Ruby Wax is swapping mindfulness retreats for the famous jungle camp this November. Known for her fearless celebrity interviews with the likes of Madonna and Donald Trump, the comedian-turned-mental-health campaigner will take on the 25th series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, which launches on 16 November 2025.
“This is going to be hilarious, terrifying, and enlightening all at once,” says Ruby. “I can’t wait to see what the jungle has in store!”
Long before the jungle, Ruby shared her thoughts with us in an interview about her personal struggles with mental health, her journey from comedy to mindfulness, and the lessons she’s learned along the way. From her groundbreaking interviews to her work as a mental health campaigner, here’s everything you need to know about the star.
About Ruby Wax's parents and early life
Ruby's childhood was traumatic by any standards. Her parents – Jewish immigrants who escaped Austria just before the war, but whose families perished – were traumatised themselves. They were cruel to their only child.
“I got D grades in high school,” says Ruby, who grew up outside Chicago. “I got into university [in the US to study psychology], but it wasn’t that easy because I was traumatised. I couldn’t focus or I was dumb, one or the other.”
She later embarked on a career in show business, but now she has come full circle. “I started where I left off at age 16 when I was shut down. I suddenly became curious about science, of all things.
“Now I know about things such as neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to undergo biological changes) and that the brain doesn’t automatically decline as fast as you think it does,” she laughs.
Ruby Wax's husband and kids
Ruby has been married TV producer Ed Bye for 37 years. The pair got married in 1988 after meeting on TV project. Ed Bye is a British TV producer and director known for working on shows such as, Kevin & Perry, Red Dwarf and Bottom. The couple met when Ed was directing Ruby in her sitcom Girl On Top. Speaking to the Independent about their first encounter Ruby said: "When I met Ed Bye, in 1988, I wasn’t expecting to find my happy-ever-after. I asked Ed if he wanted to marry me, told him I had an opening in my calendar, and gave him a date. I said many men were after me, but I was lying."
Ruby previously told The Sun’s Fabulous magazine that her marriage is “unconventional”. She explained: “I have my friends, he has his friends. I don’t assume we have the same tastes. It’s understood we both have different careers. We’re together but we have different tastes and jobs – and that’s OK. We don’t step on each other’s toes and I don’t really see myself as Mrs Bye.”
Ruby and her husband Ed share three children: Max, 37, Maddy, 35, and Marina, 32. Their eldest, Max, arrived in 1988, followed by Maddy in 1990 and Marina in 1993. In October, Ruby revealed on Instagram that Max is heading to Washington.
Both daughters have gone into comedy, following in their mum’s footsteps. Maddy and Marina host their own podcast, Siblings Comedy. However, Ruby once admitted they don’t actually come to her for career guidance. Writing for The Mirror in 2020, she said: “Even though my daughters are comedians they don’t ask for my advice – in their eyes I know nothing. They do spot-on impressions of me. Max is a coder. The dinner table conversations we have are just hilarious. I hope I’ve taught them to be adventurous.”
Marina has also branched out into acting. She’s appeared as Pandora Henry in the thriller The Girlfriend and has roles in We Were the Lucky Ones and the 2017 film Breathe, which starred Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy.
From celebrity interviews to mindfulness mastery
Once celebrated for her boundary-pushing interviews, Ruby is just as thoughtful, bright and naturally funny off-screen. After struggling with depression for most of her life and eventually experiencing a breakdown, she stepped away from comedy to study psychology, earning a Master’s degree from Oxford University.
Since then, her mission has been to figure out what’s happening in our brains to cause depression, in her case, and general negativity in everybody, and what we can do about it.
“I’m interested in how the human mind works because even if you don’t have a mental health problem like I do, you’re bound to have critical thoughts and say to yourself, ‘I’m not good enough’.”
But it’s not our fault, she says – it’s simply evolution. Ruby believes humans’ brains have not evolved fast enough to cope with the onslaught of 21st-century life. “Most of our negative thoughts are a holdover from when we were cavemen and life was fraught with danger,” she says. “Over millions of years these thoughts became internalised. This way of thinking is in our DNA.” In other words, she says, the brain is like Velcro attracting negative thoughts and Teflon repelling positive ones.
