UT - Parenting influencer, Ruby Franke, and blogger/podcast partner Jodi Hildebrandt, arrested for Child Abuse, Aug 2023 #2

Are the reports of Ruby and Jodi being in an intimate relationship true?
 
“Puberty is brutal enough, let alone with an audience,” Shari writes, reflecting on a time her mother posted a video of her crying and mortified after an attempt at eyebrow-waxing ended in disaster.

But the ugliest moments were behind the camera. When Shari was 11, her mother began to use disciplinary techniques from West Point military academy.

“Punishments … took on a more elaborate, almost theatrical quality,” she writes. “These often involved grand gestures or prolonged periods of deprivation.”
 
But in a new memoir, her eldest daughter lifts the veil on the fake exterior Franke created, instead painting her as an abusive tyrant who alienated her husband for a seemingly romantic relationship with another woman.
[snip]
“[They] condemned queerness very publicly … while embodying it privately,” Shari writes of her mother and her business partner and alleged lover, Jodi Hildebrandt
Ruby Franke’s daughter suggests her abusive Mormon mom was ‘privately’ queer with biz partner in new memoir
 
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I used to watch them when they were really popular on YouTube, and I remember a turning point when she started to be really, really, really odd, and that's when Shari moving out became imminent. Shari was always very worried about being on her mother's good graces, and was heavily parentified, she was the one doing most of the parenting of the youngest child, and I remember a video where Ruby admonishes her youngest child, who at the time was still preschool-age, because she finally was able to wake up in time to go to school by herself. She said something like "see? you're capable of being responsible for waking yourself up", and Shari comes up behind the camera and says something along the lines of "no she's not, mom, I woke her up, she's still to little to be doing that".

I'm not sure about how I feel about this book and her whole stance of "I want my private life to be private" but staying on the public sphere. But I can imagine it's really hard to reconcile wanting to be private after being out there for so long, and still wanting to speak her truth. So, whatever those kids want to do, they should, I wish them nothing but the absolute best.
I feel these lines from Shari in the rolling stone interview say it well. She had to be incredibly raw and public in order to get the message across. There’s still a lot of work
To be done to correct the narrative of the Frankes (especially as ruby and Jody’s sentences are not yet known) so there’s going to be a doco soon as well.

I thought the book was an absolute eye-opener on these 6 poor traumatised kids. Victims in so many ways.
 

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But in a new memoir, her eldest daughter lifts the veil on the fake exterior Franke created, instead painting her as an abusive tyrant who alienated her husband for a seemingly romantic relationship with another woman.
[snip]
“[They] condemned queerness very publicly … while embodying it privately,” Shari writes of her mother and her business partner and alleged lover, Jodi Hildebrandt
Ruby Franke’s daughter suggests her abusive Mormon mom was ‘privately’ queer with biz partner in new memoir
I have listened to the book and don't feel that this article is an accurate portrayal of it.

In particular, Shari details that her mother is probably narcissistic and cared mostly about how her children's behaviour reflected on her. But she wasn't using anything like the tactics she used later, on her two youngest.

Shari says it was Jodi Hildebrandt who was "the monster".

"A monster who would see my mother's inner darkness and cultivate it, nurture it..." (end of chapter 15).

That article doesn't even mention Jodi Hildebrandt - who is known to have abused her niece in a similar extreme as the youngest Franke's, and to have alienated several husbands from their wives and children.

IMO, Shari doesn't have the whole story, because Jodi moved in 2 weeks before Shari moved out for college and became extremely preoccupied with her own life and troubles.

She got hold of her mother's laptop after the arrest, and saw messages that led her to believe there was physical 'servicing' being supplied to Jodi. That may well have been part of the 'acolyte' behaviour that every cult leader seems to demand.

I think the mystery of Jodi H's quest for power through (as Shari says) "masquerading as a mental health professional", hasn't been well investigated.

Just for the sake of the Kevin-obsessed, she feels warmly towards her father and reconciled with him shortly after Ruby's arrest, as have all the children.

But she implies Ruby will never see any of her children, ever again.

JMO
 
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Jan 30, 2025 Law&Crime Sidebar with Jesse Weber
"A bombshell lawsuit has been filed against Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt. The lawsuit alleged business fraud in their Connexions Classroom company. Franke and Hildebrandt are currently locked up for abusing Franke’s children and were sentenced to four to 60 years in prison. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber dissects the lawsuit.'

