Mommy blogger Ruby Franke asked daughter for one thing before arrest: memoir
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Shari Franke, the eldest daughter of disgraced Utah parenting blogger Ruby Franke, shares the disturbing details of her mother’s downfall, including their last conversation together, in her new memoir.

Ruby, a mother of six and creator of the once-successful 8 Passengers YouTube channel, and her friend Jodi Hildebrandt, a mother of two, together ran a joint parenting and lifestyle YouTube channel called ConneXions Classrooms. In February, both were sentenced on charges of six counts each of second-degree aggravated child abuse inflicted upon two of Ruby’s’ children.

In her memoir, “The House of My Mother,” officially released on Tuesday, 21-year-old Shari recalls the last conversation she had with her mother not long before her arrest. At the time, rumors of her mother’s abuse had begun circulating on social media, and Shari took to Instagram to speak out publicly about the online discussions about her family life.

“I know that there are many rumors circulating online about my family. While it is true I am not in contact with my immediate family, and don’t support the extreme beliefs of ConneXions, please remember that this is my real family,” Shari wrote in part on her Instagram story.

The allegations against Franke and Hildebrandt only came to light after Franke’s son fled Hildebrandt’s Ivins home and ran to a neighbor, who called 911 after seeing the malnourished boy with duct tape on his wrists and ankles. 

Franke and Hildebrandt were both sentenced to serve four consecutive terms between a maximum of 60 years in prison and a minimum of 30.

Jodi Hildebrandt (right) and Ruby Franke (left)

Jodi Hildebrandt, left, and Ruby Franke ran a joint lifestyle and parenting YouTube page called ConneXions Classrooms. (Instagram/ ConneXionsCoaching)

While prosecutors described the physical abuse inflicted on Ruby’s youngest children by Ruby and Hildebrandt, much of Shari’s memoir focuses on her mother’s intense psychological abuse stemming from Hildebrandt’s extreme online teachings and apocalyptic religious views. Ruby and Hildebrandt subjected Ruby’s children to Hildebrandt’s expensive and mind-bending “therapy” sessions and relentlessly over-analyzed every statement Shari made, whether said aloud or texted to either woman.

Ruby Franke spoke publicly for the first time at her sentencing hearing last year.

“For the past four years, I’ve chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion,” a teary Franke said in a statement at the time. “My distorted version of reality went largely unchecked as I would isolate from anyone who challenged me. I was led to believe this world was an evil place, filled with cops who control, hospitals that injure, government agencies that brainwash, church leaders who lie and lust, husbands who refuse to protect, children who need abuse.” 

Ruby Franke in St. George, Utah, court

Ruby Franke on Monday pleaded guilty to four of six counts of aggravated child abuse. (Sheldon Demke/ St. George News/ Pool)

“To my babies, my six little chicks, you are part of me,” she continued. “I was the momma duck who was consistently waddling you to safety. … In the past four years, I was consistently leading you to danger.”

“I was so disoriented that I believed dark was light and right was wrong.”

— Ruby Franke

Shari remembers hearing her mother’s court statement in her memoir and the thoughts that went through her mind, saying “not once” did Ruby “acknowledge having been anything less than mother of the year before Jodi” entered their family’s lives. 

Cover of Shari Franke's memoir, "The House of My Mother"

Shari Franke’s memoir, “The House of My Mother,” goes on sale Tuesday. (handout)

“There would be no apology for the years of torment and exploitation that preceded Jodi,” Shari wrote. “Listening to her hollow words, I wondered if, in her narcissistic mind, Ruby would ever fully comprehend the gravity of her actions or experience genuine remorse.”

In dozens of YouTube videos and social media posts, Franke and Hildebrandt coached parents in calm voices from a living room couch on how to raise their children in “truth.” In a video posted just before their arrests, Hildebrandt said pain can be a good thing for children of a certain age.

The case has prompted discussions about how parenting and lifestyle blogs often present only a sliver of a person’s or family’s reality, as well as children’s rights to their own privacy if their parent is a social media star.

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