‘It was uncomfortably intimate': Ruby Franke's husband reveals new details about relationship with Jodi Hildebrandt

Independent

26-02-2025

Kevin Franke, the husband of YouTube family vlogger and convicted child abuser, Ruby Franke, has spoken out about the relationship between his soon-to-be ex-wife and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt.
'It was much more than a friendship,' Kevin said in a new Hulu documentary set to debut on Thursday (February 27). 'It was much more than a sisterhood. It was uncomfortably intimate.'
Hulu is set to release a three-part docuseries titled Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke where members of Ruby's family: Kevin, her oldest daughter Shari, 21, and her oldest son Chad, 20, discuss what life was like in their home leading up to Ruby's arrest.
Last year, Ruby and her business partner Hildebrandt 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.
During the documentary, Kevin discussed what the relationship was like between his wife and her business partner. At one point, Hildebrandt had moved in with Ruby and Kevin because she was experiencing 'demonic night terrors.'
Kevin recalled Ruby telling him that the two of them were the only people who could 'get rid of the evil spirits' in Hildebrandt.
'I would place my hands on her head and command the demons to depart,' Kevin said. 'And I would state every name of Jesus Christ that I could possibly think of. And those evil spirits were very reactive to those names.'
Ruby and Hildbrandt eventually began asking Kevin to leave the room so they could continue the process without him. This evolved into Ruby checking on her business partner at night because that was when Hildebrandt said 'The possessions were the worst.'
'And then one day Ruby said, 'I'm just going to stay up there and stay with her. She needs a friend, and maybe if I'm in there with her, these things will leave her alone,'' Kevin said.
He admitted that they didn't know the 'extent' of Ruby and Hildebrandt's actions when they were alone together.
However, when Shari was deliberately asked by someone off-camera whether or not her mother and Hildebrant were 'lovers' her response was: 'I mean, I have my opinions.'
When asked what her opinions were, she said, 'I do think that they were.'
The oldest Franke daughter also recalled in her memoir The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom one instance where she went into her room after Hildebrandt moved in.
'The room was bathed in the soft glow of candles,' she wrote. '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 got the hell out of there, feeling like I had just walked into someone else's honeymoon suite,' she continued.'The only thing missing was rose petals on the bed.'
She recalled Ruby then leaving her old bedroom at 5 a.m. trying to quickly tie her robe with 'messy hair' and 'flushed cheeks.'
'What the hell was going on?' she asked in her memoir. '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 candlelit massages in my bedroom?'
She also commented on how the two of them had 'condemned queerness very publicly in their ConneXions videos, while embodying it privately. In my room. On my bed, most likely.'
Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke will be available to watch on Hulu on February 27.