Warning: This article contains discussions of child abuse that some readers may find upsetting

Kevin Franke, the estranged husband of former YouTuber vlogger and convicted child abuser Ruby Franke, has spoken out for the first time since his now ex-wife’s conviction and has explained why he’s asked her to not contact him from behind bars.

Kevin first his former spouse in August 2000 and by October, they were engaged, with the pair saying ‘I do’ just two months later.

Before filing for divorce just months after his wife’s arrest, Kevin, 46, and Ruby, 43, welcomed six children into the world. The ‘picture-perfect’ Mormon families lives were broadcast on the once-popular 8 Passengers YouTube channel, which was launched back in 2015.

The Franke clan’s platform had amassed 2.5 million followers by 2020, according to The Cut, and saw up to five videos being posted per week.

Disgraced vlogger Ruby Franke married her husband Kevin in 2000 (Instagram/@moms_of_truth)

However, in 2022, Ruby stopped posting von 8 Passengers and instead began co-fronting the ConneXions YouTube channel and Moms of Truth Instagram account with family therapist Jodi Hildebrandt.

According to PEOPLE, the 55-year-old convicted child abuser soon convinced Ruby to separate from her husband and asked her to swap her family home in Springville, Utah, for the therapist’s abode in Ivins.

There, some of the younger children were discovered by officials to be in an ‘emaciated and malnourished’ condition with ‘open wounds’ on their arms and legs

In 2023, Ruby and Hildebrandt were convicted after pleading guilty to felony child abuse.

The disgraced vlogger, sentenced to a minimum of four and a maximum of 30 years in prison for four counts of aggravated child abuse, has recently been transferred to Utah State Correctional Facility, as per KSL NewsRadio.

Ruby Franke (left) and Jodi Hildebrandt were both convicted of child abuse (Hulu)

According to her estranged husband Kevin, she hasn’t written to him since ‘maybe March or April’ of 2024. And despite her crimes and her apparent forced silence, he does ‘truly still love her’.

“I’m not ashamed to say that after being married over 20 years to that woman, I truly did and still do love her,” the engineering consult told PEOPLE.

“But that doesn’t excuse what she did, and it doesn’t excuse how she hurt our children and how she hurt me. There’s some bridges that you just can’t cross and then cross back. She burned the bridges, and so I’m moving on.”

Kevin claims he is now going to do what is ‘best’ for himself and his kids – which includes asking Ruby to stop contacting him.

“I requested the Department of Corrections to ask her to stop writing me,” he admitted. “I didn’t want to hear anymore. I didn’t like what she was saying.”

Kevin revealed why he asked his estranged wife to stop contacting him from jail (Instagram/@moms_of_truth)

Kevin reportedly refused to explain what he wrote in the letters, claiming the contents were ‘between her and [him]’.

“But it just didn’t feel right and it didn’t feel good, and I’m very angry. I’m still very angry.”

Tomorrow (February 27), the first episode of Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke is set to air on Hulu in the US.

The three-part docuseries features Kevin as well as his and Ruby’s eldest children, Shari and Chad Franke.

Earlier this year, Shari appeared on Good Morning America to speak about her mother and her new memoir, The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom

“What [Ruby] has done is so bad that I don’t think her mind allows her to kind of fully comprehend the guilt of all that,” she told Eva Pilgrim.

“And so I think that she probably genuinely believed everything she said. I don’t believe it though.”

Shari also said that she believes her mother is probably ‘as sorry’ as she can be, and that in the months since her sentencing, she’s been grappling with the concept of forgiveness.

“Forgiveness is something I’ve had to study a lot and kind of think about what it means,” she said. “But for me, forgiveness would look like not letting that consume every moment of my life and all of my thoughts.

“I am just trying to move on with my life and trust that things are gonna work out the way they’re supposed to.”

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard has spoken about something she regrets following her release from jail.

The 32-year-old was recently freed on parole after receiving a 10 year sentence for her part in the murder of her mother Claudine ‘Dee Dee’ Blanchard in 2015.

It is believed that during her childhood, Gypsy Rose was the victim of Munchausen Syndrome by proxy.

This rare behavioural disorder is where a parent or carer invents an illness for the person in their charge.

Dee Dee told people her daughter was wheelchair bound and had serious health conditions including epilepsy, impaired vision and muscular dystrophy.

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Gypsy Rose was forced to use a feeding tube and oxygen tank, and had been subjected to a number of unnecessary medical procedures.

In 2015 she and boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn plotted to kill her mother, and Dee Dee died after being stabbed 17 times by Godejohn.

Gypsy Rose pleaded guilty to second degree murder in 2016 and received a 10 year sentence, while Godejohn was convicted of first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Speaking to The Mirror following her release from jail, she opened up on a regret she had about her mother.

Gypsy Rose said: “I regret the fact I made the decision to end her life as a way out. I do think, ‘Well, what if she was here?’

“I hope that she would be proud of the woman I am becoming. I now feel more sympathy towards my mother, more forgiveness and more self-forgiveness.”

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Gypsy Rose is the only Munchausen Syndrome by proxy victim who is known to have escaped by killing their abuser.

The 32-year-old recently released a message on TikTok after leaving jail on parole.

She said: “Hey everyone, this is Gypsy. I’m finally free!

“I just want to send a quick video to thank everyone for the massive amount of support that I’ve been getting on social media. Everyone’s been really, really nice and supportive and I really appreciate that.

“It’s nice to be home, I’m back home in Louisiana, enjoying a beautiful day outside.”

She then went on to say there would be a ‘lot of great things happening really soon’, including the release of her documentary The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.

