[ cheers and applause ] ♪ this is "nightline." >> byron: tonight, princess kate reveals she has cancer. >> in january, i underwent major abdominal surgery in london. a test after the operation found cancer had been present. >> byron: the future queen of england's shocking announcement. >> william and i have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family. >> byron: reverberating across the country and around the world, echoing the firestorm earlier this month over that

doctored mother's day photos. >> if this announcement doesn't confirm conspiracy theories, i don't think anything will are will. >> byron: the message to kate and the family from harry and meghan. house of horrors. disturbing video in the case of utah momfluencer ruby franke convicted of multiple child abuse charges. the horrifying injuries and humiliations inflicted on her two youngest children documented by authorities responding to a neighbor's alert. >> he's emaciated. he's got tape around his legs. >> byron: their father brought to tears by what police showed him. >> it sounds like a horror movie. >> byron: the pages of franke's journal entries. >> this is not a one-time injury? >> this is injury on top of injury. this was happening for weeks. - bye, bye cough. - later chest congestion. hello 12 hours of relief. 12 hours!! mucinex dm gives you 12 hours of relief from chest congestion and any cough, day or night.

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for all that is me, for all that is you. kaiser permanente. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> byron: good evening. thank you for joining us. today that stunning announcement from england. princess kate, 42 years old, revealing she's been diagnosed with cancer. abc foreign correspondent maggie rulli is in london. what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah, byron, i think the whole country here is just still in shock. this was a stunning and heartbreaking announcement from kensington palace. then to have it come from kate in what was really an emotional,

raw, and vulnerable video. we've been spending the past few weeks hearing all of these conspiracy theories online, all of these global concerns about her health. now we are hearing from princess catherine in her own words. >> it has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family. >> reporter: today catherine, princess of wales, addressing the world on camera for the first time in months. >> in january, i underwent major abdominal surgery in london. and at the time it was thought that my condition was noncancerous. the surgery was successful, however, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. my medical team therefore advised that i should undergo a course of preventive chemotherapy, and i'm now in the early stages of that treatment. >> reporter: the 42-year-old mother of three and future queen of great britain revealing she has cancer. >> this, of course, came as a huge shock. and william and i have been

doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family. >> reporter: the palace saying they will not be sharing what type of cancer catherine is fighting as the princess has a right to medical privacy, as we all do. prince harry and meghan markle echoing the sentiment saying, "we wish health and hope for kate and the family, hoping they're able to do so privately and in peace." >> the timing of the announcement is the children have broken true that school. william and kate can take them off right now, have them in a bubble, protect them. >> reporter: concern and speculation around the princess' absence building too to have a fever pitch after weeks dragged on with no video evidence of her well-being since around christmastime. >> if this announcement doesn't calm conspiracy theories, then i don't think anything will. because you have kate sitting in front of the camera, filmed by the bbc, speaking in her own

words, telling us directly what is going on. >> reporter: earlier this month, kensington palace sharing this photo of catherine and her children, said to be snapped by prince william in honor of mother's day in the uk. "thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months." the sweet snap intended to reassure the world that all was well. >> the photograph of kate was put out, i think, partly to stop the misinformation that was online. >> reporter: hours after the palace released the picture, multiple photo agencies removing the image after concluding it had been digitally altered. >> once they revealed the picture had been manipulated, it was pretty bad for the brand royal family. because you've got respected news agencies saying that kensington palace is not a reliable source of news, in the same regard as north korea and iran. >> we get really, really outlandish, people not believing anything, theories going in

really wild directions. i think that was a very difficult thing. >> reporter: the next day, the princess of wales addressing the uproar in a social media post saying, "like amateur photographers, i do occasionally experiment with editing. i wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused." earlier this week video of catherine and william at a farmers' market obtained by tmz. >> in choosing to make this announcement, they have made people understand a bit more why she may not be resuming engagement, even though she is up and about in her daily life. >> reporter: another hard blow to the royal family. last month, king charles announcing his own diagnosis of an undisclosed form of cancer. less than 18 months into his reign as king. in kate and charles' absence, the share of high-profile royal duties increasingly placed on queen camilla and prince williams' shoulders, added pressure at a time about prince harry, who once worked by about

