By Jocelyn Anderson
This past week, a documentary has come out that has had everyone on the internet talking about it. It centers around a Mom from a well-known YouTube family vlogging channel being arrested and charged with child abuse. Many people have either watched or heard of the YouTube family channel called “8 Passengers” and were shocked when news came out about what was really happening behind the cameras. The mother, Ruby Franke, and her best friend, Jodi Hildebrant, were both arrested and charged with child abuse in August of 2023.
Since the arrest, the eldest daughter, Shari Franke, has written a book about her childhood with Ruby Franke all the way up until her college years and the arrest. Shari refers to both her parents as their first names rather than Mom and Dad in her book and the documentary. The second oldest child, Chad Franke, still refers to his parents as Mom and Dad and seems to not resent his parents as much as his older sister does.
In the documentary, Devil In the Family, Shari says, “We only have one child, one mother, and that was mine.” This shows her resentment towards her parents and what went on in her childhood. She also explains in her book her resentment towards her mother’s friend and family therapist, Jodi Hildebrant, for making everything worse in her family. The family is also protecting the identities of the four youngest children by keeping them nameless and blurring their faces in any videos or pictures in the documentary to let them have a little bit of normalcy after all that they’ve been through.
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