By Heather Halperin
Correspondent
The truth about Ruby Franke, the mother from the hit family YouTube channel 8 Passengers, is finally revealed in a three-part documentary series titled, “Devil in The Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.”
On Aug. 30, 2023, Franke was arrested and later convicted of child abuse. After several court hearings, it was reported by NBC News that Ruby Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, were arrested and charged with six counts of felony child abuse in 2023. They both pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse and were sentenced to up to 30 consecutive years in prison.
Two years later, on Feb. 27, 2025, the documentary was released, and it held nothing back. It revealed deleted clips from Franke’s channel and interviews with neighbors in the community, former employees of Hildebrandt’s and the police in charge of the case. For the first time, Kevin Franke, her ex-husband, and their children Shari and Chad are speaking about the abuse they suffered.
The documentary starts at the beginning of the family's YouTube career in 2015. It highlights the positive start of the channel, with Ruby creating it as a way to share her “perfect” Mormon family.
As the channel grew in popularity and reached millions of subscribers, a switch was flipped. The channel mattered more to Franke than anything, including her own children. As the years went on, the channel grew as well as the family's fame and their paychecks.
Their lives continued and everyone grew to love Franke — she became the “mother of YouTube.” However, in 2020 everything came crashing down. In a now deleted YouTube video, Chad revealed that his parents had taken away his bed for seven months and he was forced to sleep on a bean bag chair.
This was the event that made viewers go back and analyze the family channel. Hate began to come in from all corners, calling Ruby an abusive and terrible mother. Cancel culture took over and down went 8 Passengers.
Then came along Jodi Hildebrandt, the founder of a life coaching service known as ConneXions. Hildebrandt started as Chad’s therapist, then later became a friend and business partner to Franke. She was Franke’s savior, even moving herself into their home and helping to rebuild their family.
In the end, all of this only caused more destruction within the Franke family. Shari revealed some interesting theories about Franke and Hildebrandt’s friendship. Hildebrandt had a grip on Franke and began controlling every aspect of her life, convincing her to make life-altering decisions. This left the family defenseless against Franke’s abuse.
The final episode ends with the release of all the police camera footage, the recordings of the police interviews and everything that was disclosed to the public two years ago.
This documentary discloses the whole truth of everything Franke put her children through as well as how Hildebrandt’s control had a catastrophic impact on the family. The series also gives an update on where the family is now and how they have been coping over the past two years.
The story and truth behind the Franke family can now be streamed on Hulu.
