Emmerdale's Beth Cordingly teases 'ticking time bomb' for Ruby over Cain affair

Emmerdale's Ruby Fox-Miligan has a bleak January ahead with her fiendish father Anthony stirring trouble in the village. Following the distressing confession that Anthony subjected Ruby to child abuse, viewers watched tensely as she posted off a DNA test, desperate for clarity about her daughter Steph's true father.

As she grapples with the potential fallout with her hubby Caleb and the drama with thirty-something Steph, Ruby is torn over whether she can face the DNA results. "She wants to know that her greatest fear isn’t true – that Steph is not her dad’s," said actress Beth Cordingly, as reported by The Mirror's We Love TV.

"She wants that reassurance so she can move on. But she’s always had the fear, from the minute she got pregnant, that the baby may not be Caleb’s. She didn’t deceive him, she just desperately wanted it to be his."

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For Beth, at 48, unloading Ruby’s dark secrets onto the Emmerdale audience has been cathartic, especially after her character's first nasty year. Joining the ITV show in January last year as Ruby, she's taken on big storylines—like knocking down Ethan Anderson, plotting against Kim Tate and betraying Caleb by getting involved with his half-brother Cain.

"It’s lovely that the audience is now in on her story and able to go on the journey with her," she reflects. "I feel the audience will now understand her behaviour more. It’s a massive privilege to do a storyline like that, and we all really hope we’re getting it right."

Ruby makes the heart-wrenching decision to destroy the DNA results after witnessing Caleb and Steph mend their strained relationship. However, in a shocking turn of events, Caleb discovers the results before Ruby can dispose of them.

"She’s like a deer in the headlights in that moment," Beth said. "He is staring at her, and until he says what the results are, she has no idea herself. It’s like an unexploded bomb he’s holding."

Beth also shared her character's inner turmoil: "I remember exactly the feeling when I was standing there looking at him, thinking, there’s so much going on. All it says in the results is whether Caleb is the father or not. It doesn’t say who the father is."

Meanwhile, Beth describes the secret of Cain and Ruby's tryst as a "ticking time bomb" waiting to be revealed. "It’s just sitting there waiting and as soon as something’s going OK, it could just come out," she smiled. "I think it’s good that it hasn’t come out yet but I’m sure it will."

Ruby's troubles don't end there; she's also dealing with her vile father, portrayed by Nicholas Day, especially after her intimate encounter with Cain. "He is taunting her and making life difficult," Beth revealed. "It’s a suppressive environment."

She continued, explaining the pressure Ruby faces: "He thinks he’s worked out about her and Cain and he’s holding that over her, so she’s really struggling – and obviously [because of] the fact that she feels she can’t tell anyone about the abuse, no one understands why she’s behaving the way she is."

If you are 18 or under and have been affected by this story, you can contact Childline, confidentially on 0800 1111. You can also contact the NSPCC Helpline by phoning 0808 800 500 or emailing help@nspcc.org.uk. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. Catch Emmerdale every weekday from 7pm on ITV1 and ITVX.