What to Know
When Ruby Franke was arrested on multiple felony charges of child abuse, her two oldest children, Shari and Chad Franke were adults and no longer living at home. Since then, both have spoken about having no contact with their mother, and Chad has even made content full of jokes about her. Now, however, he is opening up in a way he hadn’t before.
From Chad’s TikTok bio that morbidly says he is a “Mama’s boy” to his honesty about receiving letters from Ruby from prison, Chad is an open book when it comes to the abuse his mom inflicted on him and his siblings. In a TikTok video, he says that some followers want him to actually write a book about it all. For now, though, he is apparently settling for sharing diary entries with followers.
Chad Franke admits he “used to be brainwashed” by mom Ruby Franke.
@chadwfranke This might be a big mistake😭 #fyp #blowthisup #storytime #chadfranke ♬ original sound – Chad Franke
In his initial video about his journal entries from 2023, which was the year Ruby was arrested after her 12-year-old son, Chad’s younger brother, was found malnourished with tape around his wrists and ankles after escaping the home of Ruby’s business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt. Before then, and before Ruby’s arrest, Chad had been in contact with Ruby and even had something of a relationship with his mom. But it was complicated, and Chad has talked about that complicated relationship since then.
In 2025, Chad appeared on The Squeeze podcast, where he shared that he spoke to Ruby shortly after her arrest. He said that, at the time, he tried to make her realize that her actions against her minor children were not acceptable. He admitted that he told his mom he loved her, but he also recognized that he didn’t want a relationship with her.
Now, Chad recognizes that he was indeed “brainwashed” but his mom under the guise of religion and spiritual beliefs. Got your popcorn ready?
“Hi, my name is Chad, and I used to be very brainwashed. And no, I am not kidding,” Chad says in his initial TikTok video about his diary. “You can look me up. My name is Chad Franke, and I am being dead serious. And a lot of my viewers have asked me to write a book on my story. And one, I’m not a very good writer. And two, I don’t want ghost writers to write it for me. And then I remembered I kind of wrote my own story myself. While I was in that phase of my life, I journaled every single day.”
He also says that he will “go back to 2023, two years ago, and read every single journal entry” he wrote during that time. Chad then adds, “So starting now, every single day, go to my page, give me a follow, and I will give you a day by day rundown of what it truly was like being brainwashed.”
In a follow-up video, Chad reads an entry about apparently struggles with “lust” that he had at the time.
“Being a lifeguard, I just watch people’s choices over and over,” Chad says, reading from his diary. “I have two opportunities to either feel compassion or lust. It is difficult to rid lust after a lifetime of feeding it. But at the pool, I have more and more chances to evidence I will not lust. It will take more practice. And I have not spoken the lustful language or shared lustful comments. It is all immature and I need and want to grow into a hard working and principled man. I need to be disciplined.”
In another video where Chad reads from his diary, he goes into reflection about a “dangerous path” he is on in making entertainment a priority for himself. In 2023, Chad was 18 years old, mind you.
“I got up early to go to a fast shift,” Chad reads. “I was really tired and excited to go home and sleep, but instead I played Mario Kart after that. And doing it again tonight helped me realise I’m making entertainment the priority. This is a dangerous path. There’s nothing wrong with entertainment, but I’m making it a distraction. I’m not thinking deeply enough before choosing. And usually thinking that deeply will lead to an answer my body doesn’t want. I’ll have many chances to practice that in the upcoming days.”
In the comments, someone pointed out that Chad likely knew his mother would be reading the entries and that Chad wanted to be sure to write for her approval. Another pointed out the irony that Ruby made Chad believe that entertainment was dangerous as a priority when, in fact, Ruby forced Chad and the rest of the family into making YouTube content that was literally entertainment.
