Ex-friend of influencer accused of child abuse lifts the lid on family life

14 September 2023 , 18:07

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Disgraced YouTube mumfluencer Ruby Franke has been charged with child abuse (Image: Instagram)

In a bombshell interview, an ex-Mormon YouTuber who was close to the family vlogger accused of child abuse, Ruby Franke, said they were "not the Mormon family they were portraying themselves to be."

Carl Andreasen spoke to Chris Cuomo on NewsNation about his experiences with Ruby Franke, 41, her family and her siblings, during his own time as a family YouTuber. Carl said when he and his family started their YouTube channel while in the Utah Valley, he was a member of the Mormon church and began "creating family content" with his wife and children.

He explained he "went to conventions and met this family as colleagues and other Mormon bloggers. And all of us were basically set up to be representatives for the church."

Chris Cuomo spoke with Carl Andreasen, an ex-Mormon who was close to the YouTuber Ruby Franke (News Nation)

When Carl and his family moved to Southern Utah, he said some of Franke's family moved down there too. The families got to know each other, with Carl saying: "Ever since we started to get to know that family behind the scenes, they were not the Mormon family that they were portraying themselves to be on their YouTube channels."

Franke was arrested, along with her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, on August 31 after one of Franke's children escaped Hildebrandt's home in Ivins, Utah, and ran to a neighbour to beg for food and help. The 12-year-old boy was malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape on his wrists and ankles.

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Jodi Hildebrandt, 54, has also been charged with six counts of child abuse (AP)

Franke and her husband Kevin Franke's 10-year-old daughter was also found at Hildebrandt's home in a similar condition. Franke, who ran the popular YouTube channel '8 Passengers', has been charged along with Hildebrandt with six felony counts of child abuse by the Washington County Attorney in Utah.

Asked to clarify whether members of the hierarchy of the Mormon church knew of Hildebrandt and Franke's alleged abuse, Carl said: "The only way that that would be known is if the local bishop... to Ruby and the local neighbours was aware of them coming in and confessing this type of behaviour going on among the siblings and the cousins and among each other.\

Statement by Bonnie Hoelline, sister of Ruby Franke (Instagram/@bonniehoellein)

"But this is a cultural problem within Mormonism, to where right now, within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, there's over 500 child abuse cases alleged against the church right now and just 12 new ones even just this year. And it's a pervasive common problem, even down into the fundamentalist communities in southern Utah where children are escaping their families and even have problems with genetic conditions due to inbreeding that's even going on in some of these communities.

"And so, it's a really disturbing thing where I think enough is enough. Some of these people, I think, should not be online representing Christian values."

Franke had a popular YouTube channel called 8 Passengers where she shared daily lie with her family (8 Passengers/Youtube)

One of Carl's most shocking allegations involved sexual relations within the family, and even between family members. He explained: "I was at certain Hollywood parties after I met the family and went down there after I left the church, and some of those parties, and the behaviour that I witnessed among adults and siblings of Ruby and things that they confessed to while even inebriated at some of those parties had to allegedly with them getting together and this kind of inter-family, sibling between sibling, sister with sister and brother, kind of open marriage swinging behaviour, was something that these siblings and people would do as a family culture as not only adults but going back into their childhood.

"So either they were joking about it and thought it was funny while actually acting out on certain of those behaviours at the party publicly in front of multiple witnesses or they just did it at that one party and pretended like it was a family cultural thing going on back into swap out.

"So I don't know. That was why I blocked all of those people and removed myself from contact with them and ultimately it even unravelled my marriage and led to a divorce in my life."

Fiona Leishman