his side, is still distant from the family. >> because of harry and meghan, we've only got so many working royals and so much ground to cover. >> two of the star performers, the king and princess of wales, are no longer going to be seen in public for weeks, months. i do believe the people will be patient. they'd be rooting for the princess as well as for the king. >> reporter: for now, kate's focusing on her family and her healing. >> it has taken us time to explain everything to george, charlotte, and louis in a way that's appropriate for them and to reassure them that i'm going to be okay. as i've said to them, i am well and getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal. in my mind, body, and spirit. >> byron: this comes just a month after king charles announced his cancer diagnosis. so how is the institution handling this crisis? >> reporter: this is really an unprecedented situation. one the royal family and this

country hasn't seen before. two senior members of the royal family, the king and the future queen, not only diagnosed with cancer at almost the exact same time, now both stepping back from royal duties. the royal family is in a crisis. personally dealing with traumas, dealing with their grief. also professionally, when you look at the royal family. there is so much pressure on the few working royals we have left. that's a lot for anyone to deal with. >> byron: a lot indeed. maggie rulli from buckingham palace, thank you so much. we'll continue to follow the health of the royal family closely and wish both princess kate and king charles the speediest of recoveries. when we come back, the momfluencer turned felon, ruby franke. disturbing evidence made public today.

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♪ >> byron: welcome back. ruby franke was sentenced in february to years in prison after pleading guilty to abusing her two youngest children to truly shocking degrees. tonight we examine images what was police saw last summer when franke's 12-year-old son escaped and ran to a neighbor's house. here's my "nightline" coanchor juju chang. we warn you, some of these images are disturbing. >> juju: it's a hot summer morning in eye ivins, utah, whe ring camera picks up a young boy. >> i was wondering if you can do two favors? >> well, what are they? >> taking me to the nearest police station? >> reporter: the neighbor,

distraught, calls 911. >> 911, tell me exactly what's happened. >> said he just came from a neighbor's house. he's emaciated. he's got tape around his legs. he's hungry, and he's thirsty. >> okay. >> he's obviously covered in wounds. >> juju: within minutes the emts and officers arrive. to protect the 12-year-old boy's identity, we're calling him "r." what you're about to see be what unsettling. >> underneath the duct tape was saran wrap wrapped around both his legs. and on both wrists were the same. when i asked him how did he get the injuries? he told me that his mom and jodi -- >> does he know his mom's name? >> ruby franke is his mom's name. >> juju: the famous influencer and mom of six, and her friend and business partner, jodi

hildebrandt, who lives just minutes away. "r" informs the police he has siblings at jodi's house, and the police rush over. >> police officers! open up! jodi? i need you to step out. >> i have -- i have my attorney -- >> that's great, step out of the house -- >> whoa, whoa, whoa quhoerks squham. >> we were able to enter jodi's house due to the exigent circumstances surrounding. >> police, anybody home? police officers! >> juju: just over 10,000 square feet. this home has multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, hallways, including a large safe room. >> we found a rope. we found handcuffs. it was really set up like a private room. >> we entered a room that had a bed in it with an attached bathroom and an attached closet. and in the middle floor --

>> come on, buddy, i'm a police officer. hey. you okay? is it just you in here? i get that you're scared. i would be, too. you're in no way in any trouble. i'm not here to hurt you. i just want to make sure you're okay. >> juju: "e" we'll call the 9-year-old to protect her identity, ruby franke's youngest child. >> ruby is in a panic and driving down from northern utah. >> she showed up, she was immediately detained. >> juju: officers spend nearly six hours searching jodi's home that day and collect multiple bags of evidence. >> due to the totality of the circumstances and the evidence that we have found, there's enough to charge these two with aggravated child abuse. >> juju: ruby's demeanor during her arrest a stark contrast to the animated and vocal mom mmy vlogger fans had been used to

seeing on her popular channel "eight passengers." >> none of my kids had training wheels. >> reporter: sherry and chad, the two oldest children, now adults. two teenage girls in the middle. and the two youngest children, "e" and "r." >> very quickly, "eight passengers" had millions of viewers for almost all their videos. >> juju: in 2022, ruby abandoned it and joined forces with jodi hildebrandt, a therapist who was ruby and her husband kevin's marriage counselor. ruby and jodi became the face of jodi's online life coaching business "connections." >> welcome to connections. i'm jodi hildebrandt. >> i'm ruby franke. the same day we placed ruby franke and jodi under arrest, kevin also came to the police department looking for his kids. >> juju: he is placed in an interrogation room. >> i want to pick up my kids. i haven't seen them for over a year. >> juju: was he aware the kids were at jodi's house?

