Daughter of ‘YouTube mum’ child abuser Ruby Franke releases new memoir – what you need to know
The eldest daughter of Ruby Franke, who was convicted of physically and emotionally abusing her children, has revealed the torment she went through in a new memoir.
Shari Franke, 21, who reached out to authorities and the child protection services for help before her mother’s arrest in August 2023, writes that she and her five siblings were subject to Franke’s “twisted interpretation of crime and punishment all our lives”.
The mother of six, who gave parenting tips via a once-popular YouTube blog called “8 Passengers”, convinced her two youngest children that they were evil, possessed and needed to be punished to repent.
She and her business partner, mental health counsellor Jodi Hildebrandt, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse. The pair were jailed for up to 30 years each last February.
In the memoir, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom, Ms Franke details for the first time what her childhood was like, how this changed when Hildebrandt moved into their family home, and if she has been able to forgive her mother.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
YouTuber mum sentenced for child abuse
Here is everything you need to know about the memoir that was released on Tuesday.
‘Really scary’
Ms Franke said during an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America (GMA) that she experienced abuse at the hands of her mother when she was five or six years old.
She said her mother was “physical” and would slap her in the face or, when she was playing piano, she would slam her hands down on a surface.
She described her mother’s behaviour as “really scary”.
Ruby Franke in court. Pic: AP
But it was when Franke met Hildebrandt that the physical abuse turned more psychological, Ms Franke told GMA.
“I was like, I don’t like her [Hildebrandt], but maybe this is one good thing that’s come from it, is [Franke is] not yelling, she’s not hitting us any more.
“But it did become more psychological. And in a way, that was more damaging to me.”
Read more: Who is Ruby Franke?
‘My family’s very own cult leader’
In the book, Ms Franke describes Hildebrandt, who ran controversial life counselling organisation ConneXion, as her family’s “very own cult leader” who swept into their lives and turned her mother into “a fawning, starstruck acolyte who lapped up her every demented word like it was holy water”.
Hildebrandt and Franke often collaborated on parenting and relationship advice videos, which were often criticised for extreme teachings.
In since-deleted YouTube videos, the two preached that those who were not living in “truth,” including children, should be cut off from the rest of their families, Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News reported.
‘Strange’ relationship
Ms Franke goes on to hint that the relationship between her mother and her business partner escalated when she moved into their home.
“I don’t think it’s normal at all that a therapist would move into her client’s home,” she told GMA.
“I was moving out to college and hadn’t even left the house yet, and she is in my room and in my bed.”
Jodi Hildebrandt. Pic: Utah State Courts/AP
Ms Franke said her mother was “secretive” about her relationship with Hildebrandt, but said the “vibes [she] was getting was that something was strange between them”.
In an excerpt from her memoir that she shared on GMA, Ms Franke revealed that she found messages on Franke’s laptop after her arrest, that seemed to confirm the pair’s relationship had “spilled over into physical”.
However, when she was asked to elaborate on the matter on GMA, Ms Franke said that she “never saw anything specific about that” and wasn’t “sure” if they were more than friends.
Read more on Sky News:
Why does Trump want to buy Greenland?
School Of Rock co-stars marry decades after first meeting on set of film
‘I don’t want to be anything like her’
At her sentencing hearing last year, Franke tearfully apologised to her children, saying: “I’ll never stop crying for hurting your tender souls.”
When asked if she thinks her mother meant her apology, Ms Franke told GMA that she believes she is “as sorry as she can be”.
She said she is now trying to rebuild her relationship with her siblings and her father, Kevin Franke – who filed for divorce from Franke.
“Sometimes I’ll see myself in the mirror and I’m like: ‘Oh, my gosh, I look like her’ or ‘I sound like her,'” Ms Franke said.
“But I don’t want to be anything like her.”
Sky News has not read a copy of the book.
US
Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem
Stock markets around the world fell on Thursday after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs – with some economists now fearing a recession.
The US president announced tariffs for almost every country – including 10% rates on imports from the UK – on Wednesday evening, sending financial markets reeling.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
Trump tariffs latest: US stock markets tumble
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
Read more:
Do Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff numbers add up?
Tariffs about something more than economics: power
It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”
Tanking stock markets, collapsing world orders, devastating trade wars; economists with their hair ablaze are scrambling to keep up.
But as we try to make sense of Donald Trumps’s tariff tsunami, economic theory only goes so far. In the end this surely is about something more primal.
Power.
Understanding that may be crucial to how the world responds.
Yes, economics helps explain the impact. The world’s economy has after all shifted on its axis, the way it’s been run for decades turned on its head.
Instead of driving world trade, America is creating a trade war. We will all feel the impact.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
PM will ‘fight’ for deal with US
Donald Trump says he is settling scores, righting wrongs. America has been raped, looted and pillaged by the world trading system.
But don’t be distracted by the hyperbole – and if you think this is about economics alone, you may be missing the point.
Above all, tariffs give Donald Trump power. They strike fear into allies and enemies, from governments to corporations.
This is a president who runs his presidency like a medieval emperor or mafia don.
It is one reason why since his election we have seen what one statesman called a conga line of sycophants make their way to the White House, from world leaders to titans of industry.
The conga line will grow longer as they now redouble their efforts hoping to special treatment from Trump’s tariffs. Sir Keir Starmer among them.
President Trump’s using similar tactics at home, deploying presidential power to extract concessions and deter dissent in corporate America, academia and the US media. Those who offer favours are spared punishment.
His critics say he seeks a form power for the executive or presidential branch of government that the founding fathers deliberately sought to prevent.
Whether or not that is true, the same playbook of divide and rule through intimidation can now be applied internationally. Thanks to tariffs
Each country will seek exceptions but on Trump’s terms. Those who retaliate may meet escalation.
This is the unforgiving calculus for governments including our own plotting their next moves.
The temptation will be to give Trump whatever he wants to spare their economies, but there is a jeopardy that compounds the longer this goes on.
Read more:
Do Trump’s numbers on tariffs really add up?
Trump hits island home only to penguins with 10% tariffs
Could America’s traditional allies turn to China? Pic: AP
Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister who coined the conga line comparison, put it this way: “Pretty much all the international leaders I have seen that have sucked up to Trump have been run over. The reality is if you suck up to bullies, whether it’s global affairs or in the playground, you just get more bullying.”
Trading partners may be able to mitigate the impact of these tariffs through negotiation, but that may only encourage this unorthodox president to demand ever more?
Ultimately the world will need a more reliable superpower than that.
In the hands of such a president, America cannot be counted on.
When it comes to security, stability and prosperity, allies will need to fend for themselves.
And they will need new friends. If Washington can’t be relied on, Beijing beckons.
America First will, more and more, mean America on its own.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway