So who is Ruby Wax? Right now, she’s the 72-year-old eating cockroaches on I’m A Celebrity. But mate, that’s just the start of her story.
Ruby’s the American who became more British than tea and biscuits. She moved here in the 1970s and never left. Good choice, really.
Born Ruby Wachs in Illinois back in 1953, her family fled Vienna when Hitler came knocking. Her parents were Austrian Jews who barely got out alive. They landed in America, changed their name to Wax, and her dad started making sausages. Not exactly glamorous.
Her childhood was rough. Ruby doesn’t sugar-coat it; she says her parents brought the war into their kitchen. Her dad played mind games. Her mum wasn’t much better. It was the kind of upbringing that either breaks you or makes you funny. Ruby went with the funny.
She came to Britain to study acting in Glasgow. Ended up at the Royal Shakespeare Company by 1978. Then she got a tiny role in Chariots of Fire. You know, that film where everyone runs on the beach in slow motion.
The Comedy Years
Things got interesting in 1985. Ruby landed a role in Girls on Top with Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, and Tracey Ullman. She played the loud American actress nobody could ignore. Suddenly, everyone knew her name.
Then the 90s happened, and Ruby became massive. She had her own BBC shows where she interviewed literally everyone. Madonna. OJ Simpson. The Spice Girls. Donald Trump.
Oh yeah, Trump. Let’s talk about that.
Also read: What is Bobby Brazier’s Net Worth?
The Trump Story Everyone Needs to Hear
Back in 2000, Ruby interviewed Trump on his private jet. Gold sink. Massive bed. The whole nine yards. During the chat, Trump said he wanted to be president.
Ruby laughed. She thought he was taking the mickey out of her.
Big mistake.
Trump told the pilot to land the plane so Ruby could get off. Later, he threatened John McEnroe that he’d “kill” Ruby if they met again. Ruby says it was one of the worst moments of her career. She admits Trump properly scared her.
The whole spectacle was captured on film, and to this day, 25 years later, it remains uncomfortable to watch. Ruby wishes she had responded differently. But, really, who could have predicted he’d become president?
Family Business
Ruby Wax’s husband Ed Bye has been putting up with her since 1988. That’s 37 years if you’re counting. Ed’s a director who worked on Red Dwarf and The Vicar of Dibley. He even directed some of Ruby’s shows.
She was married twice before Ed. Ruby Wax first husband, Andrew Porter, got four years with her from 1976 to 1980. Then there was a brief marriage to Trevor Walton.
Ruby’s dead honest about her marriage to Ed. She says the secret is spending weeks apart and not making him dinner. They’ve got separate friends, different interests, and different lives. But somehow it works.
They’ve got three kids. Ruby Wax son, Max, was born in 1988. Then daughters Madeleine in 1990 and Marina in 1993. Both girls followed their mum into comedy. They’ve got a podcast together called Siblings Comedy. Marina’s also an actress, as she was in Wonka and the new Bridget Jones film.
Ruby worried she’d pass her mental health struggles to her kids. She didn’t tell them about her depression until they were older. But they turned out brilliant.
When Everything Changed
Here’s where Ruby’s story gets serious. After years of being the brash, loud American on telly, she crashed. Proper crashed. Depression hit her like a freight train.
She describes it as “nobody’s home”. Not sadness. Just… gone.
In 2003, it got really bad. Ruby stepped away from the television. But instead of just sorting herself out, she went back to university at 60 and got a master’s degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Oxford. Oxford. At 60.
Now she’s a visiting professor in mental health nursing at the University of Surrey. She’s written bestselling books about mental health. She started Frazzled Café, where people can talk about feeling overwhelmed. In 201,5, she got an OBE for her work.
Ruby made it okay to admit you’re struggling. She showed that asking for help is not a weakness. She did it with her usual honesty and zero nonsense.
In 2022, she had another breakdown whilst staying at a monastery in Yorkshire. She thought the devil possessed her. Ended up in a psychiatric clinic. Then she wrote a book about it called I’m Not As Well As I Thought I Was. Because of course she did.
Back on Telly
Where does Ruby Wax live now? Somewhere in the UK, but she keeps the exact location private. Fair enough, really.
As for Ruby Wax’s net worth, estimates put it around £3.5 million. Not bad for someone who’s spent her life making people laugh and helping them heal.
So why’s she doing I’m A Celebrity at 72? She says she loves meeting new people and trying to figure out what makes them tick. And she is already an experienced jungler. In 2023, she made a BBC show called Ruby Wax: Cast Away, in which she spent 10 days deserted on an island off Madagascar. She knows how to survive.
For her first show, she had to chow down on crickets, cockroaches, mealworms, a cow’s teat, duck tongue and a pig’s testicle before finishing with the finale of a bull’s penis. On a scale of one to 10, she earned 10 stars for camp. Absolute legend.
Some fans even suspect she could win the whole thing. Her chances have already been cut from 40/1 to 20/1 on the basis of a single episode. She’s applying her psychology background to read people. She’s not scared of bugs. And she’s funny without trying too hard.
Also read: Tom Cruise Finally Gets His Oscar: A Long-Awaited Recognition
Why She Matters
Listen, who is Ruby Wax really? She’s also someone who has rebooted herself more times than the average job-changing person. She transformed from actress to comedian to interviewer to mental health campaigner.
She got married three times, raised three kids, got a degree from Oxford in her 60s, and now she’s eating insects on telly at 72.
Ruby showed us that mental health problems don’t define you. They are part of your story, but they’re not the full story. She took her pain and made something useful out of it. She has helped thousands of people feel less alone. But whether you know her from Girls on Top, her off-your-face celebrity interviews, her mental health campaigning or simply as the one in I’m A Celebrity… right now, there is no forgetting Ruby Wax. She has lived life in the way she saw fit. She’s broken down barriers.
She made us laugh whilst doing it. And she was once so irksome to Donald Trump that he had her kicked off a plane. At 72, she’s still got plenty more stories to tell. And we’re still listening.
