Where are the Franke kids now? It’s the question anyone who’s heard the disturbing story of Ruby Franke and her family, now the subject of a Hulu docuseries called Devil in the Family, is asking.
For the unfamiliar, Franke and her husband, Kevin, once had a popular family vlogging channel called 8 Passengers, which documented their lives with their six children. But in 2023 she and her associate Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested for child abuse after one of Franke’s sons escaped from Hildebrandt’s home in Utah.
After the arrest, Franke’s four youngest children were put into protective custody, per People; the two oldest, Shari and Chad, however, were already adults. So, where are the Franke kids now?
Kai Pfaffenbach
Shari and Chad, as well as Kevin Franke, agreed to participate in the Hulu series, in which they talk about their own experiences in the home. Shari has also shared her story in a memoir titled, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom. “Sometimes I’ll see myself in the mirror and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I look like her,’ or ‘I sound like her,’ but I don’t wanna be anything like her,” Shari told Good Morning America in January. She said that her mother was very physical with punishments when she was a child.
After Ruby’s arrest, Kevin, who had been separated from his wife for a year, filed for divorce and began seeking to regain custody of his four children. In February 2024, per Page Six, he filed for guardianship over his 16-year-old daughter, but a court order in October 2023 sealed all the records and court proceedings regarding the child welfare case, per ABC.
On February 18, 2025, two of the four youngest Franke kids, aged 16 and 11, spoke out in statements read by their father at a House Business, Labor, and Commerce Committee hearing in Utah. The hearing was regarding a bill that would require parent creators who generate income off of their children to put a percentage of the earnings into a trust fund. One of the children’s statements reads, per E! News, “As kids, you don’t realize what you’re subjected to. You’re selling your life, your privacy, your body and stories to the entire world. And as a child, you’re involuntarily giving up all of that. You’re selling your childhood.” Her 11-year-old sister’s statement reads, “I felt ‘happy,’ but I really wasn’t. I worked hard for that money. I acted like someone I wasn’t in front of the camera, and I earned that money. But I feel like my mom used me for money.”
