Ruby’s marriage was rumoured to be on the rocks in 2011 – and she quickly broke her silence to share the truth about what had happened and the upset it had caused within her family
Ruby Wax might have proved divisive amongst I’m A Celebrity fans – but she has plenty of supporters cheering her on at home, including her proud husband and their three children.
The 72-year-old comedian has been married to TV producer Ed Bye, 70, for nearly four decades. But there was a time when their marriage was under incredible strain – and it was all down to a former nanny.
Ruby and Ed first crossed paths in the ’80s when he directed the actress in her sitcom Girls On Top.
In an old interview per The Independent, Ruby said she “didn’t think he was interested in me” when she worked with Ed. “It was Joan Greenwood who said ‘Eddy loves you,’ and I said ‘Get out of here, Joan.’ She said ‘Oh no, you must go out with Eddy,’ so as a favour to Joan I started to get interested.”
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Love blossomed and Ruby – who had been married twice before – tied the knot with Ed in May 1988. They went on to welcome three children together, son Max, 37, and daughters Maddy, 35, and Marina, 32.
While Ruby tends to keep quiet when it comes to her family life – in contrast to her brash public persona – her marriage did come under the spotlight in 2011.
It was reported at the time that her 13-year union – considered one of strongest in show-business – was about to collapse. It was said that she and Ed were having blazing and tearful rows following rumours that Ruby was having an affair with a 32-year-old internet entrepreneur.
The allegations were all the more remarkable because they came just days after her last major interview in which she credited unflappable Ed with keeping their relationship so strong. “He is selfless, he sacrifices a lot,” she said. “Ed is normal, he can make me laugh and he’s brought balance to my life.”
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Then, in April 2012, Ruby broke her silence to finally reveal the truth of what had happened – and why she had feared for her marriage and the future of her children, Max, then-13, Madeleine, 11, and eight-year-old Marina.
In an interview with the Evening Standard, Ruby asserted: “Don’t believe any of those stories about our marriage break-up. Ed and I are very much together – it’s just that we had a nanny who turned out to be insane. On day three, she told me she’d been abused by her stepfather. Ed called up the nanny agency to complain. And that’s when the trouble started in earnest.
“I’d had years of great nannies. But, sometimes, people are jealous; I don’t know why. Anyway, when I fired this girl, she was really inflamed. But she never went around saying we had rows at home because we hardly ever do.
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“What she claimed was that I’d had an affair. However baseless the accusation, you can only imagine the tension it produced with Ed and me. She invented the whole thing. But that’s all in the past now, and Ed and I are stronger for it.”
Happily, the couple remain together to this day. Ed might not be as well known as his wife, but he has an impressive list of credits to his CV, working on TV comedy shows including Red Dwarf, Bottom, The Vicar of Dibley, My Family and French and Saunders.
He has also worked on a number of his wife’s shows over the years, such as Don’t Miss Wax, The Full Wax and Ruby.
In August 2021, Ruby opened up about their “unconventional” partnership. She told the Sun’s Fabulous magazine: “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.
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“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.”
The star has also spoken about the couple’s three children, including the fact daughters Maddy and Marina have followed their mother’s footsteps into comedy and host their own podcast called Siblings Comedy.
Writing for The Mirror in 2020, Ruby 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.”
