Emmerdale star breaks silence over taking on devastating ᴄʜɪʟᴅ ᴀʙᴜsᴇ storyline

Emmerdale’s Beth Cordingly has addressed Ruby’s harrowing ᴄʜɪʟᴅ ᴀʙᴜsᴇ storyline

Emmerdale’s Beth Cordingly has addressed her upcoming storyline on the ITV soap, which sees her character Ruby haunted by the horrific sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father Anthony. This week in the Dales sees Ruby agonise over whether to open DNA test results that will reveal whether her husband Caleb or her father is the dad of her daughter Steph.

Speaking about Ruby’s ordeal ahead of this week’s episodes, Beth said that Ruby just wants to know that her greatest fear isn’t true – that Steph is not her dad’s daughter. “She wants that reassurance so she can move on. But she’s always had the fear, from the minute she got pregnant, that the baby may not be Caleb’s. She didn’t deceive him, she just desperately wanted it to be his,” she said.

Emmerdale’s Beth Cordingly has opened up about Ruby’s upcoming storyline

Beth, 48, added that it is a relief to share Ruby’s story with viewers after the character’s past actions, which involved vengefully run over Ethan Anderson, plotted to take down Kim Tate and cheated on Caleb with his half-brother Cain. “It’s lovely that the audience is now in on her story and able to go on the journey with her,” she said. “I feel the audience will now understand her behaviour more. It’s a massive privilege to do a storyline like that, and we all really hope we’re getting it right.”

Despite tackling the delicate topic of abuse, Beth didn’t feel daunted by the powerful storyline. “It’s a subject that I feel, as many people do, very passionately about,” she says. “I’ve worked in the past with Childline and the NSPCC, so it’s a subject that I wasn’t nervous about taking on.

Beth admits that she didn’t feel daunted to take on the harrowing role ( Image: ITV)

“It was more that you just really want to make sure that if you’re telling something like that, you’re telling it right. If it helps one person or can help one person feel validated, or admit ‘this happened to me’, then that would be a really amazing thing.”

Earlier this month, Emmerdale fans took to social media to predict the harrowing DNA twist that’s to come from the storyline, with viewers worrying that Anthony could be Steph’s dad. “PLEEEEEASE don’t let Anthony be Steph’s dad, he’s vile. Makes my skin crawl. Proper feeling it for Ruby #Emmerdale,” one wrote.