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True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Engaged Already? Kevin Franke’s Fresh Start After Ruby’s Prison Sentence

True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews

Tony Brueski

True Crime, News Commentary, News

4.2612 Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kevin Franke says redemption is real. He just announced he’s engaged to a new partner, just six months after finalizing his divorce from Ruby Franke — the former “8 Passengers” mommy blogger now serving a possible 30-year sentence for aggravated child abuse.

In this episode of Hidden Killers, we’re digging into what this “fresh start” really means — not just for Kevin, but for the children who lived under a camera, inside a home built on discipline, doctrine, and denial.

Kevin was never charged in Ruby’s criminal case. The two had separated before her arrest in 2023. But he was there for the rise of the YouTube family empire — a channel that broadcast strict, often disturbing parenting choices as content. And while Ruby ultimately took the fall with her counselor-turned-co-conspirator Jodi Hildebrandt, Kevin’s role in normalizing the platform is still under scrutiny.

Now, he’s trying to course-correct. He supported Utah’s new “child influencer” law — requiring that kids in monetized content receive protected earnings and the right to have their footage pulled as adults. His testimony was powerful. But does it erase the years he spent behind the camera?

This segment unpacks the psychology of quick re-partnering after trauma, the legal line between enabling and accountability, and why moving on isn’t the same as making it right. We examine the public push for “redemption,” and ask the hard question: is this genuine healing — or a quiet rebranding campaign?

It’s not about punishing a man for starting over. It’s about asking what real accountability looks like when the kids didn’t get a choice.

#KevinFranke #RubyFranke #8Passengers #TrueCrime #ChildAbuseAwareness #YouTubeFamily #HiddenKillers #FamilyVloggers #PsychologicalAbuse #ParentalAccountability #RedemptionArc #SocialMediaLaw


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The weather. Tomorrow, expect a biting cold front. Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be

0:06.9

wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain that'll soak you

0:13.8

to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching their peak in the afternoon.

0:21.3

Not in the mood for miserable weather?

0:23.5

Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express.

0:26.3

Sun Express, non-stop sunshine.

0:30.4

The weather. Tomorrow, expect a...

0:33.2

Biting cold front.

0:34.5

Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be wearing or taking off.

0:39.0

The night will be wild and untamed.

0:41.1

Expect heavy, lashing rain that'll soak you to the skin.

0:44.9

By Monday, temperatures will rise,

0:47.1

slowly but surely, reaching their peak in the afternoon.

0:51.1

Not in the mood for miserable weather?

0:53.3

Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express. Sun Express,

0:57.4

nonstop sunshine. Is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. Here now, Tony Bruske.

1:05.5

Good news, everybody. America's favorite absentee father has found love. Yay! Kevin Frankie!

1:13.6

Wait a second.

1:19.6

Well, they look kind of alike, don't they? Hmm.

1:23.6

I don't know what that's saying,

1:29.8

but I'm saying it might be saying something.

1:34.2

Redemption is real.

...

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