Embarrassed ‘mom vlogger’ Ruby Franke had a torrid lesbian affair with fellow YouTuber and child abuser Jodi Hildebrandt, according to her estranged daughter’s explosive new memoir.
In my mother’s house: A Daughter’s Search for Freedom, published today, 21-year-old Shari Franke describes discovering the truth about the couple’s relationship, even as they condemned homosexuals to their millions of avid followers.
Hildebrandt’s friendship with Franke, a Mormon mother of six It began as a business partnership, through Franke’s YouTube channel, 8 Passengers, and Hildebrandt’s life coaching, ConneXions Classroom.
But it became much more intimate after Hildebrandt claimed she was “besieged by Satan himself.”
He moved into Shari’s bedroom at the Franke family home in Utah. relegating Shari to the living room couch, and invoking strict rules that no one should enter without express permission.
Even Ruby’s husband, Kevin, was excluded.
“They told him the upstairs was off-limits,” Shari writes. ‘I could leave the house whenever I wanted, but I couldn’t return without Ruby’s permission.
“Even access to the kitchen for meals required their approval.”
Shari Franke (pictured) saw her mother Ruby leaving Jodi Hildebrandt’s room looking disheveled.
Ruby moved Jodi to Shari’s bedroom in the family home, relegating Shari to the living room couch.
Soon, Ruby also moved into Jodi’s room from the marital bedroom, “so her friend wouldn’t have to suffer her demonic night terrors alone.”
‘Apparently, Jodi was experiencing incredibly detailed visions. In some, he saw Ruby walking on water alongside Jesus. In others, she imagined herself riding a huge lion named Charles through the pearly gates.
The couple spent more and more time “snugged up in their upstairs sanctuary.” When they left the dorm, it was often to go on “shopping trips” to Mexico and they returned with bags full of pills.
“When I asked about it, Ruby claimed it was all part of her grand plan to stockpile antibiotics for the end of days.”
However, the reality of their relationship became clear when Shari decided to take advantage of one of his rare absences to retrieve some books from her old bedroom.
“I opened the door… and looked around, confused,” she writes. ‘The room was bathed in the soft glow of the candles. The air was heavy with the scent of lavender and vanilla wafting from the massage oils on the dresser.
“I quickly grabbed what I needed and walked out of there, feeling like I had just walked into someone else’s honeymoon suite. The only thing missing were rose petals on the bed.
That night, he couldn’t sleep and woke up around 5 a.m. to see his mother coming out of the bedroom disheveled, with her hair messy, her cheeks flushed, and her robe hastily tied… with a strange smile on her face. face.
“She seemed… naughty.”
The couple spent more and more time “snugged up in their upstairs sanctuary.”
Ruby Franke with her husband Kevin and their six children formed 8 Passengers
She continues: ‘What the hell was going on? Why was Ruby sneaking around in the middle of the night like a teenager trying not to get caught by her parents?
‘Were they really doing candlelight massages in my room?
“It was fascinating and horrifying in equal parts. Two women who preached the “truth” while living lies. Who condemned homosexuality very publicly in their ConneXions videos, while embodying it in private. In my room. Most likely it’s in my bed.
The next day, he casually mentioned Jodi’s name to an acquaintance, someone he knew was gay.
Their response: ‘OMG, that woman is SO closeted,’ they said, adding that often the most homophobic people are hiding something about their own sexuality.
She writes that if both women had been open about their relationship, she would have supported them.
—Yes, it would have hurt me. But I would have supported them,” he writes. ‘It would have been preferable to live like this… like this. In this house of lies in which I could no longer bear to set foot.
In February last year, Franke was sentenced to up to 30 years in prison for brutally abusing two of her six children in a “concentration camp-like environment.”
A month later, crime scene photographs, doorbell videos and interrogation tapes were released, showing her children with horrific injuries after being tied up, beaten and starved.
Hildebrandt, a mental health counselor, was also sentenced to 30 years after it was revealed she was involved in the abuse.
Franke’s ex-husband, Kevin, had not seen the children for more than a year and was not charged with any crime.
During Franke’s trial, prosecutors played dramatic doorbell camera footage showing the disturbing moment her son arrived at a neighbor’s house in chains asking for help and directions to police.
In the video, the emaciated and badly bruised 12-year-old boy timidly approaches his neighbors on their porch after managing to escape his mother’s torture through a window.
The boy had just escaped from Hildebrandt’s home, investigators said.
He is seen ringing his neighbors’ doorbell and walking away because he thinks no one is home, until a neighbor calls him back.
“I was wondering if you could do me two favors,” the boy says politely.
The day police raided the Franke home, Shari posted this photo, indicating her relief.
Shari said that if both women had been open about their relationship, she would have supported them.
‘Well, what are they?’ the neighbor responds.
“They will take me to the nearest police station,” the young man responds before being asked to sit down and explain what happened. He also said he needed police officers for “personal matters.”
Images released by the courts also highlight the extent of Franke’s abuse, showing the two emaciated victims with infected cuts on their legs, duct tape around their arms and feet, and scratches and bruises on their bodies.
Police discovered a narrow safe room in the basement of the property that was locked from the outside and a rope that would be used to tie children in adult diapers.
Washington County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Ryan Shaum said in a written statement that Franke and Hildebrandt’s actions amounted to “some of the worst child abuse” he had seen in nearly 30 years of prosecution.
After both women were arrested and taken into custody, Shari returned to the home to collect some personal items, along with a police escort.
“I found one of Ruby’s laptops and easily discovered her password for her Apple iCloud account,” he writes.
‘I read some text messages, emails and journal entries in the Notes app that confirmed the truth for me about the nature of his relationship with Jodi and how it had extended to the physical. Ruby, expressing her frustration at having to satisfy Jodie’s needs for physical affection without receiving anything in return.
‘I didn’t continue reading. What happened between them, romantically, was none of my business. I didn’t care to know or think about any future.