Chad Franke, the eldest child of convicted child abuser Ruby Franke, has spoken out for the first time about his childhood with the former YouTuber.
Franke, 43, and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt were convicted of four counts of aggravated child abuse. The pair were arrested in August 2023 after Franke’s son, who was then 12-years-old, escaped through a window and fled to a neighbour’s house.
Both Franke and Hildebrandt will serve between one to 15 years for each count they were convicted of.
Ahead of the release of expose documentary Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke, which premieres on Hulu on 27 February, Franke’s eldest son Chad and ex-husband Kevin have spoken out about their experience in a new interview with PEOPLE.
Chad with his disgraced mother, Ruby Franke (YouTube)
“I definitely hate the things she did,” Chad said, revealing that he currently has no contact with his mother and ‘doesn’t plan to anytime soon’.
While he doesn’t rule out having contact with Franke in the future, the 20-year-old added that she wouldn’t ever be a mother or grandmother figure in his life.
“It’s hard,” he said. “But when I go home, I [don’t] feel like anyone’s missing… it doesn’t feel wrong not having her in my home and that’s okay. I feel like [I’m] in a good spot.”
Chad also opened up about having to move out of his family home and away from his younger siblings. “I was also required to move out of the house and never contact my siblings and never go back home,” he explained.
The 20-year-old then revealed that concerned neighbours had reached out and offered to buy him a car after noticing he was relying on a bicycle in order to get to school and work, an offer he was told to decline by Hildebrandt.
“Jodi, she wanted my to live a very physical, straining and mental straining life while I was out there,” Chad explained, clarifying that he was 17 and living alone at the time. “That was her mindset when it came to repentance… That was a really hard year, physically and emotionally.”
Chad is second of Franke’s children to speak publicly about his experience with the mum-of-six, with eldest child Shari previously speaking out about what it was like to grow up in-front of the camera
