Ruby Franke Divorce Terms Revealed as Kevin Finalizes Split, New Law Protects Child Influencers

It comes at the same time that legislation protecting the children of online content creators was signed into law in his family’s home state of Utah.

Ruby Franke is currently serving 15 years in Utah State Prison for multiple convictions of child abuse for the children she shares with Kevin, and who used to feature on their popular 8 Passengers YouTube channel. At its peak, they had 2.5 million followers.

Things took a turn, though, after Ruby invited Jodie Hildebrandt into their lives, and they wound up moving in together, with Jodi allegedly convincing Ruby to cut off all contact with Kevin.

Then, as viewers began to grow concerned about the strict punishments on display by Ruby and Jodi, viewership declined and 8 Passengers was eventually replaced with ConneXions in 2022.

A year later, one of Franke’s sons escaped Hildebrandt’s house and fled to a neighbor, leading to the arrests and eventual convictions of both Ruby and Jodi, as the story went viral and the living conditions of the children with the pair was exposed.

Kevin, who has maintained that he had no idea what was happening inside the Hildebrandt house, filed for divorce three months after his estranged wife’s arrest. A week ago, the decree was signed by a district judge, with the couple having agreed to terms in a previous order, according to KSL.

In regards to the children, Kevin has been granted full custody of the four of their six children who are still minors, while Ruby has been ordered to have zero contact with them. She has opted to keep her married name.

Kevin agreed, per the decree, to consider any child support owed by his ex-wife already paid and there were no alimony requests. Further, ownership of the family home will be transferred to Kevin, along with another 2.8-acre property.

Ruby, meanwhile, will keep the approximately $85,000 she reportedly withdrew from their joint accounts when she and Kevin stopped living together. All other accounts, outside of an investment account in her name, will go entirely to Kevin, per the outlet.

While negotiating his divorce from Ruby, Kevin has also been involved in another legal matter, as he lent his voice and story to legislation in Utah intended to protect minors from exploitation by their parents and loved ones online creating content with them.

On Tuesday, Governor Spencer Cox signed a new law that allows adults a way to scrub any content that features them as minors from all online and digital platforms, as reported by The Associated Press. It also requires parents who feature their children in content to set aside funds earned for those children.

“Children cannot give informed consent to be filmed on social media, period,” Kevin argued to lawmakers in February. “Vlogging my family, putting my children into public social media, was wrong, and I regret it every day.”

The whole Franke family, including the children, were featured extensively in their 8 Passengers YouTube channel, which he and Ruby launched in 2015. Family content, often including their children was posted up to five times a week, with its peak of popularity coming in 2020 when they reportedly enjoyed 2.5 million subscribers and 1 billion views.

Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on August 30, 2023, shortly after Ruby’s 12-year-old brother escaped from Jodi’s house. He climbed out of a window and went to a neighbor’s home “emaciated and malnourished.”

“If you could take me to the nearest police station,” the boy said on Ring camera footage. There were visible marks from tape around his wrists and ankles.’

According to the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department, police were called by a citizen who reported the child had “open wounds and duct tape around the extremities” and was asking for both food and water.

“The condition of the juvenile was so severe that they were seen by Santa Clara-Ivins EMS and transported to a local area hospital,” said the release. Police then found his 9-year-old sister in a similar condition in Hildebrandt’s house.

According to Kevin, his wife got involved with a group called ConneXion Classrooms through Hildebrandt in 2022. Her relationship with the Frankes started as Ruby’s “therapist,” before evolving to being their children’s mental health counselor.

It was through this connection that Kevin says Franke slowly became more deeply involved with ConneXions, a group NBC News reported Hildebrandt started as a life coaching service in 2007.

The organization also had religious associations, with former clients telling NBC News that it was largely based on the principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Frankes and Hildebrandt are all three members of the church.

After their arrests and eventual convictions, both Franke and Hildebrandt were sentenced to up to 60 years each in prison.

You can check out more details of the case here:

The family’s story was also featured in a Lifetime original movie and a three-part docuseries on Hulu last month, Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.

You can read all about the dramatic and wild revelations Kevin and his two older children shared on that show here: