Ruby Fox-Milligan (Beth Cordingly) has certainly made a massive impact since she arrived in Emmerdale village. It wasn’t long at all before we saw her fiery, feisty personality as it became clear that she didn’t care who she offended.
More than one Dingle family gathering has descended into chaos thanks to Ruby. Her very public outing of Tracy (Amy Walsh) and Caleb (William Ash)’s affair at Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper) and Tom (James Chase)’s wedding was a notable example and another was when she brought tears to Cain (Jeff Hordley)’s eyes by kneeing him in the groin.
Ruby will fight for what she wants and what she wants is, basically, Caleb. Beth Cordingly told Metro.co.uk that Ruby is terrified of losing Caleb and she sees his new-found family the Dingles as a threat to her marriage.
‘Instead of being clever about it and befriending them she keeps insulting them and kicking out against them, which is obviously not going to help,’ she pointed out.
‘Definitely not with the Dingles, and not with Caleb either because he can’t understand why she can’t get on board. It’s a very childish way of approaching stuff but the only way I can justify it is she didn’t learn that sophistication, she’s kind of stuck in that teenage thinking of having a family turn their back on her and she’s kind of stuck. She’s never learned about the art of diplomacy.’
Beth described the bond between Ruby and her husband. ‘They got together when they were teenagers and they’re sort of stuck in this slight arrested development thing of that 16 or 17 year old break up and get back together, break up and get back together,’ she said.
‘When they’re together they get on really well. There’s quite a lot of banter, which is coming into the scenes now, fantastic banter which is nice. They make each other laugh. So I do think that they’re well matched, there’s obviously loads of chemistry between them, but they have a very fiery relationship and they have these big bust-ups so that’s obviously not great.’
When Ruby came to Emmerdale and discovered that Caleb was having an affair with Tracy Robinson, she felt threatened in a way she never had before, according to Beth.
‘Whenever they’re not together he has quite often gone and had flings,’ she explained. ‘She’s very threatened by the fact that she sensed that he was potentially falling in love with Tracy. That is why she reacts like she does, so harshly, because I think before it hasn’t really bothered her.’
Beth told us that Ruby ‘absolutely adores’ Caleb – to the point of obsession
‘It’s not an obsession like a Fatal Attraction type thing, I don’t think,’ she elaborated.
‘She’s given up everything for him in her eyes. She turned her back on her family for him. So since she was 16 or 17, he and Nicky are her whole world. She doesn’t appear to have any friends. Maybe she had some friends in Newcastle, where she was bringing up Nicky, but she’s not very good at making female friends. So they are everything and it’s sort of fear-based as well, in that if she loses them she loses everything. So it’s that need as well. So it’s family, they are everything to each other – they are mother, father, sister, brother, lover, the whole thing.’
This obsession means that Ruby will do whatever it takes to hang on to her man.
‘She can’t let him go,’ Beth insisted. ‘I think she can’t see a world without him in it. They’re everything.’
