Ruby Franke's husband explains why he asked her to stop contacting him from prison: ‘I'm very angry'
Kevin Franke, the husband of YouTube family vlogger and convicted child abuser Ruby Franke, has opened up about his current relationship with his soon-to-be ex-wife.
Last year, Ruby and her business partner Jodi Hildebrant were sentenced to up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse, including trying to convince Ruby's two youngest children that they were evil, possessed by demons, and needed to be punished. Ruby's four minor children were taken into the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services.
'The last letter that I received from her from prison was maybe in March or April of last year,' Kevin told the People about Ruby, who is currently serving her sentence at the Utah State Correctional Facility.
'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.'
Kevin refused to reveal what Ruby wrote to him. 'I'm not going to share,' he told People. 'That's between her and me. But it just didn't feel right and it didn't feel good, and I'm very angry. I'm still very angry.'
Currently, Kevin is still in the process of filing for divorce from Ruby and said they were 'close' to reaching a settlement.
Kevin, his oldest son Chad, 20, and his oldest daughter Shari, 21 will all be opening up about their lives with Ruby in a new three-part docuseries on Hulu called Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.
The show will be available to stream on Thursday.
The Hulu series comes almost two months after Shari's memoir The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom was released. In the book, she wrote about her life on the '8 Passengers' family vlog channel and how her mom was 'sneaking around' with Hildebrant.
After Ruby was arrested in 2023, she admitted to several horrific acts, as shown in a statement filed in court to support her guilty pleas, which said she abused two of her children from May 22 2023 until her arrest. She said that she tried to convince two of her children that they were evil and possessed and that the 'punishments' were a form of repentance. She described the abuse as 'acts of love.'
Traumatic details revealed that she forced her son into long physical tasks outside in summer without shoes or adequate water, leaving him with 'repeated and serious sunburns.' He was also denied sufficient food, and when he was given food, they were very plain meals while the rest of the household got more flavourful food, the plea agreement said.
In February 2024, Ruby was handed four one to 15-year sentences in prison, one for each of the four counts of child abuse to which she pleaded guilty in December 2023. However, she and Hildebrandt will only serve up to 30 years in prison due to a Utah state law that caps the sentence duration for consecutive penalties. The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will consider their behavior while incarcerated and determine how much of that time each will spend behind bars.
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