Daughter of former family vlogger Ruby Franke opens up about abuse her mother inflicted

The eldest daughter of Ruby Franke, a once-popular family vlogger who was convicted of child abuse, opened up about whether she could ever forgive her mother.

“Forgiveness is something I’ve had to study a lot and kind of think about what it means,” Shari Franke, 21, said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” that aired Tuesday. “But for me, forgiveness would look like not letting that consume every moment of my life.”

Ruby Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse in 2023 and received four separate prison sentences of one to 15 years each. Her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, received the same sentence.

Shari Franke’s memoir, “The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom,” was released Tuesday by Simon & Schuster.

For years, the Franke family was known for its popular and often controversial YouTube channel, “8 Passengers,” where Ruby Franke documented her life with her husband, Kevin Franke, and their six children. The channel had more than 2 million subscribers before it ended.

In her book, Shari Franke said her mother “subjected me and my siblings to her twisted interpretation of crime and punishment all our lives — until Jodi came along, adding terrifying new flavors of sadism to the regime,” according to an excerpt made available on Amazon.

(NBC News has not read a copy of the book. Shari Franke did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.)

Ruby Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested in August 2023 after police found one of Franke’s sons emaciated with open wounds and bound with duct tape. The boy had escaped Hildebrandt’s home to a neighbor’s house. One of Franke’s daughters was found in Hildebrandt’s home in a similar malnourished condition.

At her sentencing hearing last year, Ruby Franke tearfully apologized to her children.

“I … believed dark was light and right was wrong,” she said in the courtroom. “I would do anything in this world for you. I took from you all that was soft and safe and good.”

Attorneys for Ruby Franke and Hildebrandt did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Detailing the abuse she experienced when she was around 5 or 6 years old, Shari Franke said her mother would slap her in the face or slam her hand down on a surface.

It was “really scary,” she said on “GMA.” But when Ruby Franke met Hildebrandt, she said, the physical abuse morphed into a different type of behavior, she said.

“I was like oh, Jodi, I don’t like her, but maybe this is one good thing that’s come from it, is [Ruby Franke’s] not yelling, she’s not hitting us anymore,” Shari Franke said. “But it did become more psychological. And in a way, that was more damaging to me.”

In her memoir, Shari Franke elaborated further, writing that ​​Hildebrandt was her family’s “very own cult leader, a false prophet who swept into our lives like a hurricane, turning my mother into a fawning, starstruck acolyte who lapped up her every demented word like it was holy water.”

Hildebrandt and Franke often collaborated on parenting and relationship advice videos for Hildebrandt’s life coaching service, ConneXions, which had been criticized for its extreme teachings. In since-deleted YouTube videos, the two had preached that those who were not living in “truth,” including children, should be cut off from the rest of their families.

The “weird vibes” escalated when Hildebrandt moved into the Frankes’ home in 2022, Shari Franke said, adding that her mother tried to remain secretive about what the two were up to. That year, her father, Kevin Franke, also separated from Ruby Franke at her directive, according to his attorney.

“I don’t think it’s normal at all that a therapist would move into her client’s home,” she told “GMA.” “I was moving out to college and hadn’t even left the house yet, and she is in my room and in my bed.”

Shari Franke has said she tried to report the situation to authorities for years. After her mother was arrested, she posted an image of police officers to her Instagram Story with the caption, “Finally.” She also said in a separate post, which has since been deleted, that she and her family “are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up.”

In October, she testified about her experience as a child family vlog star to the Utah Senate, saying that “there is no such thing as a moral or ethical family vlogger.”

“I come today as a victim of family vlogging,” she told lawmakers. “My goal today is not to present any idea of a solution to this problem but to shed light on the ethical and monetary issues that come from being a child influencer.”

Although Shari Franke does not think her mother can “fully comprehend the guilt” of what she put her children through, she told “GMA” she believes Ruby Franke is “as sorry as she can be.”

Now, Shari Franke said, she is trying to rebuild her relationship with her siblings and her father.

“Sometimes I’ll see myself in the mirror and I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I look like her’ or ‘I sound like her,’” she said. “But I don’t want to be anything like her.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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