Ruby Miligan (née Fox; previously Fox-Miligan) is the wife of Caleb Miligan and the mother of Steph and Nicky Miligan.
Biography[]
1976-2023: Early life[]
Ruby Fox was born to Anthony and Helen Fox in 1976. As a teenager, Ruby was sexually abused by her father and when she told her mother she didn’t believe her. Ruby later embarked on a relationship with Caleb Miligan but her family disapproved of their relationship as they were a well off family and Caleb grew up in care. When Ruby was sixteen, she became pregnant with Caleb’s child, though she always felt it could have been Anthony’s due to the abuse, and her parents tried to force her to have an abortion. She refused and ran away with Caleb, giving birth to their daughter Steph Miligan in January 1993. The couple married on 9th April 1996 and had a son named Nicky in September 2000 who they raised in Newcastle. However, Ruby and Caleb's marriage was marred by cheating - Caleb even cheated on Ruby the day after they got married - and by 2023 the couple were living apart.
2024: Arrival in Emmerdale[]
Ruby arrived in the village on 25th January 2024. Unbeknownst to her at the time, her estranged husband Caleb was having an affair with his nephew's wife, Tracy Robinson. Tracy's husband Nate Robinson barged into Apartment One, Mill Cottage expecting to find Caleb and Tracy together but instead interrupted Caleb and Ruby kissing. Ruby's son Nicky was excited to see his mother but Caleb was still adamant they were separated. After her arrival, Ruby got along well with her sister-in-law, Moira Dingle and Caleb's sister, Chas Dingle. However, Ruby was soon shown to be unhappy with how close Caleb was to his new family and started to cause trouble. She threw a dinner party at Mill Cottage in early February, inviting Cain Dingle, his wife Moira and Nate and Tracy. Ruby alienated Cain and Moira by bringing up Moria's previous affair with Nate, Cain's son. Moira told Ruby to shut up but Ruby instead made fun of Moira's Scottish accent and played the whole thing off as a joke. Afterwards, Caleb made it clear to Ruby that if she really wanted their marriage to work she had to be nice to his family. Ruby listened and apologised to Moira the next day.
On 14th February, Ruby overheard Caleb and Tracy discussing their affair outside Mill Cottage and plotted to expose them. The next day, she and Caleb attended the wedding of Belle Dingle and Tom King and Ruby made a scene during the service by laughing when Belle's full name (Tinkerbelle) was used. Later at the reception in the HIDE, Ruby and Caleb were sat next to Nate and Tracy, so Ruby took the opportunity to make a speech and announce that Caleb and Tracy were having an affair. After Caleb was punched by Nate, Caleb and Ruby went home, where they argued about her ruining the wedding. Ruby asked Caleb why he had slept with her if he and Tracy were together, to which Caleb cruelly retorted he only did it out of sport and boredom. Ruby then angrily packed her bags and told Caleb she was leaving. He stopped her at the door and apologised, they kissed and spent the night together.
In April 2024, Ruby continues to show nothing but contempt for her husband's family, causing more issues between her and Caleb. Cain orders her to leave and she refuses, so Cain threatens to make her leave, but she knees him in the groin before Caleb drags her away. She is also still jealous over Caleb's feelings for Tracy Robinson and tells him if they are really going to have a fresh start then he has to make sure Tracy knows it's over. She gets Caleb to ruin Tracy's presentation to open a nursery by telling her potential investors that Tracy is an ex-prostitute. Later that day Dawn Fletcher confronts Ruby over her treatment of Tracy and threatens her but Ruby just mocks Dawn for also being an ex-prostitute. That night she and Caleb argue as she says he shouldn't care what his family thinks. He calls her sick and says he hates who he is with her causing Ruby to throw a glass at him, which hits a mirror.
A couple of weeks later, Caleb and Ruby try to attend a party for Chas in the pub and, during an argument, Ruby ends up elbowing Chas in the chest, hurting her as she had just had a mastectomy. The day after, Ruby tries to make amends with Caleb by endearing herself to his family, so she delivers air fryers to Chas, Moira and Sam Dingle as a peace offering. Cain is unhappy with this and smashes the air fryers in front of Ruby outside Wishing Well Cottage. Eventually, Ruby manages to get Cain and Caleb in the pub together for Caleb's birthday. They sit down together and have a pint but the moment is ruined when Ruby and Nicky drunkenly sing to them, causing Cain to storm out.
In May, after Moira splashes Ruby while driving her car through a puddle, an escalating feud starts between the two women. Ruby tells people Moria and her family have Scabies and Moira retaliates by dumping cow manure outside Ruby's front door. It all comes to a head on a back road near Butler's Farm. Moira and Ruby block the single-track road with their cars as neither are willing to give way. Eventually they are forced to move when Will Taylor comes through needing to get to the hospital to see his grandson. The two women agree to a truce after this.