 
"Complainant Michael Tilleman claimed on Jan. 22 in a federal lawsuit seeking millions of dollars that the abuse of Franke's children was "part of a larger scheme spanning nearly two decades," which damaged hundreds of families, including his family and thousands of individuals.

He claimed the two women were engaged in a racketeering enterprise by advertising and selling fraudulent services and encouraging others to perpetuate illegal and harmful acts — specifically child abuse, child torture and psychological abuse.

Tilleman, who paid for some of their services at his wife's behest, claims the concepts taught by Hildebrandt ultimately led children to "extreme danger," citing the condition of Franke's children when she was arrested.

The lawsuit was also filed against Tilleman's ex-wife, alleging that she "enthusiastically" implemented Hildebrandt's teachings for over a decade and endangered their now 10-year-old daughter. He said he did not realize, when he encountered various injuries on his daughter when she was with him, that physical abuse was encouraged in Connexions. Now he thinks a sunburn, signs of dehydration and other injuries she had could have stemmed from abuse, citing excerpts from Franke's journal about the abuse of her children.

cont
 
What was the point of abusing the children anyways? Jodi wanted the women to be isolated and to feel like they only had Jodi to lean on, but why hurt the children so much? If they were such burdens, why didn't she encourage the mothers to send the children with their fathers? This is horrible, she liked to abuse these kids and that's why she kept them around. I hope everyone who was ever hurt and wronged by her (or even both of them) come after her so she never gets to live a life away from a court room.
 
What was the point of abusing the children anyways? Jodi wanted the women to be isolated and to feel like they only had Jodi to lean on, but why hurt the children so much? If they were such burdens, why didn't she encourage the mothers to send the children with their fathers? This is horrible, she liked to abuse these kids and that's why she kept them around. I hope everyone who was ever hurt and wronged by her (or even both of them) come after her so she never gets to live a life away from a court room.

Seems maybe she / they thought they were acting on higher orders like a punishing god? JMO
 
The need to save the children from demonic influences was a huge part of the appeal Jodi held for a certain demographic of women IMO, the fathers were deemed sexual addicts and the children were said to have evil spirits possessing them. Once the fathers had been excised from the home the only thing left to hold the women in Jodi's thrall was the claim that she could help them exercise the demons from their children.

JMO Jodi is a narcissist and most of what occurred was simply her feeding her own inner narc demon by pushing Ruby to prove just how much she loved her kids and just how much she trusted Jodi above all others, even God. And Ruby, who I am pretty sure has her own personality disorder, was primed and ready to be in her thrall.
 
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I'm curious how SF portrayed her enabling father in the book?
She's now engaged to be married and informed her fans that she won't be sharing her private life, marriage,family etc and not to pry.
She will remain a children's advocate.

I'm currently reading her book "The House of My Mother". I'm of the thought that RF meeting JH was the start of a perfect storm.
 
JMO Jodi is a narcissist and most of what occurred was simply her feeding her own inner narc demon by pushing Ruby to prove just how much she loved her kids and just how much she trusted Jodi above all others, even God. And Ruby, who I am pretty sure has her own personality disorder, was primed and ready to be in her thrall.
Yes, IMO JH was probably sadistic, as well. A predator.

Most narcissists just want everyone to admire them, like Ruby did with her channel. They get controlling of their children (mini me) when they feel insecure. But they don't usually attempt the same control over others.

IMO, Jodi straight up enjoyed her power to destroy families and the loving bonds between people. She enjoyed the sense of ultimate control, importance and access to money, that gave her. Without that feeling of power over others, life would have no meaning for her.

I think she found she could use her innocuous sounding theory on Mormons, because they sincerely want to fulfill the demands of their faith. She used her psychological mumbo jumbo to convinced them they were depraved sinners and could only redeem themselves by strictly following her instructions - by treating her like the voice of God.

She told her followers they were never good enough to pass her tests and be in 'truth' like she was.

If it was just her and Ruby, they'd be two ordinary, equal, people, hanging out. Where's the thrill of power in that?

ETA: very small children are helpless, and more dependent than older children or adults. A predator imagines they'll never go ask for the police.

JMO
 

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