I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! star Ruby Wax’s family changed their surname after a tragic past event.
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! sensation Ruby Wax has already demonstrated she’s worth every single penny of her reported £95,000 appearance fee.
The star has served up brilliant one-liners, pinched sweets from fellow campmates, formed an unexpected friendship with Angry Ginge and Tom Read Wilson, and dished the dirt on Donald Trump.
The performer and comic, 72, shot to stardom on the sitcom Girls On Top, before launching her own programmes, The Full Wax, Ruby Wax Meets… and The Ruby Wax Show.
Yet her professional triumph hasn’t actually been achieved under her birth name, which is Ruby Wachs, reports the Express.
Ruby’s mum and dad, Austrian Jews who escaped Vienna in 1938 due to the Nazi menace, relocated to Chicago in Illinois. Upon arrival, they altered their family name from Wachs to Wax.
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She retained the moniker and relocated to Britain, where she became a familiar face following her breakthrough.
Ruby has previously discussed her parents’ wartime escape, revealing she came to London to seek refuge from them years afterwards.
During an appearance on Jamie Laing’s podcast Great Company, she explained: “They brought the war from Europe into our kitchen.”
She continued: “They were torturous, both of them – in my mother innocently and my dad on purpose. You know, he’d play mind games.”
In an interview with The Guardian, she also reflected on her challenging childhood, describing feelings of: “Extreme loneliness. And terror. Because there was no safety.”
She went on: “My parents over-loved me. They wanted a little doll who’d be the American dream. Instead, they got this androgynous, angry, repressed child.”
In a 2017 instalment of Who Do You Think You Are? Ruby journeyed to Central Europe to explore her parents’ heritage, delving into their past and her mother’s psychological struggles.
“I think I have lived most of my life in a high anxiety state and so I want to know where that came from,” she explained initially.
“And I keep blaming my parents. It would be interesting to know who they’re blaming.”
During her journey, Ruby visited a prison that her father was imprisoned in when the Nazis took control of Austria, before he was freed on the promise he would leave the country.
She also discovered more about her mother’s family, tracing the stories of her ancestors and learning how her great-grandmother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Ruby has been open about her own mental health, having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression.
“You know, I could have saved myself a lot of time and money,” she reflected after the experience. “Rather than doing therapy, I should have been doing genealogy. Now knowing my ancestors, I understand a lot more about myself.”
Ruby married her husband Ed in 1988, and they have three children together, all in their 30s.
Ahead of her stint in the jungle, she said she wanted to “show people I’m not aggressive”, saying: “I was stereotyped during my career.”
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! continues tonight at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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