Where is Ruby Franke’s husband today?

It was in August 2023 that the entire world turned upside down for the Frankes when family vlogger Ruby Franke was arrested along with her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, for child molestation. The truth is as explored on LifetimeMormon Mom Made a Mistake: The Ruby Franke Story”, the former ran a YouTube channel before getting involved in the business, but it was almost always shrouded in suspicion. However, this was not the case for her husband, Kevin Franke, even though they were married parents of six children and shared a home for over 15 years, leaving many wondering about its reality.

Kevin Franke was once a supporter of his wife

While little information about Kevin’s early life and upbringing is publicly available, we do know that he is a proud resident of Ogden, Utah and has spent much of his life surrounded by strong Mormon beliefs. Not surprisingly, he fell in love with the chief accountant and another member of the LDS Church Ruby Griffiths studying civil engineering at university, he took the biggest leap of faith with her. The couple married in a beautiful, intimate ceremony in December 2000, after which they happily welcomed six children into their world – Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell and Eve.

Nevertheless, the family only came into the spotlight in 2015, when Ruby launched a (now defunct) YouTube channel called 8Passengers to document their daily lives. They had no idea that they would soon amass not only millions of loyal subscribers, but also everyday activists, but everything came into focus in 2020 as fans began to seriously worry about their home environment. In fact, many well-wishers have signed an online petition asking that local child protective services investigate the family over claims of strict household rules and possible extreme neglect.

Kevin himself appeared in numerous YouTube videos that sparked these concerns, but he wasn’t even in the picture when Ruby was finally apprehended in the summer of 2023. Records show the couple had split more than a year earlier on her directive, despite that he desperately wanted to continue solving family problems, which soon led to him losing contact with everyone. He was seemingly willing to do anything for those he cared about as long as they were happy, unaware that it would change their entire lives and leave him alone to pick up most of the broken pieces.

Kevin Franke believes Jodi Hildebrandt is the catalyst for everything

Although Kevin told investigators during his first interview after her arrest that he loved his wife and didn’t want to say anything that would incriminate her, he changed his mind just two weeks later. At this point, much more information about the abuse committed by his wife came to light, which forced him to tell investigators that he had not had contact with anyone from his family for over a year. He went on to say that it all started after they started working with marriage counselor Jodi Hildebrandt, who specialized in addiction treatment and worked primarily with LDS families.

According to Kevin’s statement to police, he and Ruby broke up “due to the way I treated my wife and some of my own addictions to… er, pornography.” However, his lawyer has since insisted that he was never addicted to pornography, but Jodi somehow managed to convince them that he was, adding that he was “manipulated” at every turn. The worst happened when Jodi became Ruby’s business partner and moved into their Springville home after the breakdown of her own marriage, which he claimed was “just hell, psychological hell.”

Kevin even went so far as to say that prior to their separation, there were rules in his own home due to the business partnership between Ruby and Jodi. He went on to assert that his wife had indeed changed after becoming involved with ConneXions Jodi, the life coaching service she founded in 2007, describing it primarily as a “religious cult.” This led to their domestic separation, and he decided to legally divorce him in December 2023, four months after Ruby and Jodi were arrested.

Kevin Franke is now doing everything he can to get ahead in life

Kevin and Ruby are currently going through a divorce, and he is trying his best to gain custody of his four youngest children – the two oldest are now adults and building new lives for themselves. If that wasn’t enough, the former Brigham Young University professor has since also devoted himself to persuading lawmakers to change the way police and the Utah Department of Child and Family Services investigate abuse cases. After all, although claims against Ruby have been made since 2020, they only intensified in the last year before her arrest, and yet, she claims, they did nothing.

Kevin actually claimed that this was why Jodi was able to take advantage of his family, claiming that she knew the child welfare system like the back of her hand and knew all she had to do was stay silent. “Don’t answer the door, don’t talk to the authorities, DCFS or the police,” he said during a hearing in March 2024. “Just stay silent. As long as everyone remains silent, within a certain number of days, usually 30, the matter will be closed by itself.” It’s actually unclear what Kevin’s relationship with the children is like right now, but he and his lawyers have made it clear that they are doing everything they can to ensure he receives custody quickly. After all, he was never charged with any crime because there was no evidence of any violence against him.