In her 90s heyday, American comedian Ruby Wax made headlines for her fearless celebrity interviews with the likes of Madonna and Donald Trump, and today she has two particular stars on her dream interviewee list.
Speaking exclusively to HELLO!, the 72-year-old comic, writer and actress reveals that if she were to reprise her legendary show Ruby Wax Meets⊠sheâd have certain requirements.
Ruby Wax is known for her no-holds-barred interviews
âSomebody who would be honest with me, be human,â she tells us. âThatâs the whole point, I think, of a great interview⊠probably Lady Gaga and probably Obama.
âIâm sure they have a ground floor, and they wouldnât be afraid of showing it because theyâre talented. Oneâs brilliant and oneâs talented, and I think when youâve got the security of that, youâre able to let go of your image.â
London-based Ruby, who is currently on a UK tour of her show Ruby Wax: Absolutely Famous from March until July in which she reflects on her most famous interviews, has branched out from the world of showbusiness in recent years:  she holds a Masterâs degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and even runs retreats from her own home.
Itâs through her charity that she connected with Big Give â a match funding where donations to charities are doubled thanks to philanthropic donors.
As a new Big Give ambassador, Ruby is supporting their current campaign Earth Raise, which runs from 22-29 April and involves 330 charities raising funds for environmental causes.
Here, Ruby chats celebrities, family and causes close to her heartâŠ
Ruby, tell us about your new theatre show Ruby Wax: Absolutely Famous
âWeâre showing clips that you wouldnât have seen before and weâre talking about the nature of fame â and yet it comes with an illness and itâs addictive and not necessarily good for your health.
âThe show isnât just pointing to clips, but weâre discussing whatâs underneath, whatâs going on in their mind. Then we have the clips that arenât necessarily the ones seen on television, so you can really see how the minds of the famous and infamous work.â
Ruby Wax is supporting the Big Giveâs new campaign Earth raise
You once gave Tom Hanks a tour of your hotel suite during his interviewâŠ
âThat was completely scripted because he didnât want to be interviewed or he wasnât very good at it.
âIt was a very Ab Fab sketch where he was told he had to laugh at everything I said because, you know, I wasnât very healthy in the head! So he became hysterical whenever I opened my mouth.
âA lot of it was scripted when they didnât want to be interviewed.â
âItâs unusual for somebody to go from show business to teaching mindfulnessâ
Have you stayed friends with any of your interviewees?
âCarrie [Fisher] was my best friend and she died. We were best friends after that interview and we stayed friends. Roseanne [Barr] and Goldie [Hawn] I still talk to.â
Ruby Wax starred in the 2025 series of Iâm a Celebrity
You were known for spending the day before an interview with your famous interviewee â what was that like?
âWell, for example, with OJ Simpson, we had dinner with him and a lot of women were very interested in OJ. There was a queue to meet him at the restaurant and [they] said this happens every night.
âWhen I drove around with him in the white Bronco that he did his famous escape in, clearly, I reminded him of Marcia Clark, who was his prosecutor. He sort of wanted to confess to me and he takes me really close to the edge. He wanted me to nail him and say, âYes, you did do itâ.
âWe drove by the house where the murder took place about three times. He told the driver to go by and kept saying âThis is where it happenedâ.â
Your daughters Marina and Madeleine are in a comedy act called Siblings â whatâs that like for you?
âOh my God, well, Iâm not allowed to give notes because Iâm an idiot, I donât know anything. Theyâre very much like French and Saunders is what theyâre like; they do characters. Theyâre not like me â God knows what I do â but theyâre more talented than I was. So good luck to them.â
You say the secret to your marriage with husband Ed is having your own lives. There must be some romanceâŠ
âWell, after all these years, I wouldnât say itâs romantic. Work-wise heâs brilliant because he directed me in the first place. So if I need help, I go to him.
âI do cruises now where I speak on them. Iâm going on my second one, so heâll go along because heâs a people watcher too. We like to observe, especially when itâs wacky, when itâs a little crazy. We both like watching that person.â
âTravel, thatâs my thing. Iâm going to Japan with my son. Iâve been there before, but Iâm going to places that arenât on the tourist trail.
âThen Washington because my daughter-in-law is Katy Balls who is Washington Editor of The Sunday Times, so Iâm going to go visit her and my son.â
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Youâve been open about your own mental health struggles. Tell us about your charity FrazzledâŠ
âWe hold a space where people can express themselves and come and meet others in the same situation. It doesnât mean that youâre having a mental breakdown; it just means that youâre frazzled, which is stress about stress â a new phenomenon.
âItâs a little like AA in a sense that to speak out loud means itâs not such a stigma.
âGo on to frazzlecafe.org. Itâs free and you meet, thereâll be a facilitator and you just speak. You can be anonymous, and yet to say your truth is such a relief, itâs like letting air out of a tire. You see people going, âIâm finally heardâ.â
When did you become interested in studying mental wellness?
âI always said thatâll be my treat at the end of my TV career. Once the TV career after 25 years started to subside, I decided I had to study this.
âI trained in mindfulness and neuroscience at Oxford. I like the neuroscience because to me thatâs the proof of what a specific modality does. I need proof. I donât have time to taste everything.â
Ruby Wax with her daughters Maddy and Marina
You hold retreats at your Notting Hill home â tell us more
âIf they go on rubywax.net, they can come. We give lunch and Iâm really good at training people.
âI donât like the word mindfulness; mind training is better because otherwise our minds just take over and run with us. Itâs a way of pulling the reins a little bit and coming back to the driverâs seat â to be able to deal with all these, with the chaos, and not get caught up in it.â
Why did you become a Big Give ambassador?
âBig Give has been a salvation for me and my charity, so to be able to take part in this is a real honour. I begged them to let me be ambassador.
âWith Big Give, when you give money for your charity, they double it. Iâve never actually come across anything like that. I think itâs remarkable.â
Tell us abut the Earth Raise campaign
Itâs the biggest environmental fundraising campaign in the UK and weâre hoping to raise ÂŁ10million in one week this year.
âThe environment is an emergency, but everybodyâs ignoring it. People feel a bit helpless about the environment; itâs such a vast problem. Here is a practical, tangible way where you can do something, take some action.â
Whatâs next for you?
âLike everybody else, Iâll probably do a podcast at some point, but I need to always fill the hole where nobodyâs gone. I donât like imitating.
âWhen I did the show in the 90s, nobody had done that before, and itâs unusual for somebody to go from show business to teaching mindfulness. Â I want to go somewhere where itâs unique again so that I can discover it myself rather than imitate it.â
Ruby Wax has joined Big Give, which runs the UKâs biggest fundraising appeals, as an ambassador.Â
Its current campaign, Earth Raise, runs till noon on April 29. To donate to any of over 330 environmental charities taking part and have your money doubled, visit www.biggive.org