Anthony Fox was the abusive father of Ruby Miligan as well the father of Ruby's daughter Steph Miligan.
Anthony and his wife Helen welcomed a daughter named Ruby in 1976. At age 14, he raped her and continued to do so for multiple years. As a teenager, Ruby embarked on a relationship with Caleb Miligan. Anthony and Helen disapproved of the relationship and attempted to pay Caleb to stop seeing their daughter but he refused their money. When Ruby became pregnant on her 16th birthday after Anthony raped her, Anthony and Helen tried to force her to have an abortion but Ruby refused so Anthony and Helen turfed her out with nothing. She left with Caleb and Anthony didn’t see her again for over thirty years. Anthony and Helen later divorced. In 2024, Anthony came into contact with Ruby's daughter Stephanie Miligan, who had walked out of Ruby and Caleb's lives.
In November 2024, Anthony arrived in Emmerdale with Steph to try and reform a relationship with Ruby, who agreed to let him stay so that she could have Steph in her life again. On 31st December 2024, Anthony donated £5,000 to the cause of missing April Windsor. As he got closer to her, Ruby started to break down and took a paternity test on Steph which revealed Anthony as her true father, Anthony found out that Ruby had a one-night stand with brother in-law Cain and blackmailed her over it so she would let him move into her house.
Caleb later threw Ruby out but didn’t tell Anthony or Steph why. Anthony then went to the B&B where Ruby was staying and snuck into her room. He leered over her as she slept and Ruby woke up with a scream. She told him he was a rapist but Anthony denied anything had happened, trying to manipulate her into believing it but she wouldn’t. Ruby told him that Steph was his and Anthony was stunned to realise that Ruby had proof but she said that she wouldn’t report him as she didn’t want Steph finding out. Meanwhile, after Caleb had found the DNA test results, he assumed Steph’s father was Ruby's childhood friend Rob Harris. Rob turned out to be gay and Caleb's sister Chas pointed out that Ruby was scared of Anthony and Steph's father was a rapist who Ruby hadn't identified, which made Caleb realise the truth.
On 20th January 2025, Anthony was tutoring Angelica King before her maths exam, but her mother Nicola rushed in and made Angel leave after Chas warned her of Anthony being a danger to girls. He attacked Nicola to get her phone off her so she didn't call the police but her best friend Laurel walked in and hit him with an ornamental candle stick. Anthony woke up after a while and agreed to keep quiet on the assault, if they didn’t repeat Chas’s accusation, then he left the house. He called Steph and agreed to meet her at her workplace, Caleb's depot. He passed out and was found by Ruby, she went to walk away but he accused her of spreading lies to Nicola and grabbed Ruby's arm, which was witnessed by Aaron Dingle.
Caleb then came along and gave Anthony a lift, but diverted to a barn at Butlers Farm. He threatened Anthony with a gun until he admitted everything. Anthony then pulled at the gun, causing a misfire, and ran away. He went to the depot to meet Steph, but she was gone and his phone died so he went inside to use the depot phone and found it didn't work due to a power cut. Aaron was at the depot and started questioning Anthony and explaining his own experience with his father, Gordon. Anthony denied it, making Aaron hit him and he said he will drive Anthony to the police so he can admit everything. Then Anthony realised he'd rather die than face prison, so said triggering things to Aaron, causing him to see red and beat him. When Aaron left, Anthony was just about alive, but Ruby then arrived and after Anthony grabbed her leg, she smothered him to death with a rag. Later Aaron returns to the depot with his boyfriend John Sugden and they discover Anthony dead. John remove all evidence and hide the body somewhere where it won't be found but a single tooth was accidentally left under a shelving unit.
Caleb found it and used to try to frame Cain for Anthony’s death as revenge for his fling with Ruby. John later took Aaron, Ruby, Caleb, Cain and Chas to the spot in the woods where he buried Anthony.