Renowned broadcaster and comedian Ruby Wax recently shared her thoughts on an interview she conducted with Donald Trump almost three decades ago, suggesting that the reason he did not make advances towards her was because she was “too clever” for his liking. Speaking at the Hay Festival in Wales, where she was promoting her latest book titled “I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was,” Wax recalled the 1996 interview on Trump’s private jet. Despite their mutual disdain for each other, Wax laughed when Trump mentioned his intention to run for president.
During the festival, Wax delved into her personal history, shedding light on her troubled childhood and the impact it has had on her life. The daughter of Austrian Jews who fled their country due to the Nazi threat in 1938, Wax experienced abuse from her parents as a child. As a result, she developed certain habits and preferences, such as sleeping in small rooms where she can clearly see the doorknob, as her mother used to burst into her room while she was asleep.
“I have no home. That’s sort of the end, my conclusion. I don’t have a home. I never did. But home has to be where I am.
I just met other traumatised people,” she said. “I feel sorry for them, but I don’t know who they were.”
The absence of a loving home during her formative years has made it difficult for Wax to establish a sense of home as an adult. She expressed, “I have no home. That’s sort of the end, my conclusion. I don’t have a home. I never did. But home has to be where I am.”
Comedy became Wax’s coping mechanism for her childhood trauma and mental health struggles. She felt compelled to be funny as a means of survival. Last year, she sought treatment for her depression and spent time in a mental hospital, undergoing repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, a therapy that uses magnets to stimulate the brain. Alongside this treatment, Wax has embraced mindfulness as a tool to monitor her emotional well-being and recognize the onset of depressive episodes.
However, Wax is reluctant to accept the label of bravery for overcoming the challenges in her life, suggesting that true bravery involves heroic acts of saving others from harm. She also dismissed the idea that climbing Mount Everest signifies bravery, asserting that people do it because they are thrill-seekers.