A few weeks later, Ruby's son, Nicky is in a car accident and ends up in coma. Ruby refuses to leave his bedside as she wonders why he was so stupid as to drive drunk, with Caleb there to comfort her. However, the police then inform her and Caleb that Nicky's injuries are consistent with him being on the passenger side, not driving. Caleb and Ruby soon discover that Ethan Anderson was the one driving, and that he left Nicky to die after the crash, so Ruby decides to take matters into her own hands. On 22nd May, she runs Ethan down with her car and leaves him in the middle of the road. He later stumbles into the village and Ruby later tells Caleb what she did after he questions her about the damage to the car. A week later, it was revealed that Ruby was paying Rose Jackson to destroy Will Taylor's marriage to Kim Tate when Ethan overheard them, but Ethan dies suddenly before he can expose them and everyone, including Ruby, assumes it must be related to the hit and run the week before. Ruby is racked with guilt, but Caleb convinces her to wait for the coroner to determine Ethan's cause of death. However, Ruby is convinced she killed Ethan and goes to his father, Charles Anderson to confess, but before she can he tells her that Ethan died of a hereditary heart condition, nothing to do with the crash. She ends up telling him about her part in the hit and run anyway, but Charles is so broken by his son's death he doesn't care.
A few weeks later, Nicky and Caleb argue when Nicky asks for more responsibility at the car hire firm. Ruby tells Caleb to give Nicky a chance, but Caleb just insults Nicky. After Nicky storms off, Ruby chastises Caleb for his treatment of their son and tells him all Nicky wants is for his father to be proud of him. Caleb listens but it is too little too late as Nicky announces he is leaving the village with his boyfriend, Suni Sharma. Ruby and Caleb both try to convince him to stay, but Nicky doesn't give in. He left the village on 4th July, which devastated Ruby.
In August, Rose did manage to seduce Will, but she told Ruby that she valued her relationship with her daughter, Dawn Fletcher, more than money and stopped working for her. This scuppered Ruby's scheme but Kim still wanted revenge. She assumed it was Caleb who employed Rose and burned down his car hire business, Longbrook Private Hire in retaliation. Feeling guilty, Ruby told Caleb about her plan and explained that it was the reason Kim destroyed Longbrook. She thought Caleb would be angry with her but instead he took Ruby to an abandoned warehouse. He explained that she had been wrong in going after Kim's marriage because the only thing she valued was her land and money. He then told Ruby he was going to build his own empire right next door to show Kim that she wasn't on top anymore, and he would use the insurance money from the fire to do it.
In September, it was revealed that Caleb had been in contact with Ruby's estranged mother, Helen Fox before her death. Ruby found out when a nurse called her on Helen's behalf, only to find she was twenty minutes too late and Helen was gone. Ruby went in to see the body and wondered out loud what Helen had wanted after thirty years. The nurse mentioned Ruby's husband visiting Helen and when Ruby asked Caleb, he said he was protecting her and lied, saying that Helen called Ruby a "little whore" when they spoke. He also didn't tell Ruby about the £100,000 he got from her mother in exchange for him bringing Ruby to see her. Ruby found out about this as well as she and Caleb were co-executors of Helen's will and her lawyer told her about the transaction. Ruby was furious with Caleb, saying that he had denied her ever knowing what her mother wanted. They also found out that Helen had left everything to their daughter, Steph but Caleb and Ruby hadn't seen her in over a decade.
2024 to present: Steph's paternity and Anthony's murder[]
On 15th November, Steph arrived in the village to collect her inheritance. Ruby was happy to see her daughter again, but Steph insisted she wasn't staying. Ruby got Caleb to leave them alone and she tried to talk Steph round, but without success. They ended up arguing with Steph saying Ruby never loved her and Ruby slapped her in response. Steph then stormed out as Ruby tried to apologise. Eventually, Caleb was able to convince Steph to stay but this also meant Anthony Fox, Ruby's father arrived in the village. He and Steph were apparently close and Anthony came with her to the village, much to Ruby's horror. She tried to keep Anthony out of her life but Steph said that if he left then she would go to, which forced Ruby to let him stay. When trying to avoid Anthony, Ruby hid in the garage and encountered a drunk Cain. They argued but this then turned to kissing and they had sex. Ruby kept this a secret and had to lie to Caleb when he found her birth control.
