pat them on the head and say, ‘It’s OK, I’ll help you.’ No, you beat them, and you kick them, and you hit them with a rod. You cannot put welts on your child’s legs and then lovingly apply gauze and expect healing," according to the memoir.

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Kevin Franke tells police in an August 2023 interview that he has not seen his children in over a year after police arrest his wife, Ruby Franke, and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt.  (Washington County Attorney's Office)

Kevin and his eldest son, Chad Franke, are speaking out for the first time since Ruby was sentenced and ahead of the premiere of a new documentary about Ruby's crimes called "Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke."

The documentary includes clips of Ruby lashing out at her family in newly unearthed video clips that did not make it to her social media profiles.

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Utah authorities found two malnourished and emaciated children at a home in Utah prior to arresting Franke and Hildebrandt. (Instagram/ moms_of_truth)

In one clip, Ruby orders Chad to "fake being happy."

"I think once companies started coming to us, offering big money for scripts," things started to change, Chad told "GMA," adding later that his mother's social media job was a "chaotic experience."

"Lots of yelling, lots of snapping, lots of time-outs in the corner," he recalled.

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In earlier videos without Hildebrandt, Franke complains about her children's school using TikTok to teach dances, the dangers of sleepovers, bullying, and other topics. Some of her videos include her husband, including a "live couples workshop" about managing finances. (YouTube/ ConneXions)

Utah authorities eventually arrested Ruby and Hildebrandt in August 2023 for abusing Franke's two youngest children, a 9-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy, after yearslong efforts by Ruby's eldest daughter, Shari Franke, to get the Department of Family and Child Services to take action against her mother. Some of the abuse occurred in Hildebrandt's multimillion-dollar home in Ivins, Utah.

The allegations against Franke and Hildebrandt only came to light after Franke's son fled Hildebrandt's Ivins home and ran to a neighbor, who called 911 after seeing the malnourished boy with duct tape on his wrists and ankles. 

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Most families in the area were aware that 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 Hildebrandt, "a few" neighbors became "very concerned" with the content, the neighbor said. (Moms of Truth/ Instagram)

"It was so outlandish to me that it had to have been fabricated," Kevin Franke told "GMA" when asked about his initial reaction to his wife's arrest.

Franke and Hildebrandt were both sentenced to serve four consecutive terms between a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison.

Now, Kevin is warning of the dangers of social media after his family's once-private life was put under a microscope. 

Ruby Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, were sentenced to prison in Utah for child abuse. (Instagram/ moms_of_truth)

"There is real danger when you place yourself, or your family, your children, out onto public social media," he told "GMA."

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In dozens of YouTube videos and social media posts, Franke and Hildebrandt coached parents in calm voices from a living room couch on how to raise their children in "truth." In a video posted just before their arrests, Hildebrandt said pain can be a good thing for children of a certain age.

The case has prompted discussions about how parenting and lifestyle blogs often present only a sliver of a person’s or family’s reality, as well as children’s rights to their own privacy if their parent is a social media star.