Mommy blogger Ruby Franke of the YouTube channel 8 Passengers was recently arrested under the suspicion of aggravated child abuse in the state of Utah, along with her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt. Two children thought to be Franke's were found severely malnourished after escaping to a neighbor's house and asking for food. They, as well as Franke's other two minor children, are all in the custody of the Utah Department of Child and Family Services, according to Page Six.
In light of Franke's arrest, old videos of her allegedly denying her children food as punishment have resurfaced on social media.
More from Mom.com: How to Talk to Teens About Healthy Eating (Without Hurting Their Confidence)
Old clips of Ruby’s YouTube videos are making the rounds on TikTok and allegedly show her denying food from her children for various infractions.
One clip shows her allegedly refusing to feed her children until their chores were done. In another, she tells her sons they won’t have the “privilege” of eating dinner unless they stop roughhousing.
Another video that has found its way to TikTok shows Ruby saying that she won’t bring her daughter Eve lunch at school because the then 6-year-old was responsible for packing her own lunch.
“The natural outcome is, she's just going to need to be hungry,” Ruby said. “Hopefully nobody gives her food and nobody steps in and gives her a lunch.”
In another, she shared her frustration that her 3- and 5-year-old children went into the kitchen for a snack against her wishes after she chose to take a nap before feeding them lunch.
“I said, 'That was dishonest.' So I'm telling him the truth. 'You said you would not go in the kitchen, and you did,'” she said, referring to her 5-year-old son. “You felt entitled to go take. You felt entitled to take what was in the fridge and eat it, and then you made a mess, and then you tried hiding it by lying.'”
Ruby and her husband, Kevin, faced allegations of abuse in 2020 after sharing that their oldest son Chad slept on a beanbag for seven months after a therapist recommended that he move out of the bedroom he shared with his younger brother Russell.
The couple allegedly argued that it was his choice, telling Insider: “We are teaching our children to be self-governing, so it was always very open with our son that he gets to choose how long he's separate from his brother, dependent upon his behavior.”
In light of the arrest, her oldest daughter Shari Franke, who is estranged from her mother, took to Instagram to say that she and her family “are so glad that justice is being served,” adding that they’ve “been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this.”
Ruby’s sisters made a statement as well, saying that the arrests “needed to happen.”
“For the last 3 years we have kept quiet on the subject of our sister Ruby Franke for the sake of her children,” the statement said. “Behind the public scene we have done everything we could to try and make sure the kids were safe.”
