Kriti Mehrotra
It was in August 2023 when the entire world turned upside down for the Frankes as family vlogger Ruby Franke was arrested for child abuse alongside her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt. The truth is, as carefully chronicled in Lifetime’s ‘Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story,’ the former used to run a YouTube channel before she got involved in business, but she was almost always surrounded with suspicion. However, that was not the case for her husband, Kevin Franke, despite them being married parents of six as well as sharing a home for over 20 years, making many wonder about his reality.
Kevin Franke Was Once His Wife’s Biggest Supporter
While not much regarding Kevin’s early years or upbringing is publicly available, we do know he is a proud native of Ogden, Utah, and spent most of his life surrounded by strong Mormon beliefs. It thus comes as no surprise that when he fell in love with accounting major and fellow LDS Church member Ruby Griffiths while pursuing civil engineering at university, he decided to take the biggest leap of faith with her. The couple actually tied the knot in a beautifully intimate ceremony in December 2000, following which they blissfully welcomed six kids into their world — Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t until 2015 that this family came into the limelight, with Ruby launching a (now-defunct) YouTube channel by the name of 8Passengers to chronicle their everyday lives. They had no idea they would soon amass not only millions of loyal subscribers but also online activists, only for it all to begin coming to a head in 2020 as fans became seriously concerned about their home environment. In fact, numerous well-wishers signed an online petition asking for child protective services to investigate this family over claims of extremely strict household rules and possible neglect.
Kevin was actually featured in some of the YouTube videos that raised these concerns, yet surprisingly, he wasn’t even in the picture when Ruby was finally apprehended in the summer of 2023. As per records, the couple had separated more than a year prior at her directive, even though he desperately wanted to continue working through their concerns as a family, and it soon led to him losing contact with everyone. He was seemingly ready to do everything for those he cared for as long as they were happy, unaware it would change their entire lives and leave him alone to pick up most of the broken pieces.
Kevin Franke Believes Jodi Hildebrandt to be the Catalyst for Everything
While Kevin had told investigators he loved his wife and did not want to say anything to incriminate her during his initial interview following her arrest, he changed his mind a mere two weeks later. By this point, a lot more information regarding the actions of his wife had come to light, making him candidly reveal he had had no contact with anyone in his immediate family for over a year. He then stated everything had begun crumbling after he and Ruby started working with marriage counselor Jodi Hildebrandt, who specialized in addiction treatment and worked mostly with families from the LDS church.
According to Kevin’s statements to the police, he and Ruby had separated “because of ways that I treated my wife and some of my own addictions… with uh, pornography.” However, his attorney has since asserted that he was never addicted to anything, but Jodi had somehow managed to convince them that he was, adding that he was “manipulated” every step of the way. The worst of it allegedly came after Jodi became Ruby’s business partner and moved into their Springville home following the undoing of her own marriage, which was “just hell, psychological hell,” per his claims.
Kevin even went as far as to express that there were strict rules placed on him in his own home because of the business partnership turned friendship between Ruby and Jodi. He asserted that his wife changed after becoming involved with Jodi’s ConneXions, a life coaching service she had established in 2007, describing it as a “religious cult” more than anything else. This, he claims, eventually led to their unexpected separation, only for him to decide to go forward with a legal divorce in December 2023, four months after Ruby and Jodi’s arrest on six counts of child abuse/child neglect.
Kevin Franke is Doing His Best to Move Forward in Life Today
With Kevin and Ruby now in the process of a divorce, he is doing his best to gain custody of their four youngest children – their oldest two, Shari as well as Chad, are already adults with lives of their own. As if that’s not enough, this former engineer turned Brigham Young University professor has since also dedicated himself to convincing lawmakers to change how Utah investigates claims of child abuse. After all, even though complaints against Ruby had been made since 2020, with them increasing in number the year before her arrest, he asserts no action was taken by local authorities until it was essentially almost too late.
Kevin actually believes the official procedure to handle such matters is the reason Jodi was allegedly able to take advantage of his family, saying she knew all she needed to do was maintain silence. “Not answer the door, not speak with authorities, DCFS or police,” he said in a hearing back in March 2024. “Just remain silent. As long as everybody remains silent, then within a specified amount of days, typically 30, the case closes by itself.” So, today, he is ensuring no other parent has to go through what he did. It’s actually unclear what Kevin’s relationship with his kids is like at the moment, but he has made it apparent that he is trying his best to not only get their custody but also rebuild a strong bond with them. He might very well be able to do so soon as he was never charged with any crime owing to the simple fact there was never any evidence of abuse against him.
Read More: Where Are Ruby Franke’s Kids Now?
