I’m Ruby Franke’s daughter – we were bribed to share cringe moments like bra shopping, but the abuse was much darker

RUBY Franke found fame as a popular YouTuber sharing what seemed a ‘normal’ life with her six children.

But when the cameras weren’t rolling the sick mum-of-six was subjecting her children to years of abuse, and now her daughter Shari has written a tell-all book on what she and her siblings endured.

Shari was just seven years old when she had a camera stuck in her face by her mum, who is now facing 30 years behind bars.

Intimate moments of the youngsters life were captured as content for her mum, Ruby Franke’s YouTube channel, 8 Passengers to make money off of.

Awkward and upsetting experiences like shopping for your first bra and accidentally waxing off an eyebrow were seen as clickbait for Ruby, while her children were left wishing they could have a private life.

And when the camera finally did get switched off, an even darker side of the abuse at the hands of her own mum, Ruby, unfolded.

The truth came out in August 2023 after her malnourished 12-year-old son climbed out of a window at the home of Jodi Hildebrandt, Ruby’s business partner, to ask for food and water from a neighbour.

He was found with open wounds and bound with duct tape.

Another of Franke’s daughters was later found in a similar condition in Hildebrandt’s home.

Now, Shari is revealing her experiences in the Franke household in a new memoir, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom, to spotlight the harm of exploiting children online.

Ruby’s YouTube channel 8 Passengers started in 2015 and in five years had reached over 2 million subscribers.

Her six children featured heavily in the videos, which followed the Mormon family in their daily lives five days a week.

Kids for Profit

Shari says the family vlogging was lucrative and the family’s main source of income.

She recalls being bribed to share intimate moments online to make more money for the family.

“We’d be rewarded $100 or a shopping trip if we filmed a particularly embarrassing moment or an exciting event in our lives,” she said.

“Or other times, simply going on vacation was expected to be payment enough, as most kids don’t get to go on regular and expensive trips, never mind that the child’s labour is actually what paid for the vacation or trip,” she told a Utah Senate Committee in October, when she offered a first-person perspective on life as a child influencer.

“One of our most popular videos was when my eyebrow was accidentally waxed off, and the whole world saw a crying teenager when I just wanted to mourn in private,” she added.

She also remembers Franke filming her going bra shopping with her sisters when she was 18.

“It was the first time that I was like, ‘Oh, this is kind of weird and inappropriate and I’m not okay with that,'” she told People.

“Looking back, I could see how all of my embarrassing moments as a teenager, I was coerced to post those. And that wasn’t me actually understanding the full consequences that that would have.”

‘Moulding Obedience’

Shari also detailed in her memoir shocking instances of abusive behavior her mother exhibited toward her and her younger siblings.

Early on in the book, Shari described the “calibrated” way Ruby would slap her and her siblings.

“Never hard enough to leave visible bruises, at least on me, but always sufficient to instill fear,” Shari wrote.

“In her twisted logic, she was molding obedience, sculpting compliance with each stinging blow.”

But in some of the most damning evidence in the book, Shari revealed how Ruby began punishing her children “like soldiers.”

Shari included an excerpt from one of her diary entries at the time that detailed her mom’s “obsession” with the West Point Military Academy.

“For example, earlier today she got mad at Chad and me for not putting away the clothes, so she punished us by making us run around the block five times.

“Then at dinner, Chad was hiding and refusing to help me clear the table, so Ruby made us both do pushups — Chad for shirking his responsibilities, me for not being enough of a leader.”

Shari’s accounts match up with Ruby’s sickening journal entries from the time – which revealed she hit, starved, and chained up her kids to punish them.

She also made her daughter work outside in bare feet for hours on end with no protection from the sun.

By 2022, things had taken a sinister turn for the family.

Franke had stopped posting on the family YouTube channel and became deeply intertwined with controversial family therapist Hildebrant and her ‘cultish’ life coaching program, ConneXions. The pair shared a podcast and Instagram account called Moms of Truth, where they shared their extreme parenting views.

By 2023 Ruby left her husband and moved into Jodi’s home with the children.

Shari states the abuse began before Franke connected with Hildebrant, but it became more psychological when the family moved into Hildebrandt’s home.

Together, Hildebrandt and Franke carried out horrific acts of abuse towards Franke’s youngest children, including keeping her then-12-year-old son, Russell, in bindings and denying him and her then-nine-year-old daughter, Evie, food and water.

The two children were also often told they were possessed and that their punishments were necessary to help them.

Call for Help

Under the advice of Hildebrandt, Franke disowned Shari and asked her husband and older son, Chad to move out. Shari says she was cut off from the family when she left for college.

Shari asked neighbours to keep an eye on her siblings and called child protective services to conduct a welfare check.

The day has been etched in her memory forever as Ruby found out about Shari’s call.

In her memoir she wrote: “Ruby’s face contorted with anger and hurt. ‘I can’t believe you called the police on me,’ she began, her voice rising. ‘After everything I’ve done for you, after all the sacrifices I’ve made. How could you betray me like that, Shari? How could you be so selfish?’

The words hit me like physical blows, but I stood my ground. [I reminded myself] that I wasn’t alone, that I had support beyond the toxic web of my family…

“Ruby’s face hardened, her lips twisting into a sneer. ‘One day, Shari, you’ll come crawling back to me. Begging for my forgiveness. And it’ll be hard for me to give it to you, but I’ll be gracious.’

“I could feel the tears streaming down my face, hot and sticky on my cheeks.

“‘You’ve always hated me,’ she whispered. ‘Ever since you were five years old, I could see it in your eyes. The way you looked at me, the way you judged me. You’ve never appreciated everything I’ve done for you, all the sacrifices I’ve made.’

“‘That’s not true,’ I choked. ‘I never hated you, Mum. I was just scared of you.'”

Action Taken

It wasn’t until August 2023 when Ruby was finally caught for her abuse.

Russell had escaped and ran to a neighbour’s house for help. Police were called and found Russell and Evie in an “emaciated and malnourished” condition with “open wounds” on their arms and legs.

Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse.

The pair were sentenced to four consecutive terms of one to 15 years in prison for aggravated child abuse. That means the women could serve up to 30 years in prison, since Utah state code prohibits consecutive penalties from exceeding 30 years.