Husband of YouTube Mom Arrested For Child Abuse Speaks Out, Blames Her Business Partner For ‘Manipulating’ Family
Weeks after controversial YouTube mom Ruby Franke was arrested alongside her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt on charges of child abuse, a lawyer for Franke’s husband now says Hildebrandt is to blame.
Franke and Hildebrandt were both taken into custody in August after one of Franke’s children escaped a home owned by Hildebrandt, fleeing to a neighbor’s house to beg for food. The neighbor called authorities after noticing the child was malnourished and appeared to have been tied up.
Another child was also found at the residence and they were taken into state custody as a result.
Now, a lawyer for Franke’s husband, Kevin Franke, has revealed that his client had been separated from Ruby for over a year and had restricted contact with both her and the six children the couple share.
Together, Franke and Hildebrandt owned ConneXions, a business aimed at helping people discover joy.
In conversation with Jesse Weber of Law & Crime’s Sidebar podcast, a company owned by Mediaite founder Dan Abrams, lawyer Randy Kester says the entire family dynamic changed once Hildebrandt entered the picture.
“Emotionally, she was controlling him because she knew how much he valued their marriage and valued their family,” Kester said of Ruby. “And it was his desire to be able to get back with the family and preserve his marriage, so he was taking direction from her.”
Kester assured that his client had no reason to suspect abuse was going on inside the home. He also noted that the couple did have differences when it came to how they parented their six children.
“Physical abuse had never been a part of their family. But a lot of the dynamics between he and his wife changed after Jodi Hildebrandt partnered up with Ruby,” Kester said.
The lawyer says Kevin Franke believes Hildebrandt “manipulated him in conjunction with Ruby, that she’s been kind of the spearhead toward essentially destroying his life and destroying his family.”
