Kevin Franke, estranged husband of disgraced Utah parenting blogger and convicted child abuser Ruby Franke, says he has “regrets” about how he handled his wife’s descent into chaos.
Ruby Franke, a 43-year-old mother of six, and Jodi Hildebrandt, a 55-year-old mother of two, ran a joint parenting and lifestyle YouTube channel called ConneXions Classrooms before they were arrested and pleaded guilty to four of six counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse in a St. George courtroom in December 2023.
“The bottom line is: I was choosing to trust a licensed professional mental health counselor and my wife, and they gave some terrible counsel. And I have regrets. And I wish I hadn’t done those things,” Kevin Franke told “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Tuesday morning.
Ruby and Hildebrandt had partnered to create a joint parenting and lifestyle vlog, or video blog, called ConneXions Classrooms that sold counseling sessions, packages and retreats ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
In dozens of YouTube videos and social media posts, Franke and Hildebrandt coached parents in calm voices from a living room couch on how to raise their children in “truth.” In a video posted just before their arrests, Hildebrandt said pain can be a good thing for children of a certain age.
The case has prompted discussions about how parenting and lifestyle blogs often present only a sliver of a person’s or family’s reality, as well as children’s rights to their own privacy if their parent is a social media star.
Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.
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