A horrifying case has gradually been unraveling around former YouTube favorite Ruby Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt. Franke established herself on the video-sharing site nearly a decade back with the start of YouTube’s 8 Passengers channel, a family vlog that followed her home life as a mother of six.
That channel was the source of Franke’s success, as she posted frequent updates to it detailing her unique punishments and child-rearing methods. Then, in 2020, viewers began to grow concerned over the welfare of Franke’s children. Stories of abuse — from being forced to sleep on a beanbag for months on end to withholding food — started to spread, and longtime Franke fans started to turn against the creator.
The declining popularity of the 8 Passengers channel eventually saw it deleted from YouTube completely, and Franke moved on to ConneXions, where she worked as a mental health coach alongside Jodi Hildebrandt. By 2022, they’d launched a fresh channel, but in 2023 it came crashing down. Both Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested in Aug. 2023 and charged with four counts of aggravated child abuse.
The spotlight largely fell on Franke, as the case was in the works, due to her presence as a popular YouTuber and the mother of several of the abused children in question. But Hildebrandt was slapped with the exact same charges, and appeared during the trial to show far less remorse than her former collaborator. It was her home that Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped from, in the process exposing the abuse he’d endured, and that’s dredging up questions about the former counselor and her husband, who many assume must have known of the mistreatment happening under his roof.
Jodi Hildebrandt’s husband
Hildebrandt is serving four consecutive sentences of one to 15 years, the same punishment handed down to Franke. Some prosecutors wish she was serving even more time, however, following rising concerns over her effect on Franke. There are those that believe Hildebrandt was the culprit behind Franke’s shift into full-blown abuse, and at least one prosecutor noted that, while Franke showed genuine remorse during her trial, Hildebrandt seemed far less affected.
The 54-year-old Hildebrandt served as a life coach and the creator of ConneXions for years ahead of her arrest. She’s also a mother, despite her horrifying behavior toward children, and was formerly married to Brenten C. Pugh. She and Pugh were married for just over a decade, initially wedding in 1999 and cutting ties in 2012.
It’s unclear if Hildebrandt’s severe methods of punishment were the culprit behind her 2012 divorce, but we imagine Pugh is happy to stay as far from the legal backlash as possible. He had nothing to do with Hildebrandt by the time the abuse in question happened, and he’s stayed far from the spotlight in the wake of the abuse revelations. He and Hildebrandt have been divorced for more than a decade now — their lives are barely connected, and the man deserves all the privacy he wants. The only lingering link they share is their children, and based on what came out in the trial we imagine they’re perfectly happy to see their mother serve well-deserved jail time.