Convicted child abuse YouTuber Ruby Franke finalises divorce from husband Kevin after 25 years of marriage

It comes just over a year after Ruby and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt were sentenced to up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse.

The two women were accused of trying to convince Ruby’s two youngest children, who were aged 12 and 9 at the time, that they were evil, possessed by demons, and needed to be punished. Ruby and Kevin share six children.

Utah District Judge Roger Griffin has signed the Franke’s divorce decree, effective as of Thursday March 20. According to KSL-TV Utah, Kevin had originally filed for divorce three months after Ruby’s arrest in August 2023. The couple had separated the year prior, and Kevin had been isolated from his then estranged wife and children and unaware of what had been happening.

Based on a previous order, Kevin has sole custody of his and Ruby’s four minor children, whom Ruby was ordered by the 4th District Juvenile Court not to contact. The couple also share two grown-up children; 20-year-old son Chad and 22-year-old daughter Shari.

The divorce agreement clarifies that aside from the $85,000 Ruby withdrew from accounts following her separation from Kevin in 2022, all other financial assets in her name, including their former shared family home in Springville, Utah, will be reallocated to Kevin. He has also agreed to “consider any child support payments owed to him by Ruby Franke already paid.”

Last month, ahead of the release of the three-part docuseries on Hulu called Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, Kevin gave an interview to People where he told when he had last heard from his now ex-wife.

“The last letter that I received from her from prison was maybe in March or April of last year,” Kevin told the publication about Ruby, who is currently serving her sentence at the Utah State Correctional Facility. “And then I requested the Department of Corrections to ask her to stop writing me. I didn't want to hear anymore. I didn't like what she was saying.”

Kevin refused to reveal what Ruby wrote to him. He said: “I'm not going to share. That's between her and me. But it just didn't feel right and it didn't feel good, and I'm very angry. I'm still very angry.”

Ruby and Kevin, who married in 2000 before going on to have six children, launched 8 Passengers on YouTube in 2015 and amassed a large following as they documented their experiences raising their children. The channel was ended after Ruby’s arrest.

Hildebrandt was a Utah mental health counsellor, who had been hired to work with Franke’s youngest son before going into business with Ruby. During the documentary, which was released on February 27, Kevin said that Hildebrandt had moved in with himself and Ruby because she was experiencing “demonic night terrors.”

He also recalled Ruby telling him the two of them were the only people who could “get rid of the evil spirits” in Hildebrandt. “I would place my hands on her head and command the demons to depart,” Kevin said. “And I would state every name of Jesus Christ that I could possibly think of. And those evil spirits were very reactive to those names.”

Ruby and Hildebrandt eventually began asking Kevin to leave the room so they could continue the process without him. Ruby then began checking on her business partner at night because that was when Hildebrandt said “the possessions were the worst.”

He admitted that they didn’t know the “extent” of Ruby and Hildebrandt’s actions when they were alone together. However, when Shari was deliberately asked by someone off-camera whether or not her mother and Hildebrandt were “lovers” her response was: “I mean, I have my opinions.” When asked what her opinions were, she said, “I do think that they were.”

Ruby and Hildebrandt received four separate prison sentences for 1 to 15 years, which will run consecutively. While this would mean a 60-year maximum sentence, the most severe penalty under Utah law is 30 years, so they won’t serve more than 30 years total.

The exact length of the pair’s sentence will be determined by the Board of Pardons and Parole. The board will reportedly make their decision in December 2026 when they appear before them, according to KSL.