Neighbours of arrested parenting advice YouTuber Ruby Franke say they tried to warn child services

Published

2 years ago

September 5, 2023

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Neighbours of Ruby Franke, the former YouTuber arrested this week on child abuse charges, say they tried to help her children.

Franke, whose now-defunct 8 Passengers channel followed her family, was arrested on Wednesday in Utah and was taken into custody.

Her 12-year-old son climbed out of a window and ran to a neighbour’s house asking for food and water, according to a court filing by the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department.

According to the document, the neighbour saw duct tape on the boy’s ankles and wrists and called the police.

Franke’s 10-year-old daughter was later found malnourished and was also taken to the hospital.

Speaking to Sky News’s sister outlet NBC News, two of Franke’s neighbours said people in the community had previously alerted child services.

“Everyone is just breathing a collective sigh of relief because we thought they were going to come out of that house with body bags,” a male neighbour said.

Neighbours accused Franke of withholding food as a punishment for her children – a behaviour that was also shared on her YouTube channel.

They also claimed that, after her husband was out of the home, Franke would leave the house for weeks at a time, with the children inside.

“I remember that she took away their Christmas one year,” the male neighbour said, “and she would say things like ‘They’re not repenting correctly,’ which is a Mormon term for ‘they’re sinning.’ Just complete insanity.”

On Thursday, a judge denied Franke bail after a detective cited “the severity of the injuries of her two kids located in the home,” and told the judge the Department of Child and Family Services had taken four of Franke’s children into custody with the officer yet to speak to two of them.

Who is Ruby Franke?

Franke and her husband launched their family YouTube channel, 8 Passengers, in early 2015.

The channel chronicled the lives of the parents and their six children and had nearly 2.3 million subscribers.

As many family channels on YouTube do, 8 Passengers focused on parenting style, the children’s upbringing and discipline as the kids grew up in Utah.

The parents, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (known as the Mormon Church), also shared their children’s home-schooling.

Although the Frankes grew a sizable following, the family became the subject of harsh criticisms in recent years.

‘We did as much as we could’

After her arrest, Franke’s sisters said they are “all on the same page” about their sibling and are glad that the children are now safe.

In a now-deleted YouTube video titled ‘My statement on my sister Ruby Franke’, Bonnie Hoellein, who is also a social media personality, said “we all did as much as we could, legally,” when speaking about protecting her niece and nephews.

“For the last three years, we have truly clung on to each other and offering support to one another, and I don’t think any of us could’ve seen this coming.

“I know that timing is everything, and I know that they will be taken care of. I know the kids will be OK and that our family will be OK.”

US

Donald Trump wades into Sydney Sweeney ad debate

Published

1 day ago

August 5, 2025

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Donald Trump wades into Sydney Sweeney ad debate

Donald Trump has waded into the debate surrounding Sydney Sweeney’s jeans ad.

The American Eagle ad, which features the 27-year-old actress, who starred in the HBO series Euphoria and White Lotus, has the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”.

It has sparked a debate in the US over race and Western beauty standards.

In a Truth Social post, the US president described it as the “hottest ad out there”.

Hailing Sweeney as a “registered Republican”, he said the jeans are “flying off the shelves”, adding: “Go get ’em Sydney!”

Most of the criticism of the ad has centred on videos using the word “genes” instead of “jeans”, with one in which Sweeney says: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue.”

Critics argued the play on words potentially promotes eugenics, a discredited theory that believed humanity could be improved through the selective breeding of certain traits.

But others have defended the ad, saying the critics are reading too much into its message.

The video appeared on American Eagle’s Facebook page and other social media channels, but is not part of the ad campaign.

In a statement on Instagram on Friday, American Eagle Outfitters said the campaign “is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”

Stocks in American Eagle Outfitters jumped by 23.3% after Mr Trump’s intervention.

Trump knows all publicity is good publicity

They say all publicity is good publicity, and Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad is certainly notching up the column inches, especially now Donald Trump has intervened.

The US president must have been breathlessly excited when he found out Sweeney was a registered Republican because he wrote a Truth Social post in support of her before deleting it twice and reposting three times to correct various spelling and grammatical errors.

He clearly could not wait to get involved in the discourse.

“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the HOTTEST ad out there,” he wrote. “Go get ’em Sydney!”

In any other era, the president weighing in so heavily on one side of a pop culture issue would’ve been unusual.

But the current president knows people are talking about the ad around their dinner tables and at parties right now. By injecting himself into the discussion, they will now be talking about him too.

In his Truth Social post, which he reposted three times to fix various typos, Mr Trump compared the ad with “woke” ones “on the other side of the ledger” – as he criticised other companies, as well as hitting out at Taylor Swift.

“The tide has seriously turned – Being WOKE is for losers, being Republican is what you want to be,” he wrote.

Sky News has contacted Sweeney’s agent for comment.

US

Soulja Boy arrested on suspected weapons charge during traffic stop

Published

2 days ago

August 4, 2025

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Soulja Boy arrested on suspected weapons charge during traffic stop

Soulja Boy has been arrested and charged with possession of a firearm during a traffic stop.

The rapper, whose real name is DeAndre Cortez Way, was a passenger in the car that was stopped in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles early on Sunday morning, the LAPD said.

“A passenger was detained and police arrested DeAndre Cortez Way for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm,” the statement added.

Possessing a firearm as a convicted felon is a felony.

The 35-year-old was booked into jail in the LAPD’s Wilshire Division shortly after 6am. It is not clear if he has since been released.

Police did not provide information on what prompted the traffic stop and who else was in the vehicle with Way.

Soulja Boy is yet to publicly comment on the incident.

Soulja Boy is best known for his 2007 hit Crank That, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks and landed him a nomination for best rap song at the Grammys.

The rapper was arrested and charged with a felony in 2014 for carrying a loaded gun during a traffic stop in LA.

In April this year, the Chicago hip-hop artist was ordered to pay more than $4m (£3m) in damages to his former assistant after being found liable for sexually assault, as well as physically and emotionally abusing them.

US

Tennessee: Man tries to detonate 14 explosive devices while being arrested

Published

3 days ago

August 3, 2025

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Tennessee: Man tries to detonate 14 explosive devices while being arrested

Police in Tennessee have discovered 14 improvised explosive devices in a man’s home as they were arresting him, the local sheriff’s office said.

Officers were executing a warrant in the home of Kevin Wade O’Neal in Old Fort, about 45 miles (70km) east of Chattanooga, after he had threatened to kill public officials and law enforcement personnel in Polk County.

After arresting the 54-year-old, officers noticed “something smouldering” in the bedroom where he was found.

On closer inspection, they discovered an improvised explosive device and evacuated the house until bomb squad officers arrived at the scene.

Fourteen devices were found inside the property – none of which detonated.

O’Neal was charged with 11 counts of attempted first-degree murder, corresponding to nine officers and two other people inside the property when the suspect tried to detonate the devices.

He also faces 14 counts of prohibited weapons and one count of possession of explosive components.