Shamed ‘mommy vlogger’ Ruby Franke had a torrid lesbian affair with her fellow YouTuber and child abuser Jodi Hildebrandt, according to her estranged daughter’s bombshell new memoir.
In The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest For Freedom, published today, Shari Franke, 21, describes discovering the truth about the pair’s relationship – even while they condemned gay people to their millions of avid followers.
Hildebrandt’s friendship with Mormon mom-of-six Franke 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 ‘under siege from Satan himself’.
She moved into Shari’s bedroom in the Franke family’s Utah home, relegating Shari to the living room couch, and invoked strict rules that no one should enter without express permission.
Even Ruby’s husband Kevin was barred.
‘He was told the upstairs was off-limits,’ writes Shari. ‘He could leave the house when he wanted, but he couldn’t return without Ruby’s permission.
‘Even access to the kitchen for meals required her approval.’
Before long, Ruby, too, moved into Jodi’s room from the marital bedroom, ‘so her friend didn’t have to suffer through her demonic night terrors alone.
‘Apparently, Jodi was experiencing incredibly detailed visions. In some, she saw Ruby walking on water alongside Jesus. In others, she envisioned herself riding a massive lion named Charles through the gates of heaven.’
The pair spent an increasing amount of time ‘hunkered down in their upstairs sanctuary’. When they left the bedroom, it was often to take ‘shopping trips’ to Mexico, returning with bags full of pills.
‘When I asked about it, Ruby claimed it was all part of their grand plan to stockpile antibiotics for the end of days.’
The reality of their relationship became clear, however, when Shari decided to take advantage of one of their rare absences to retrieve some books from her former bedroom.
‘I pushed open the door… and looked around, confused,’ she writes. ‘The room was bathed in the soft glow of candles. The air was heavy with the scent of lavender and vanilla wafting form 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. The only thing missing was rose petals on the bed.’
That night, she couldn’t sleep, and woke around 5am to see her mother emerging, disheveled, from the bedroom ‘her hair messy, cheeks flushed and her robe hastily tied… a strange smile on her face.
‘She looked… mischievous.’
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 candlelit massages in my bedroom?
‘It was equal parts fascinating and horrific. Two women who preached “truth” while living lies. Who condemned queerness very publicly in their ConneXions videos, while embodying it privately. In my room. On my bed, most likely.’
She casually mentioned Jodi’s name to an acquaintance the following day, someone she knew to be 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, had both woman been open about their relationship, she would have backed them.
‘Yes, it would have hurt. But I would have supported them,’ she writes. ‘It would have been preferable to living like… this. In this house of lies that I couldn’t bear to step foot in anymore.’
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 setting’.
Crime scene photos, doorbell videos, and interrogation tapes were released a month later, showing her children with gruesome injuries after being tied up, beaten and starved.
Hildebrandt, a mental health counselor, was also sentenced to 30 years after it was revealed that she was involved in the abuse.
Franke’s estranged 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 that showed the disturbing moment her son arrived at a neighbor’s house in shackles asking for help and directions to the police.
In the video, the emaciated and badly bruised 12-year-old boy tentatively approached his neighbors on their porch after managing to escape the torture of his mom via a window.
The child had just escaped from Hildebrandt’s home, investigators said.
He is seen ringing the doorbell of his neighbors and walking away as 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.
‘Well what are they?’ the neighbor responds.
‘Taking me to the nearest police station,’ the young boy replies before he is asked to take a seat and explain what’s happened. He also said he needed cops for ‘personal business.’
Images released by the courts also highlight the extent of the abuse by Franke and show 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 cramped safe room in the basement of the property that was locked from the outside, and rope that would be used to tie up the children in adult diapers.
Chief Deputy Washington County Attorney 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 prosecuting.
After both women were arrested and taken into custody, Shari returned to the house to collect some personal items, along with a police escort.
‘I found one of Ruby’s laptops and easily figured out her password to her Apple iCloud account,’ she writes.
‘I read some text messages, emails, and journal entries in the Notes app that confirmed for me the truth about the nature of her relationship with Jodi and how it had spilled over into the physical. Ruby, expressing her frustration about having to cater to Jodie’s needs for physical affection without getting anything in return.
‘I didn’t read on. What happened between them, romantically, was none of my business. I didn’t care to know nor think about it any future.’