In December, Ruby continued to struggle with Anthony’s presence as she desperately tried to reconnect with Steph. Anthony then overheard Ruby talking with Cain about their fling and used this to blackmail her into letting him move in to Mill Cottage. On Christmas Day, Ruby stressed when Caleb invited Cain, Moira and Chas to dinner. When everyone went to the pub, Anthony cornered Ruby and she threatened him with a knife but they were interrupted when Cain returned. He tried to get Ruby to open up about her father but Ruby just told him to leave her alone.
Then in January 2025, Ruby told Chas that she wasn’t sure if Caleb was Steph’s father but didn’t mention Anthony. Chas encouraged Ruby to do a DNA test and Ruby agreed that this was a good idea. After stealing hairs from both Steph and Caleb she sent away for a test. A week later, Ruby got the results and decided not to look at them, however, Caleb found the letter in her bag before she could dispose of it. She was distraught at the news that Steph wasn’t Caleb’s but Ruby couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth and so Caleb threw her out. After losing Caleb and learning that Steph was Anthony’s, Ruby went to live at the Grange B&B where she drank herself into a stupor to deal with her emotions. Ruby was horrified to see Anthony sitting over her as she woke up, but she soon confronted him over what he did to her. Initially he denied it, trying to manipulate Ruby into believing that she had imagined everything, but Ruby told him that she had proof because Steph was his, which silenced Anthony. Ruby then said that the only reason she hadn’t reported him was to spare Steph from knowing the truth. However, the next day, Caleb told her that he and Chas had worked out the truth about Anthony, causing Ruby to break down in tears. Caleb comforted her and promised that they would deal with it together.
On 20th January, Ruby saw an injured Anthony outside the church and they had a tense interaction that was witnessed by Aaron Dingle. Ruby told him it was nothing and went home but Aaron was suspicious. When Steph failed to return home that evening, Ruby searched for her and went to the depot. She found Anthony beaten on the floor and planned to leave him. However, when he grabbed her leg, she lost it and smothered him with a rag. Ruby then called Caleb who said he would handle it, but Aaron and his boyfriend John took care of the body first. Ruby and Caleb then lied to Steph, saying that Anthony had just left without explanation. Then in February, Aaron confessed to Ruby that he had beaten Anthony to death and Ruby was horrified when Aaron told her that he had considered cutting himself because of the guilt. She broke down and told him that she had killed Anthony. Aaron told her that he had been abused by his dad as a kid and Ruby related to him over his struggle. They then got Caleb, John, Cain and Chas together and they all agreed to cover up Anthony’s murder. Ruby and Aaron continued to bond as they comforted each other about their past traumas.
On 14th February, Caleb came home from the boys night out with bloody fists and Ruby was shocked when he said he knew about her and Cain. Ruby apologised and begged Caleb for forgiveness, telling him that she was just trying to hurt herself after Anthony’s return and that it meant nothing. Caleb stormed out and Moira arrived to confront Ruby but they talked about it calmly as Moira struggled to comprehend Cain’s betrayal. Caleb soon returned and Ruby was relieved when he forgave her, saying that Cain had taken advantage of her and that she wasn’t to blame. However, when Steph found out, she turned on Ruby and refused to have anything to do with her.
As the revelation about Ruby and Cain’s infidelity, as well as Caleb attempting to frame Cain for killing Anthony, caused infighting amongst the group, so John then took them all to where Anthony was buried and Ruby was disturbed to see her father’s grave. She visited the grave several times afterwards, which made Steph suspicious. In March, after Steph’s intense questions made Ruby break down, Caleb covered for her by confessing to killing Anthony and went to the police station to turn himself in. Ruby couldn’t handle this, so she was forced to tell Steph the truth about Anthony to save Caleb. They stopped Caleb from going to jail but Ruby felt terrible for telling Steph the truth.
Further turmoil followed when Caleb was stabbed and had to have a kidney removed because of his injuries. A few weeks later, Ruby was shocked as Caleb told her that his stabbing was orchestrated by his nephew, Joe Tate. Ruby went with Caleb to his meeting with Kim and Joe, where they negotiated to get some of Kim’s land. Ruby also continued to worry about Steph as she struggled over the truth about Anthony. Steph’s disgust over the truth lead to her trying to get plastic surgery, which Caleb and Ruby stopped but they were horrified when she then tried to cut her face with a broken bottle. After this, Ruby wanted to turn herself in so Steph could get help without having to lie, but Caleb wouldn’t let her and they vowed to help her.
Residences[]
| Address | Duration |
|---|---|
| Apartment One, Emmerdale Mill | 25th January 2024 to 15th January 2025 |
| The Grange (temporary) | 15th January 2025 to 17th January 2025 |
| Apartment One, Emmerdale Mill | 17th January 2025 to present |
Background information[]
- Ruby was portrayed by Rachel Alsop in a flashback to Ruby's 16th birthday in Episode 10161/10162 (12th December 2024).