Books by Ruby Wax
In her latest book, 'I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was', Ruby is very honest and open in her own humorous way about her mental health struggles.
In 2022, Ruby was admitted to a mental institution in London once she began to feel like she wanted her life to stop. During this difficult time, she began to write this book, talking about times when she felt she was putting on a front, to her family history of mental illness and its impact on her.
This book is all about staying sane in the chaotic world we find ourselves in today and how depression can sneak up on you at the most unpredictable of times. Ruby hopes this book will help you feel less alone in those dark moments and hopefully provide some light in the future.
AmazonTV shows with Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax has had a varied and influential TV career, from her groundbreaking celebrity interviews in the 1990s to more recent reality shows. Here’s a look at some of her most notable TV appearances.
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
Ruby Wax is a contestant on the 25th edition of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! this November.
is looking forward to meeting her fellow Campmates and embracing everything the show throws at her.
Despite her confidence, Ruby admits she isn’t entirely sure how she’ll cope with the Bushtucker Trials. “I don’t have any phobias, but I have no idea how I’ll react to rats or being in a tiny space,” she says. “What small space would I be put in? Do they have elevators in the Jungle?!”
When Ruby Wax Met...
As successful as her second career has been, Ruby admits she’s sad her previous job as a celebrity interviewer ended in 2005 when ‘the phone stopped ringing’.
She confesses she can’t watch Louis Theroux’s TV series, which are similar in format to those she made in the Nineties and early Noughties; she feels he replaced her.
With her typical honesty, she adds: “Then again this career happened. Certainly, if I wasn’t doing anything I’d be the most bitter, angry person – I really would.”
Ruby's interviews in the 90s were some of the most talked-about shows on TV. These sensational series have never been repeated, and Ruby has never watched them back - until now in a new series for BBC.
Ruby walks viewers through the genesis of her boundary-busting celebrity interview technique, originating in her studio The Full Wax, which crossed genres and created a fearless new form of entertainment.
The show revisits early guests such as Donald Trump, Carrie Fisher, Goldie Hawn and Tom Hanks. You can watch episodes of When Ruby Wax Met... on BBC iPlayer.
Ruby Wax on Castaway
If you haven't watched Ruby's show Castaway, we can't recommend it enough. Available to stream on Channel 5, it sees 70-year-old Ruby living alone on a desert island in Madagascar for ten days.
During the first episode, she opened up about her own personal mental health battles, sharing how, 'mental health people are survivors because we know what it's like to be alone'.
Ruby on why Christmas is a difficult time
One time of year when our mental health can suffer the most is around Christmas time, and Ruby thinks it’s down to the pressure to feel happy.
“People are put under that pressure from advertising or tradition and you’re supposed to be happy, like Happy birthday, or Happy New Year. In this environment, if you're not feeling ok, you feel even more guilty.”
Being a comedian, it’s no surprise that Ruby believes many of us escape through comedy at Christmas, whether it’s joking at the dinner table or watching your favourite comedy show on TV, but worries that this is brushing over our true feelings.
“I think people watch comedies over Christmas because it's really good for your health. But when the show's over, and the family is still not getting along, or there's anxiety, or there's trouble, you can't watch TV forever.”
“To me, mental health is the next pandemic, and especially with kids. If we don't take that seriously, then it doesn't matter how well we do in the economy. Too many people are missing an action.”
Around this time of year more than ever, Ruby’s encouraging us to speak to those who we sense might be struggling with their mental health and equally, open up about our own too.
"We were born with compassion and sensitivity, but we were too busy to use it. Everybody's busy. It's like that has become a badge of honour, as if you've won an award. So just come out from behind that. Notice your own ‘weather condition’ and maybe find somebody who seems to feel the same, and start talking."
"If you're really struggling and it’s a close friend, you might say, 'Do you really want to know?' Or you could ask, 'On a scale from one to ten, ten being the worst, how are you? I'm at nine…' That can help open the conversation."
