Chad Franke Reveals Mom Ruby Franke Still Writes Letters to Him from Prison, 1 Year After Her Sentence for Aggravated Child Abuse By Tabitha Parent

Chad Franke is revealing more details about his current relationship with his mom, Ruby Franke.

In a recent video shared on TikTok, the child of former 8 Passengers YouTube vlogger Ruby Franke participated in a viral trend, using a sound from a popular Key & Peele sketch titled “Sibling Rivalry.”

“Shut up mom. Silence from you! You’re cut off — from talking!” the sound sees users mouthing, in a trend that has creators reflecting on things that their mom or parents have done that annoyed them.

In Chad’s video, he lip syncs to the sound, while text over the video reads, “Every time I get a letter from my mom in prison.”

Earlier last week, Chad started a series on TikTok where he would read diary entries from 2023, many of which touched on moments with his mom.

In the first video he posted, Chad introduced himself to the camera, saying plainly: “Hi, my name is Chad, and I used to be very brainwashed.”

Chad then shared that he had received requests from some of his over 857,200 TikTok viewers to “write a book on my story,” however, he pushed back, saying that he felt he wasn’t a “very good writer” and that he also wouldn’t want a ghost writer taking control of his story.

“Then I remembered I kind of wrote my own story myself,” he recalled.

“While I was in that phase of my life, I journaled every single day,” he said in the clip, presumably referencing his time living with his mother.

“And to show you guys how real it was for every single day of the year, I will go back to 2023, two years ago, and read every single journal entry that I wrote,” he continued.

He went on to assure followers that he wouldn’t be sharing anything “too personal” but that he was going to be “honest and thorough and show you guys what it truly was like.”

In a later video, Chad read an entry that mentioned a phone call he had had with Ruby in January 2023. “We talked for two hours about removing lust. It’s a little more complicated and difficult than I thought,” Chad read, before going on to mention his job as a lifeguard at the time.

In 2015, Chad’s mother began to grow a following online by posting videos of her six children on her YouTube channel 8 Passengers. In 2022, Ruby began working alongside controversial family therapist Jodi Hildebrandt. The two hosted a podcast and Instagram account under the handle “Moms of Truth,” where they shared their extreme views on parenting and discipline.

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Franke separated from her husband, Kevin, and moved into Hildebrandt’s home in Ivins, Utah, which often allegedly resulted in Ruby leaving her two then-teenage daughters, Abby and Julie, alone in the family’s Springville home for weeks at a time without supervision.

Police were contacted twice throughout 2022 out of concern for Franke’s children, and in August 2023, authorities were notified after Franke’s youngest son, then-12-year-old Russell, escaped Hildebrandt’s home and went to a neighbor’s house seeking help.

Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on charges of aggravated child abuse. Franke later pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse and was sentenced to 4 to 60 years in prison for her crimes.

After Ruby’s 2023 arrest, Kevin filed for divorce. Kevin was given full custody of their four children, according to the divorce agreement obtained at the time of its finalization in 2025 by PEOPLE.