The daughter of ‘YouTube mum’ Machelle Hobson has opened up about the alleged abuse she endured behind the scenes of popular channel, Fantastic Adventures, and why she feels ‘death was too easy’ for her mother
The now grown-up daughter of a famous YouTuber has opened up about the alleged harrowing abuse she suffered behind closed doors.
Jordyn Downs, 29, is one of ‘YouTube mom’ Machelle Hobson’s five biological children, who featured on her YouTube channel Fantastic Adventures. Content creator Machelle also adopted seven children and, as claimed by Jordyn, fostered more than 40 between the years 2005 and 2019.
Fantastic Adventures, which launched on YouTube in 2012, proved to be popular, but behind the scenes, Jordyn has claimed something far darker was going on. She alleges that she was treated like a “puppet”, locked up in an empty room for up to 10 days, and even threatened with death if she tried to raise the alarm.
READ MORE: Toddler dies after dad ‘falls sleep in hot tub with daughter in his arms’
According to Jordyn, a stay-at-home mom, from Maricopa, Arizona, child protective services visited the family home on multiple occasions, but Machelle forced her to lie about their living conditions, using sickening threats. She recalled: “I was forced to lie when investigators came into the home. My mom worked for the state, and somehow she always knew when an investigation would happen. She would sit us down and prepare us, even threaten us.
“She wasn’t just threatening to hurt us, she was threatening to kill us if we spoke a word wrong. The authorities would ask us if our mom hurt us while she sat in the room. A couple of minutes before, she was saying she would kill us; no child is going to speak up against that.”
Jordyn claims that her mother routinely locked she and her siblings in an empty room with no bed, clothes or food for days on end, with the alleged abuse beginning well before Fantastic Adventures was launched. She shared: “The abuse happened my whole life. We were her puppets well before YouTube was a thought. Growing up, I faced a lot of mental abuse. I was told the worst things a child could be told about their appearance.
“She was always talking about my weight, telling me I was too fat and I shouldn’t eat as much. Mom would tell us that nobody would believe the abuse we had faced – we were told that constantly. She would put us against each other, she would punish you for someone else’s mistakes – she would make sure we hated each other.
“We got locked in rooms, we were threatened to have our food taken away, she would put us in the corner of the room and balance books on our heads. At 16-years-old, I tried to take an extra bite of food and the next thing I knew, my bed was taken off me, so were my clothes, and I was never allowed to go to school.”
Jordyn was just nine years old when Machelle started fostering children, and says she was immediately given the responsibility of caring for her younger foster siblings, while her mother was “never around”. She remembered: “Being the oldest girl, my mom put me in charge of taking care of the other kids. When we got a foster placement living with us, I was put in charge. At nine-years-old, I would be the one looking after foster children who were being taken from one broken home or ours. We were in survival mode – she was never around.”
By the age of 16, Jordyn says she was banned from attending school altogether so she could stay home and take care of her siblings. According to Jordyn, dozens of investigations into her family were carried out but ultimately dropped, leaving her feeling “failed”.
She said: “We were stuck in that home to be abused for years. There are dozens of kids who were abused by my mom for 18 years. At a very young age, the Arizona Department of Child Safety failed us. There were almost a dozen investigations done on my mom’s home for neglect, and nothing happened. Children lie, but it is the authorities’ job to look for red flags.”
In March 2019, officers received a tip from Jordyn’s sister, Megan Hobson. Upon arriving at the property, police saw that the children were malnourished, while several of them reporting that they’d suffered physical abuse. Machelle was arrested and charged with 30 felony counts related to the abuse but, in November 2019, sufferered a non-trauma-related brain injury and passed away in Scottsdale Hospital, Arizona.
Jordyn reflected: “I was angry when she died. I had spent my whole life trying to get justice for what she did to me. For her to be arrested and not even get a sentencing. I felt like death was too easy for her. We suffered for years, and she got eight months in jail and not even a full sentence – that is hard for me to accept.”
An Arizona Department of Child Safety spokesperson said: “We take great measures to ensure every child is placed in the safest environment possible. We thoroughly investigate every report of abuse or neglect we receive.
“Each investigation must determine whether there is sufficient evidence to support an allegation. If the evidence does not meet that threshold, the allegation is deemed unsubstantiated. If evidence shows a child is unsafe in their current home, we remove the child to a safe environment.
“Our staff works tirelessly to ensure every child’s safety and well-being, yet we must acknowledge the difficult reality that those intent on harming children may occasionally slip through even the most thorough and strongest protections.
“We also want to emphasize that while a very small number of individuals with bad intentions may pass the licensing and court process, the vast majority of Arizona foster parents are compassionate, dedicated people, and we are grateful they open up their homes to Arizona’s most vulnerable children.”
Do you have a story to share? Email me at [email protected]
READ MORE: Ex-husband and five others charged with more than 60 sexual offences against woman
link