I’m A Celeb’s Ruby Wax opens up about her ‘torturous’ childhood she miraculously survived

While Ruby Wax has been cracking jokes and powering through grim Bushtucker trials on I’m A Celeb, over the years, she has been open about her “torturous” childhood.

The 72-year-old has spoken about the much darker side of her past, a childhood she once described as “cruel” and something she “miraculously survived”.

She says she was ‘locked in the house’ as a child

Speaking on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast, Ruby recalled a moment that still shocks her today. She said, “I was locked in my house as a kid, I had no idea.”

She has spoken many times about how difficult home life was. “They were torturous, both of them, my mother innocently and my dad on purpose,” she said.

Her father would constantly tell her she was wealthy. “He’d take me to the bank and rattle some papers downstairs going, ‘Boy, are you rich,’” she said. But it was all a lie. Ruby said she wasn’t rich at all, she only stayed at home into her late 30s because she genuinely believed him.

And sadly, she used to keep a notebook, writing down imaginary debts he “owed” her each time something vicious happened. “If there was a beating, I charged a lot.”

She now knows her parents brought their trauma straight into the house

via ITV

Ruby grew up in Chicago as the only child of Austrian-Jewish immigrants Edward and Berta, who fled Vienna as the Nazis rose to power.

Ruby has said in the past that her parents “brought the war from Europe into our kitchen”. Speaking on Kate Garraway’s Life Stories, she said, “They were pretty violent with each other (and me). You’d have the sh*t knocked out of you.”

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Ruby has described her father as mean, volatile and emotionally punishing. He would call her a “sad sack”, an “idiot”, and even question “who would marry” her.

Her mother, meanwhile, was glamorous, multilingual and constantly on edge. Ruby once joked she was “on the ceiling with Q-tips” and “never without a sponge” because of how frantic she was.

She believes her mental health struggles began in childhood

via ITV

Ruby has long been open about her battles with depression. She’s spoken before about time spent in a psychiatric hospital and how her illness “goes back” to her earliest years.

She said her childhood home was so chaotic that she developed survival instincts early on, and her sense of humour became her only protection. “It was a cruel house… It’s a miracle I survived it. The only way out was to get a sense of humour.”

Her escape came through acting, and eventually, the BBC

via ITV

After finishing high school, Ruby moved to the UK, trained as a classical actress and performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She later landed her iconic spot interviewing celebrities for the BBC in the 1990s, becoming famous for her sharp humour and no-nonsense style.

She eventually stepped back from showbiz, studied mindfulness at Oxford University and went on to write several bestselling books, including Sane New World and A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled.

In 2015, she received an OBE for her mental health campaigning.

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