"Also, look them in the eye. That's one thing we often forget to do. If you're asking, 'How are you?', say it slowly, make eye contact, and notice every flicker and every feeling — you'll see it if you really look."
Walkers has partnered with Ruby Wax, to help challenge the nation to give up the F*** word this Christmas and beyond in support of mental wellbeing. The campaign forms part of the snack brand’s ongoing partnership with Comic Relief. Walkers has pledged a £2 Million donation to the charity by the end of 2022, to support mental wellbeing programs across the UK.
Ruby and mindfulness
What’s helped Ruby counter negativity is mindfulness, where you train yourself to become aware of your thoughts and calm stress hormones.
“I get up and I do about 45 minutes a day, but it’s not for everybody,” says Ruby. “You could do a couple minutes a day and it’s the same thing. It’s just what works for me.” She’s also on medication to help with depression, although she still suffers depressive episodes.
Lockdown made Ruby even more determined to change her outlook.
“I realised we do have a choice on what we focus on,” she says. “You can either start watching the death toll and getting into ‘the fear of the fear’, or you can change your mindset. Yes, the world can be scary, but you don’t have to make it scarier.”
Ruby scoffs at the ideas we can be too old to change – and she’s a poster girl for that notion.
At the age of 57, her TV career on the wane, Ruby reinvented herself by earning a Master’s degree in mindfulness and cognitive psychology and kick-starting a career as a mental health activist, author and performer. “I can’t tell you how it happened; everything is a surprise,” she says.
Ruby Wax's life lessons
The best thing about ageing...
"...is getting smarter. I’d say I’m much more liberated and much smarter than I used to be. I can see both sides of an argument rather than becoming entrenched. I’m still me, though – even though I study mindfulness I still have a quick temper because I drive myself so much. I did all-nighters finishing my latest book, A Mindfulness Guide For Survival."
Silence has its benefits
"It might surprise readers, given how chatty I am, that I go to a lot of silent retreats. It’s not particularly relaxing not to speak, but I find retreats inspiring and interesting. There’s something profound that happens when you start to tune into your senses rather than your thoughts. You get more sensation: food tastes better, colours are more vivid and you can start to hear your mind. You get space between your thoughts. You quite like yourself when you leave and appreciate who you are."
Fame was like a drug
"You get in all the good restaurants and upgraded on flights and hotel rooms. You get freebies such as make-up and clothes. It’s great. But once it’s taken away – which happened to me when the phone stopped ringing for TV jobs – it’s like coming off a drug and a lot of people can’t take it. It’s painful. Nobody likes losing a job. But you become more human as an ordinary person. You find yourself again."
Mentors are magical
"The late great Alan Rickman taught me everything I know. I met him at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Eighties and we became very close friends. He told me to write and for 30 years he directed all my solo projects. He taught me how to do comedy. He said, ‘The audience is interested in what you have to say, so don’t try to make them love you. Make them come to you rather than pushing it on them.’ I still hear his voice and his notes when I perform."
The secret of a happy marriage...
"...don’t see each other too much! My husband [comedy director and producer Ed Bye, whom Ruby married in 1988] and I have different lifestyles: he does his TV shows and movies, I do my research into mindfulness, write books and give talks. We’re a good team and he’s very supportive. We both have our own interests – it’s boring when you start doing all the same things. He’s happy that I have a view."
Ruby's advice for her 18-year-old self
"It’s never too late to reinvent yourself. When I lost my television work I went to university to study psychology and counselling because I thought it would give me something to do and I was always interested in the mind. Then I got into Oxford [to study mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, graduating in 2013] and relaunched myself as a writer and speaker on mental health. We live so long, there’s time for reinvention. Fifty is the new 30!"
Vicki Power is an experienced freelance journalist and writer, specialising in entertainment and travel, while also covering health, mental wellbeing, lifestyle, and celebrity stories.
Arabella Horspool is a Commercial Content Writer for Yours at Bauer Media. A devoted bookworm and TV fan, she’s always immersed in the latest shows or catching the newest films and theatre productions. When she’s not writing, Arabella enjoys cooking and exploring the outdoors with her three dogs.