Comedian, author and presenter Ruby Wax – who is currently in the Australian jungle filming the latest season of I’m A Celebrity – has had an incredibly colourful career.
Once a pioneer in documentary-style interviewing, with subjects like Madonna, Donald Trump and O.J Simpson, Ruby is an actress who trained with the Royal Shakespeare Company, an award-winning comedian, a best-selling author, a script editor on Absolutely Fabulous and a long-term mental health campaigner.
Having enjoyed such a wide-ranging, successful career over the course of the past 55 years, you might be wondering how it all started. What was Ruby’s childhood like? Did she have showbiz parents? And how did she get her start in life? Here’s everything you need to know.
Where did Ruby Wax grow up?
Ruby Wax was born and raised in Evanston in Illinois. She was born to Edward and Berthe Wachs, both Austrian Jews who left Vienna in 1938because of the threat of Nazis. However, she does not identify as Jewish as her parents never practiced the religion.
Ruby majored in psychology at Berkeley, however she left without completing the degree.
What was Ruby Wax’s childhood like?
Ruby claims that her mother had obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and says the fridge in her house growing up was only full of mayonnaise and cigars. ‘My mother would often get hysterical and there was lots of screaming,’ she told The Guardian in 2017, ‘but rather than deal with it, my father would just turn the opera up on the radio.’
She also claims her mother spent a lot of her time cleaning and wrapping furniture in plastic. Ruby also lived with grandmother and had distant cousins living in Chicago too, who she is still close with.
Does Ruby Wax have any siblings?
No, Ruby is an only child and says she wishes she had siblings so she could compare notes about her upbringing.
When did Ruby Wax move to the UK?
Ruby moved to the UK to study at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. Starting out at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, she formed a writing and directing partnership with Alan Rickman.
In 1978, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company where she met Ian Charleson, whose breakthrough film Chariots of Fire she played a small part in. In 1985, Ruby secured a role in the British sitcom Girls on Top, which marked the start of her comedy career. By 1987, she had her first of many TV shows, Don’t Miss Wax.
Ruby has been a naturalised British citizen since the 1970s, while also retaining American citizenship.
Does Ruby Wax have kids?
Yes, Ruby married Andrew Porter in 1976, but they divorced in 1980. She then married her current husband Ed Bye in 1988, who she shares three children with – Marina, Max and Madeline.
Maddy, 35, and Marina, 32, have followed in their mother’s footsteps and co-host a comedy podcast, Siblings Comedy. Marina has also starred in The Girlfriend on Prime Video, Wonka, The Lucky Ones and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
‘If they weren’t funny I wouldn’t encourage them,’ Ruby said in 2017, ‘but they are. When they are all round for dinner they make Max laugh so much he cries.’
Ruby has also explained that her kids did not know she had depression until they were older. ‘My children have all been there for me and are very nurturing and rally round and understand,’ she said. ‘We don’t know if mental health is nature or nurture and I did worry about that and whether I had passed the baton on. Depression kicks in early but it didn’t for any of them. I look at them now and think “I got lucky”.’
What’s Ruby Wax’s relationship with her husband like?
Ruby has described her relationship with Ed as ‘unconventional’ in the past, mainly because they have spent large chunks of time apart. However, they have been married for almost 40 years, after meeting in 1987. Ed is a TV and film director and producer who has also worked in comedy.
Nikki Peach is a senior writer at Grazia, working across news, entertainment, features. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things pop culture for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow with equal respect).