The 32-year-old also said she was ‘super proud of’ a book she wrote titled Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom.

A woman who planned the murder of everyone in her family spoke out about her actions, and what she said to her father after he survived.

Erin Caffey of Texas, US, spoke out about the planned crimes that she committed in 2008, which saw her manipulate her boyfriend to help her carry out heinous acts on her parents and siblings.

Formerly a church pianist, Caffey was just 16 when she planned to wipe her entire family out after she was told that she couldn’t see her 18-year-old boyfriend at the time, Charlie Wilkinson.

And with the help of his friend, Charles Waid, 20, they almost fully succeeded.

Speaking to Piers Morgan in 2016 as part of his ITV documentary series Killer Women, where the British journalist speaks to convicted female serial killers, Caffey admitted that she couldn’t believe that she once wanted to kill her entire family.

Her actions resulted in the deaths of her mother and two brothers, though the attempted murder of her father was unsuccessful.

Caffey waited in a car outside her family home with a friend, while Wilkinson and Waid entered the family home and repeatedly shot those inside, also using a samurai sword to stab Caffey’s mother, Penny, and her brothers – eight-year-old Tyler and 13-year-old Matthew.

Her father, Terry, was shot several times but managed to get himself out of the house before it was burned to the ground by the two perpetrators.

Erin Caffey orchestrated the murder of her mother and two brothers, as well as her father who was able to survive. (ITV)

All four teenagers were arrested soon after, with the other three all blaming Caffey for coming up with the idea, being accused of being angry at her parents after they forbade her from seeing Wilkinson.

These accusations were solidified when another ex-partner, Michael Washurn, also said that Caffey told him that she wanted her family dead.

But eight years on, in 2016, Caffey said this was all a result of ‘bad choices’, giving viewers an insight into her motivations behind the mass murder.

“I was shocked, angry and hurt, this was the guy (Wilkinson) I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with and he loved me – we were going to get married,” she told Morgan.

Labelling the idea as ‘stupid’ now, she admitted: “I mean, for what? They weren’t beating me, they weren’t starving me to death. I had it made.”

Morgan then asked Caffey how she reacted when he looked her in the eye and asked her if she was involved in the actions for the first time.

Caffey, 24 at the time of filming, said that he told her that he loved her, before asking about her involvement.

“When I saw him there, I was like, ‘no, no, no, no, no’, and I started screaming and he just said ‘don’t talk about it’.”

She also said that it ‘hit her hard’ when she saw his arm in a sling for the first time as it ‘made it real’, by Morgan’s words.

Caffey has since expressed remorse over her actions. (Public Domain)

Caffey is currently serving a sentence behind bars of at least 40 years, with Waid and Wilkinson serving life.

Though they all escaped the death penalty at the request of Caffey’s father.

Terry previously explained: “I wanted them to have the chance to find remorse.”

And despite the atrocities that his daughter committed, Terry said that he still regularly visits his daughter in prison.

“I honestly believe she was not the mastermind,” he said. “This was a vulnerable 16-year-old girl with a controlling, psychopathic guy.

“I do forgive her. I have to forgive her.”

An expert has revealed how to spot the signs of Münchausen syndrome by proxy after Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s release from prison.

Gypsy Rose was famously a victim of the rare disorder after her mum, Clauddine ‘Dee Dee’ Blanchard, lied to the world about her being terminally ill.

Dee Dee forced Gypsy Rose to use a wheelchair and oxygen tank, and also took her to the doctors tricking them into diagnosing and treating her daughter for conditions such as leukemia.

Seeing no other way out of the situation, Gypsy Rose plotted with her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to murder Dee Dee, who Godejohn stabbed to death.

Godejohn was sentenced to life in prison, while Gypsy Rose served seven years of a ten year sentence.

But what exactly is Münchausen syndrome by proxy?

Psychotherapist Alex Iga Golabe spoke to the Daily Star to explain the signs of the serious mental illness.

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The Cleveland Clinic defines Munchausen syndrome as ‘when someone tries to get attention and sympathy by falsifying, inducing, and/or exaggerating an illness. They lie about symptoms, sabotage medical tests (like putting blood in their urine), or harm themselves to get the symptoms’.

‘By Proxy’ means lying about someone else’s illness.

Golabe says the illness ‘involves a parent or caregiver lying about their child being unwell or purposefully making the child ill, for instance manipulating test results to achieve a desired outcome. It is classified as a form of child abuse’.

They added that certain types of people are much more likely to have Münchausen syndrome by proxy.

They explained: “According to research, nearly all abusers are female (97.6%) and the victim’s mother (95.6%). Most are married (75.8%). Perpetrators were frequently reported to be in healthcare-related professions (45.6%), to have had obstetric complications (23.5%), or to have histories of childhood maltreatment (30%).”

As for how doctors go about diagnosing the condition, obviously that is quite tricky.

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Golabe said: “No diagnostic criteria exists. Doctors also have little knowledge about this condition.

“Doctors are also surrounded by illness and high mortality rates in hospitals so they are more likely to attempt to treat the child (victim)’s symptoms as legitimate to avoid death.”

According to Heathline, the warning signs of Münchausen syndrome by proxy in a child include repeated hospitalisations, symptoms that don’t match test results or fit any disease, and symptoms that improve under medical care but seem to get worse at home.

Alarm bells to look out for in caregivers are attention-seeking behaviour, trying to come across as selfless, refusing to leave a child’s side and speaking for them, becoming overly involved with doctors and nurses, exaggerating symptoms and appearing to enjoy being in hospital.