RUBY Wax has revealed her parents beat her and left her feeling suicidal in an emotional Kate Garraway’s Life Stories interview.
Comedian Ruby, 70, insisted she “would be dead” if she hadn’t run away from her late hot-tempered parents in Chicago to study in Glasgow when she was a teenager.
Ruby Wax has revealed her parents beat her and left her feeling suicidal
She is pictured with her late father Edward and mother Berta Wachs as a child
The actress described her difficult childhood as “lock-in”, reflecting on how she would watch other children playing through her window “with longing”.
She claimed her father Edward and mother Berta Wachs would direct their anger towards one another too, having been damaged from living in Austria during the Nazi regime.
The Jewish couple had fled the war-torn country for the US in 1938 and were not able to fulfil their true potentials.
She said: “They took the war from Europe and brought it to the kitchen.
“They slung these verbal grenades at each other and I was in the middle, especially because I was born into the land of the free and the brave and I could have a really great life and they were nipped in the bud at 22, so they wanted to make it hard.
“They were pretty violent with each other [and me], you’d have the sh** knocked out of you.’
The only child added: “I had ambition and the drive of a Rottweiler to survive. I pushed them out of the way and I was very rebellious, I’d creep out of the window when I was 18.
“I remember I hitch-hiked at a private airport to get to San Francisco and then, of course, I’d go back and they’d beat me up, and I’d go out again.
“I did everything to spite them and they were getting angrier and angrier.”
Recalling one incident when her father tried to “beat” her in public, Ruby said her friends formed a ring around her in protection.
She concluded, “I have a long line of suicide on my dad’s side so yeah it would have happened. If I stayed there, I wouldn’t have made it. And I got out.”
Ruby is known for her TV show, comedy career and books and was born on April 19, 1953.
She was born in Evanston, Illinois, has been in the spotlight for more than three decades.
The TV star is also a writing talent and released her best-selling memoir How Do You Want Me? in 2002.
Ruby regularly raises awareness for mental illnesses by speaking about her own experiences.
The comedian spoke candidly in an emotional Kate Garraway’s Life Stories interview
Ruby is known for her TV show, comedy career and books