>> we don't know if he was. it's clear that he moved out in july of 2022. >> they just worked on their marriage like most people do when relationship issues come up. part of that process was, stay away from your children, only respond to ruby when she contacts you. >> juju: kevin is shocked to learn about the abuse of his children and is quickly cleared as a suspect. >> i don't know what to do. i have no idea what you're talking about. this just -- it sounds like a horror movie. >> juju: it becomes clear to investigators that problems really began when jodi hildebrandt, the therapist who ran the online life coaching business connections, entered the picture. >> you see a complete disintegration of the franke family. kevin franke has left. he has moved out. she leaves her two teen girls back in the springville home. and she essentially moves in with the family therapist, taking her two youngest children

with her in ivins, utah. >> juju: the investigation later revealing what went on behind those closed doors. >> "r" shared his side of the story of what happened inside the home. how he had to stand in the sun for hours a day and sleep outside. how he was deprived of food and water. he disclosed there was a set of silver and a set of black handcuffs used. when we found these items, it really corroborated our story. >> juju: the prosecutor showed us photographs of deep wounds from the hand can you haves, what he describes as torture. we want to warn you, the image you're about to see is graphic. this is not a one-time injury? >> this is injury on top of injury. this was happening for weeks. >> juju: more evidence of the abuse is documented by ruby herself in her personal journal found by the police.

it's a sheaf of papers documenting the summer day by day. 7-eleven-23, tuesday, "r" was told to stand in the sun with his sun hat, he is defiant. when i poke his back to get in the sun, "r" doesn't even flinch. 7-14-23, "e" refuses to work, screams, has hair shaved off. >> juju: jodi hilda grant is referred to in the journal as g-jo. g-jo helped me intervene after work. i cut more off "e's" head. we doused her with water in the dog wash. >> it really shows that both of them were very involved with the corporal punishment and physical, emotional abuse. >> juju: how bullet-proof was this case as you were heading towards trial? >> it's not that often that you have one of the two codefendants cataloging their criminal acts that they're doing.

>> juju: kevin is reconciling with his two oldest, once-estranged children, sherry and chad. >> any comments for today? >> not today, thanks. >> juju: is fighting to regain custody of his youngest four. kevin also filed for divorce from ruby. as her sentence approaches, ruby has a change of heart. now accepting responsibility for her own conduct and even agreeing to testify against jodi. on december 18th, 2023, she pleads guilty to four second-degree felony charges of aggravated child abuse. the remaining two charges are dropped. >> and to count six, aggravated child abuse? >> with my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children, guilty. >> juju: jodi, knowing her former friend and business partner was willing to testify against her, she also pleads guilty to the same four charges of aggravated child abuse. >> guilty.

>> the utah board of pardons and parole will determine how long they'll end up spending in prison. and from what we know of the level of felony that both ruby franke and jodi hildebrandt pled guilty to, they can get anywhere from four years in prison to 30 years. >> juju: we're told "e" and "r" have been placed together in foster care. >> they look so much better. they've put on weight. they look healthy. they're happy. they're back to their hobbies. >> juju: as for their siblings, the middle teens, abc news reached out to the department of child and family services citing privacy policies, they told us they can't share any information. >> kevin does want custody. he wants a relationship with his four minor children. >> "r" was extremely brave. not only did he save himself, but he saved "e" and she was grateful for "r." >> byron: our thanks to juju. you can watch the full episode

of "ruby franke transaction from mom influenza tore felon" now streaming on hulu. when we come back, a message of hope and solidarity from princess kate. with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, my skin was no longer mine. my active psoriatic arthritis joint symptoms held me back. don't let symptoms define you. emerge as you. with tremfya®, most people saw 90% clearer skin at 4 months... ...and the majority stayed clearer, at 5 years. tremfya® is proven to significantly reduce joint pain, stiffness and swelling it's just 6 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge as you. emerge tremfyant®. ask you doctor about tremfya®. so i didn't think i needed swiffer,

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♪ >> byron: finally tonight, we leave you with something more from princess kate's stunning announcement about her cancer diagnosis. the future queen using her platform to inspire others. >> at this time, i'm also thinking of all those whose lives have been affected by cancer. for everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. you are not alone. >> byron: amen to that. that's "nightline" for this evening. catch full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here same time on monday. thanks for the company, america. have a good and safe weekend.