Shari Franke had previously testified against “mommy vlogger” Ruby Franke and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, who were ultimately convicted and sentenced to prison for alleged abuses against Franke’s children.
The eldest daughter of Ruby Franke is done sharing her life with the public, thank you very much, after one huge reveal over the weekend. Shari Franke is engaged!
After playing a pivotal role in the ultimate incarceration of her mother and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt for the alleged abuses of her and her siblings over a span of years, Shari showed off her wedding ring, and then explained why this is goodbye.
“I’m excited to share that I’m engaged!” she wrote alongside a photo of her hand adorned with a gorgeous engagement ring. But from there, she quickly shifted to what her next chapter will look like … if she gets her wish!
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“However, for me, this is the end of me sharing my private life,” she continued, explaining, “I’ve had my voice and agency taken for so long, and now, I’m putting my foot down.”
She went on to add, “I’m not going to talk about my wedding, future husband, or future kids.”
Shari did say that she’ll continue “to advocate for kids who didn’t have a voice (so you’ll still be seeing me, don’t worry) but this is closure for me.”
AP/Washington County Sheriff’s Office
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After growing up in the spotlight as part of the Franke family’s 8Passengers YouTube series, Shari is making a very different choice for her future family. “I’m moving on with my life, and that’s true freedom and joy ❤️,” she wrote.
“Please respect my privacy and the privacy of my future family, and don’t speculate or pry,” she concluded her message. “This is my wish, and my gift to my family.”
In a cheeky post to her Instagram Stories after she shared that she will not be sharing her family online, Shari did share a picture of her cat Muppet.
“Muppet is a cat and therefore doesn’t need to give consent in the same way that people do (if he could talk and was 18, I’d ask consent),” she wrote. “So he will still make some appearances :).”
It’s not a surprising decision considering how much Franke has already endured, and even her stance against Lifetime’s dramatization of her family’s story earlier this year.
“I saw the trailer suddenly in class and had an anxiety attack,” she posted to social media back in October when the first trailer dropped for Mormon Mom Gone Wrong: The Ruby Franke Story.
“”None of us were contacted about the movie. None of the proceeds are going to the kids,” she wrote at the time. “”This movie is trash, and only hurts my siblings more. Please do not support this movie.”
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Ruby’s Son Escapes, Leading to Prison Sentence
Shari was not still living at home when her 12-year-old brother escaped from the house Ruby Franke was living in with Jodi Hildebrandt and Shari’s younger siblings. He 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.
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“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.
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.
In September, Shari and her brother Chad, who was also out of the house by the time of his mother’s incarceration marked the one-year anniversary of her arrest, with Chad writing, “Happy Prisonversary” on Snapchat.
Shari wrote, “Today has been a big day. 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.”
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Shari Testifies About Social Media Upbringing
At the same time, Shari spoke out in front of Utah’s Business and Labor Interim Committee, talking about the negative impact family vlogging had on her and her family, sharing that it “ruined my innocence long before Ruby committed a crime,” per People.
Calling her siblings experience “24/7 labor,” Shari asked, “What price is worth giving up your childhood?”
“Some of our most popular videos were when my eyebrow was accidentally waxed off and the whole world saw a crying teenager when I just wanted to mourn in private,” she shared, “or the time I was violently ill and got the leading role in the video that day.”
She detailed losing friends because they didn’t want to be recorded, and “the camera never stops,” while social media attention — including “rumors of having sexual relations with my own brother to being called a baby birthing machine at the age of 13” – continues to negatively impact her.
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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.
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.
