Jodi Hildebrandt’s niece, Jessi, tells The Independent that understanding their aunt is imperative to understanding disgraced YouTuber Ruby Franke ahead of the release of a new documentary about the pair's child abuse scandal.
Franke, a Utah mother of six and former parenting YouTuber known for her channel 8 Passengers, and her business partner, therapist Hildebrandt, were arrested in August 2023 after Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped from Hildebrandt’s home and asked a neighbor for food and water. He was found malnourished, with open wounds bound by duct tape. Authorities later discovered Franke’s 10-year-old daughter in a similar condition.
Both women were charged with multiple counts of aggravated child abuse and last year were sentenced to serve between four and 30 years in prison.
ID’s new, four-episode docuseries, Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence, which airs tonight, focuses more on Jodi’s rise within the Mormon community, which led her to work with Franke.
Jessi — who uses they/them pronouns — revealed the extent of the abuse they also experienced at the hands of Jodi as a teenager in the docuseries.
“It seems like most of it is centered around Ruby, which is completely understandable,” Jessi said of other documentaries about their aunt and Franke. “I think a lot of people are quite confused by it. They’re confused by Kevin [Franke’s ex-husband and father of their six children]; they’re confused. How could a mother… how could a father treat their children like this?”
“I think that by going more in-depth into Jodi, that answers a lot of those questions,” they told The Independent. “Ruby really does not make sense until you understand Jodi. Jodi doesn't really make sense until you understand the Mormon church. And there are so many puzzle pieces to make this a coherent picture, and I think by only focusing on Ruby, which a lot of these have understandably done so, they miss out on the big picture.”
In her memoir released in January, Ruby’s eldest daughter, Shari, claimed she witnessed evidence of an intimate relationship between her mother and Jodi.
“I think what made Ruby different was that she had fame; she already had the proclivity of willingness to kind of put her children's needs on the back burner,” Jessi said of the pair’s relationship. “Her ego and possible narcissism was already kind of there, and so Jodi saw Ruby, she saw her platform, and was like, yes, I can work with this.
“The thing that Jodi is incredible at is pinpointing people’s weaknesses, and either using that to manipulate or using that to her advantage,” Jessi added. “So, I think she very much saw in Ruby things that she wanted to utilize for herself, and then did so.”
Earlier this month, Kevin filed a lawsuit against Jodi, alleging that she used her status as a mental health professional to manipulate and isolate him from his family.
The medical malpractice suit filed in Utah alleges that Hildebrandt misrepresented herself as a psychologist while acting as Franke’s licensed clinical mental health counselor, according to KUTV.
Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence premieres tonight on ID at 9 p.m. ET with its finale airing tomorrow. It will be available to stream on HBO Max.
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