“I saw the trailer suddenly in class and had an anxiety attack,” Shari Franke wrote, recalling her reaction to watching the trailer, before claiming Lifetime did not reach out to her or her siblings.
Shari Franke — the eldest child of convicted child abuser Ruby Franke — is weighing in on the upcoming Lifetime movie about her family.
Shari, 21, took to social media to slam the film after the trailer was released on Friday. The Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story centers on Franke, former YouTube parenting vlogger, and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, and their horrific abuse of two of Franke’s young children, which led to the pair’s arrest and conviction.
Lifetime/Facebook
Heather Locklear Stars As Convicted Child Abuser Jodi Hildebrandt in New Ruby Franke Lifetime Film
View Story
In a post shared to her Instagram Stories, Shari posted a “note about the Lifetime movie coming out about my family.”
“I saw the trailer suddenly in class and had an anxiety attack,” she began, before claiming, “None of us were contacted about the movie. None of the proceeds are going to the kids.”
“This movie is trash, and only hurts my siblings more,” she added. “Please do not support this movie.”
TooFab has reached out to Lifetime for comment.
Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story stars Emilie Ullerup and Heather Locklear as Franke and Hildebrandt, respectively.
“Together, six adorable kids, a loving husband, and Ruby (Emilie Ullerup) made up ‘8 Passengers,’ a web series documenting the group’s every-day-life and Ruby’s LDS-influenced parenting style. To viewers, Ruby had the perfect life, but everything took a turn for the worse when Ruby’s marriage counselor Jodi Hildebrandt (Heather Locklear), entered their lives,” the show’s official synopsis, per Lifetime, reads. “After Jodi moves into Ruby’s home, the environment becomes toxic and Ruby’s husband is forced to move out. Jodi and Ruby’s views of disciplining children were not ‘strict parenting’ but actually abuse.”
“But when Ruby’s 12-year-old son escaped from Ruby and Jodi’s real-life house-of-horrors with clear signs of abuse, the truth came to light,” the synposis concludes. “How could this idolized family-friendly mother of six and her spiritual guide transform into convicted child abusers?”
Both Franke and Hildebrandt were sentenced to up to 60 years each in prison earlier this year in Utah. Both women were arrested in August 2023 on child abuse charges relating to Franke’s children, after Franke’s then-12-year-old son Russell climbed out of a window from Hildebrandt’s home and showed up to a neighbor’s “emaciated and malnourished.”
“If you could take me to the nearest police station,” Russell 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 Franke’s then-9-year-old daughter, Eve, in a similar condition in Hildebrandt’s house.
Last month, Franke’s son, Chad, whose family had featured on the popular 8Passengers YouTube channel, marked the one-year anniversary of his mother’s arrest.
Snapchat
Ruby Franke’s Son Marks One Year Since Her Arrest for Child Abuse: ‘Happy Prisonversary’
View Story
The 19-year-old shared a series of posts on Snapchat, which were captured by People, including one of his mother that he simply labeled, “Happy Prisonversary.”
The other is a shot of himself looking reflective, captioned, “A year ago today, I had just gotten off a phone call with Jodi and was going to work a Lifeguard shift.”
Chad had already moved out of the home before the arrests and there was no evidence of him having been abused.
Meanwhile, Shari, who also did not live at the home where the arrests were made, marked the anniversary of Franke and Hildebrandt’s arrests on her own social media. “Today has been a big day,” she wrote. “Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up.”
According to Franke’s estranged husband Kevin, his wife got involved with a group called ConneXion Classrooms through Hildebrandt. 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.
Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story premieres October 26 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
If you are experiencing or witness child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. If you believe a child is in immediate danger, call 911.
Washington County Attorney/Facebook
Ruby Franke’s Estranged Husband Details How She Fell Into Religious ‘Cult’ and He Became ‘Resident Exorcist’
View Story
