Ruby Franke was already a controversial YouTube celebrity when she was arrested last year, but the truth of the Mormon mommy vlogger’s child abuse was more terrible than anyone could’ve imagined.

This week marks the arrival of Hulu‘s Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, a three-part docuseries featuring new interviews with Kevin, Ruby’s husband, and her two eldest children. According to a press release, the three “provide exclusive access into the darkest moments of their lives with supplementary interviews from friends and neighbors.”

So, what happened to Ruby Franke? And what happened to her kids? Below, we unpack the true story that inspired the docuseries and dig into where Ruby Franke is now.

Who is Ruby Franke?

Ruby Franke (née Griffiths) was a popular “mommy vlogger,” meaning she had a popular YouTube channel that dispensed family advice. Her channel, titled 8 Passengers, was wildly popular, having amassed over a billion views between 2015 and 2020. It featured her and her husband, Kevin Franke, as well as their six children: Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve.

Ruby, a Utah resident and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used the channel to highlight her parenting style, which included homeschooling and a strict sense of discipline. That strictness became a source of controversy for the channel’s critics, who often characterized her discipline as child abuse.

One video, for example, found Ruby refusing to bring her 6-year-old daughter lunch at school after the child forgot to grab it that morning. She posted several other videos depicting her withholding food (and taking away beds) from her children as punishment. An online petition posted online in 2020 requested that child protective services investigate the couple. It was signed by over 18,000 people.

In one 2020 video, the couple’s son Chad revealed his room had been taken away for seven months due to him playing pranks on his little brother. The 15-year-old claimed he’d been sleeping on a beanbag.

This sparked the biggest uproar yet, leading Ruby and Kevin to defend themselves in an interview with Business Insider. Kevin called it a “story of redemption” that showed Chad’s “victory over the challenges that he’s faced over the last several years.”

After this, the channel started to wind down, and Ruby began focusing her attention on an advice channel called ConneXions that she hosted with her business partner, Hildebrandt, a therapist. In 2022, Ruby and Kevin separated and Kevin moved out of the house.

Behind the scenes, however, things were darker than what was shown on video.

What did Ruby Franke do?

In August 2023, a child appeared on the doorstep of a neighbor looking “emaciated” with “open wounds and duct tape around the extremities,” according to Utah’s Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department. This turned out to be Ruby and Kevin’s 12-year-old son, who had reportedly escaped from Hildebrandt’s home through a window.

As reported by The Salt Lake Tribune, the neighbor called the police and the boy was taken to a hospital and put on a medical hold “due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with rope and from his malnourishment.” Ruby and Hildebrandt were arrested in connection with the incident. In searching Hildebrandt’s home, they found Ruby and Kevin’s 10-year-old daughter in a similar state of malnourishment. Following the arrest, four of Ruby and Kevin’s children were taken into the care of the Utah Division of Child and Family Services.

Ruby and Hildebrandt were each charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse. Both made deals in which they pleaded guilty to four of the six counts in exchange for the other two being dismissed.

In a statement, Ruby admitted to the “physical torture” of her children, including forcing them to perform manual labor outdoors with no shoes on in summer heat. “These actions resulted in repeated and serious sunburns with blistered and sloughing skin,” she said, adding that they were denied water, isolated from others in the home, and deprived oxygen by Ruby who covered their mouths and nose with her hands.

Authorities went on to reveal further horrors perpetuated by Ruby and Hildebrandt, such as handcuffing the children to the ground and dressing their wounds with honey and cayenne pepper.

According to her statement, she told both children they were “evil and possessed,” and that the punishments were “necessary” for them to “be obedient and to repent.”

Ruby went on to blame Hildebrandt for the abuse she doled out. “Initially, Ms. Franke believed that Jodi Hildebrant had the insight to offer a path to continual improvement,” she said in a statement through her lawyers. “Ms. Hildebrant took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous.”

“I took from you all that was soft, and safe, and good,” she said ahead of her sentencing in February 2024, according to PEOPLE. “I took from you your mother. How terrifying this must have been for you. I will never stop crying for hurting your tender souls. You’re so precious to me. I’m sorry.”

As reported by KSL 5, Ruby and Hildebrandt were each sentenced to four separate prison sentences of 1 to 15 years, which would run consecutively. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will determine their full sentences in December 2026, per KSL, though neither woman can serve more than 30 years due to a Utah law for consecutive prison sentences.

Where is Ruby Franke now?

Ruby is currently serving a 4- to 30-year prison sentence at the Utah State Correctional Facility, according to TODAY.

Hildebrandt is, too, according to the outlet, though they are housed in different sections of the prison. A spokesperson for the prison said “it is possible they could see each other at various times,” whether that be in the gym, at events, or in classes.

Shari Franke, Ruby’s oldest daughter, wrote in her 2025 memoir that Ruby admitted to “crying the days away” in her cell in letters written to her ex-husband, Kevin.

She and Hildebrandt were both banned from YouTube following their arrests. Hildebrandt also had her counseling license frozen.

Where is Ruby Franke’s husband now?

Kevin Franke, who appears in Devil in the Family, Hulu’s Ruby Franke documentary, was never charged in connection with the case. He’s also in the process of divorcing Ruby.

He claims that he was unaware of the violence being inflicted on his children. “A lot of the physical violence that was described was kept hidden from me… I think Ruby was really careful to hide a lot of that from me,” he told PEOPLE. “All of those directives came from Jodi, a licensed mental health counselor. I definitely voiced my opposition and concern and it was always flipped back on to me. Like ‘This is why your children are so disobedient because you enable them all the time.'”

As reported by ABC4, Kevin told police he was “completely cut off” from Ruby and his children in the year leading up to their arrest, when the worst of the abuse was being perpetuated. His lawyer, Randy Kester, told PEOPLE that Ruby asked Kevin to leave the home following a ConneXions trip with Hildebrandt in 2022. She reportedly said his “attitude” was “infesting the family.”

“I knew that the only way into my house was to get Jodi’s approval,” he reportedly told police. “It felt like an impossible task. No matter what I did… I started to question my sanity. That continued for an entire year. I became more and more isolated.”

Salt Lake City’s KUTV reports that Kevin filed a lawsuit against Hildebrandt in April 2024, citing “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” “negligent infliction of emotional distress,” and “negligence.” Ruby moved their four children into Hildebrandt’s home without “advising” him, he claims.

In a statement to PEOPLE, Kester said they “filed in an effort to preserve Hildebrandt’s wealth and assets until appropriate action can be taken to make the kids whole.”

“The last letter that I received from [Ruby] from prison was maybe in March or April of last year,” he told PEOPLE. “And then I requested the Department of Corrections to ask her to stop writing me. I didn’t want to hear anymore. I didn’t like what she was saying… I’m still very angry.”

Where are Ruby Franke’s kids now?

Ruby and Kevin have six children, two of which are adults.

The oldest of their children, 21-year-old Shari, published a memoir this year called The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom. “I’ve witnessed the damage of what happens when your life is put online,” she told PEOPLE ahead of the book’s release. “There’s no ethical way to do it.”

She appeared relieved when her mother was arrested in 2023. “Today has been a big day,” she wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post. “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.”

If his social media is any indication, Chad, the couple’s 19-year-old son, seems to have little love for his incarcerated mother. He appears along with Shari and Kevin in the Hulu documentary.

Kevin and Ruby’s remaining four children are all minors, and Kester told PEOPLE that they’ve been in the custody of Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services since Ruby and Hildebrandt’s arrest. As of this writing, Kevin is still fighting for full custody.

Where to stream Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke?

Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke is currently streaming on Hulu.

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