Ruby Wax accuses the BBC of axing her interview show when she turned 50, claiming that getting older wasn’t ‘allowed’ on the channel
Ruby Wax has lambasted the BBC for axing her interview show when she reached the age of 50.
The comedian, 70, accused the broadcaster of not allowing women of that age to host chat shows after they ended her popular programmes which saw her interrogate A-list stars in 2003.
Louis Theroux’s series took its place, prompting Ms Wax to change the direction of her career and raise the issue of mental health after suffering from a severe episode of depression.
Talking on Kate Garraway’s Life Stories, Ms Wax was asked by the host: ‘So why did the television shows dry up?’
Ms Wax replied: ‘Because I turned 50 and that’s not allowed,’ to which the host asked: ‘So it was an age thing?’
Ruby Wax has lambasted the BBC for axing her interview show when she reached the age of 50
The comedian accused the broadcaster of not allowing women of that age to host chat shows during her appearance on Kate Garraway’s Life Stories
Ms Wax said: ‘Of course, and then there was a man who took my job, it’s not Louis Theroux who is a really nice man.
‘And whoever I will not mention names said “we want you to do a game show” but I said I could be a really good interviewer and they said “uh uh” so I left town.’
For years she blamed Mr Theroux but later learned it was not his fault that she was axed but another television executive.
The star then confirmed that she was once again hit with depression before deciding to change her career and later went on to study for a master’s degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Oxford University.
During the interview, in which Ms Wax talks about her escape from her strict parents in America, she also told how her childhood left her so envious of other people that she would pray for the demise of people that were more successful than her.
She said: ‘If someone was doing better than me I would plan their demise. I used to look at people in Hello magazine and say ‘die.’
Ms Wax tells Ms Garraway that it was born out of her issues with ‘envy’ which if she hadn’t used as a motivator to escape America would have ended in her taking her own life.
The mother-of-three, who was awarded an OBE for services to mental health in 2015, also told how her father Edward Wachs beat her so badly that her friends formed a circle around her to stop him, which she refers to as an ‘igloo.’
For years Ms Wax says she blamed Mr Theroux for her show being cancelled but later learned it was not his fault that she was axed but another television executive
The mother-of-three also told how her father Edward Wachs beat her so badly that her friends formed a circle around her to stop him, which she refers to as an ‘igloo’
In 1994, Ruby Wax Meets Madonna aired on the BBC which was followed by the series Ruby Wax Meets… between 1996 and 1998 which saw her interview the likes of Donand Trump, OJ. Simpson, and Pamela Anderson
Ms Wax described her childhood as a ‘lock-in,’ watching out of her window ‘with longing’ as other children played with their parents in the park opposite her family home.
The 70-year-old compared her ‘bizarre’ upbringing to the cartoon The Addams Family.
She said of her parents, who had come to the US from Austria before the Second World War: ‘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 (for me).
‘They were pretty violent with each other (and me), you’d have the shit knocked out of you.’
Wax described her teenage self as ‘rebellious’, continually attempting to escape the family home to get away.
She told the ITV show: ‘I had ambition and the drive of a Rottweiler to survive. I pushed them (her parents) 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 (home) and they’d beat me up, and I’d go out again.
Ms Wax described her childhood as a ‘lock-in,’ watching out of her window ‘with longing’ as other children played with their parents in the park opposite her family home
‘I did everything to spite them and they were getting angrier and angrier.’
Ms Wax began working with the BBC in 1991 with her show The Full Wax.
In 1994, Ruby Wax Meets Madonna aired on the BBC which was followed by the series Ruby Wax Meets… between 1996 and 1998 which saw her interview the likes of Donand Trump, OJ. Simpson, and Pamela Anderson.
In 1997 the programme was nominated for a BAFTA Award for an interview with Sarah, Duchess of York, which attracted over 14 million viewers.
From November 2001 to June 2002, Ms Wax presented a TV quiz show on BBC One, The Waiting Game.
- Kate Garraway’s Life Stories is on tonight at 9pm
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