Kevin Franke has filed for divorce from Ruby Franke three months after the disgraced YouTuber was arrested for aggravated child abuse, according to multiple outlets.
Per People, Kevin filed in Utah on Wednesday both a petition for divorce and a domestic relations injunction, which requires all parties involved in this case to not harass, commit acts of violence or disparage the other or their children in any way.
The injunction will remain in place until the divorce is finalized or the petition is either dismissed or dissolved due to a mutual decision, according to NBC News.
A court clerk in Utah confirmed to Pvnew that the divorce documents are sealed and “private,” therefore specific details about the split have not been released.
Pvnew has reached out to both Ruby and Kevin’s attorneys but did not immediately hear back.
The estranged couple, who share six kids, has been separated for some time, though.
When Ruby was first arrested in September, Pvnew exclusively learned that the “8 Passengers” mom vlogger was still legally married to Kevin with his lawyer telling us at the time that the father of six was “not at liberty to respond about the topic of divorce.”
However, it was revealed shortly after that Ruby and Kevin had been secretly separated for more than a year by the time she was taken into police custody.
Kevin’s lawyer, Randy Kester, told Law & Crime on Sept. 12 that the exes had split over “a difference of opinion about their family parenting.”
The Utah-based attorney claimed Ruby kept his client from seeing their kids and had allegedly been controlling him “emotionally.”
“Because she knew how much he valued their marriage and valued their family, and it was his desire to be able to get back with the family and preserve his marriage,” Kester alleged to the outlet.
Ruby and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, were arrested after an emaciated child with duct tape around their extremities fled the Franke family home and asked a neighbor for help.
The two women have been charged with several counts of child abuse, including allegedly causing “serious physical injury to the victims in three different ways: (1) a combination of multiple physical injuries or torture, (2) starvation or malnutrition that jeopardizes life, and (3) causing severe emotional harm,” according to the Washington County Attorney’s Office.
Kevin has maintained he played no role in the alleged abuse and was unaware of what allegedly occurred to his children.
“He’s a very gentle guy, and no one’s ever made any allegations that he’s ever physically abused those kids or anyone else,” Kester told “Good Morning America” in September.
“He just wants to do what’s best for his kids and get them back, get them under his tutelage and his fathership and protect them.”
However, Ruby’s sister Bonnie Hoellein has publicly condemned Kevin and claimed he could have done more to stop the alleged abuse.
“The one person that could have done something within his legal right was Kevin,” she claimed in a YouTube video in September, adding at the time, “It was Kevin’s job to check in on things and he did not.”
No criminal charges have been filed against Kevin as of yet.
