Franke’s memoir, released on January 7, outlines shocking allegations never heawrd before. Shari Franke, the oldest daughter of YouTube family vlogger and convicted child abuser Ruby Franke, revealed what it was like growing up with an abusive parent in a disturbing memoir which hit shelves Tuesday (January 7).
Throughout the book, titled The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom, Franke details the decades of abuse she experienced at the hands of her mother and later her business partner Jodi Hildebrant. Back in February the two of them were sentenced to up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse, including trying to convince Franke’s two youngest siblings that they were evil, possessed by demons, and needed to be punished.
Franke’s memoir reflects on the more extreme aspects of her mother’s behavior. Her mother physically abused her, she says, after playing a wrong note on the piano. Sometimes it was more psychological — such as threatening to pull Franke out of school if she didn’t quit her high school track team.
Part of the book also discusses Franke’s two-year sexual relationship with a married church official in his 40s named Derek, which began when she was 18. She says that he made her be intimate with him in order to prepare her for marriage. Here are three other newly revealed facts from Franke’s memoir.
After Hildebrant became the therapist to Franke and her little brother Chad, she moved into Franke’s bedroom when she left for her first year of college at Brigham Young University. Franke wrote that her mother and Hildebrant were the only people allowed upstairs, as they even cut off Ruby’s now ex-husband Kevin Franke.
