I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! star Ruby Wax’s family changed their surname after a tragic past event.

Ruby Wax is taking part on I’m A Celebrity (Image: ITV)

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Star Ruby Wax has already proven to be worth every penny of her rumoured £95,000 fee.

She’s delivered epic one-liners, stolen sweets from the other campmates, struck a surprising bond with Angry Ginge and Tom Read Wilson, and spilt the tea on Donald Trump.

The actress and comedian, 72, rose to fame on sitcom Girls On Top, before her own shows, The Full Wax, Ruby Wax Meets… and The Ruby Wax Show.

However, her career success hasn’t actually been under her real name, which is Ruby Wachs.

Ruby’s parents, who were Austrian Jews who fled Vienna in 1938 because of the Nazi threat, moved to Chicago in Illinois. There, they changed their family surname from Wachs to Wax.

The actress has made a name for herself on screen (Image: ITV/Shutterstock)

She kept the name and moved to the UK, where she became a household name after her rise to fame.

Ruby previously spoke about her parents’ fleeing war, saying she came to London to find safety from them years later.

She told Jamie Laing on his podcast Great Company: “They brought the war from Europe into our kitchen.”

She added: “They were torturous, both of them – in my mother innocently and my dad on purpose. You know, he’d play mind games.”

Speaking to The Guardian, she also recalled her difficult upbringing, saying she felt: “Extreme loneliness. And terror. Because there was no safety.”

Ruby Wax has proven to be worth every penny of her rumoured £95,000 fee (Image: ITV/Shutterstock)

She added: “My parents over-loved me. They wanted a little doll who’d be the American dream. Instead, they got this androgynous, angry, repressed child.”

In a 2017 episode of Who Do You think You Are? Ruby travelled to Central Europe to learn about her parents’ background, researching their history and her mother’s mental illness.

“I think I have lived most of my life in a high anxiety state and so I want to know where that came from,” she said at the start.

“And I keep blaming my parents. It would be interesting to know who they’re blaming.”

During her journey, Ruby visited a prison that her father was imprisoned in when the Nazis took control of Austria, before he was freed on the promise he would leave the country.

Ruby’s family changed their name after fleeing persecution (Image: Getty)

She also discovered more about her mother’s family, tracing the stories of her ancestors and learning how her great-grandmother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Ruby has been open about her own mental health, having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression.

“You know, I could have saved myself a lot of time and money,” she reflected after the experience. “Rather than doing therapy, I should have been doing genealogy. Now knowing my ancestors, I understand a lot more about myself.”

Ruby married her husband Ed in 1988, and they have three children together, all in their 30s.

Ahead of her stint in the jungle, she said she wanted to “show people I’m not aggressive”, saying: “I was stereotyped during my career.”

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! continues tonight at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.