I’m A Celebrity star Ruby Wax’s most outrageous interviews, from Donald Trump to Madonna and OJ Simpson
Ruby Wax has interviewed some of the most famous people... and it hasn't always gone to plan
I’m A Celebrity star Ruby Wax has interviewed some of the famous people on the planet, including an infamous moment with OJ Simpson and a “shocking” meeting with US President Donald Trump.
When Wax entered the jungle, she quickly divided fans, with some viewers accusing her of being “rude” to Angry Ginge.
Excluding when she ‘selfishly’ took a bag of liquorice for herself, Wax is now a firm fan favourite. She has a good rapport with everyone in camp, and she never hesitates to ask big, personal questions about her fellow celebs.
Her fearless approach to interviewing is what saw her rise to fame with Ruby Wax Meets… in the ‘90s. All of her interviews are worth watching, but these ones are particularly notorious.
Ruby Wax’s interview with OJ Simpson
Let’s start with the big one. In 1998, Wax interviewed Simpson, the NFL star who had been accused of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman.
He was acquitted, but the jury in a civil suit found him liable for their wrongful deaths, with the judge ordering Simpson to pay $33.5 million in damages.
Wax spent 17 hours filming with Simpson. “I asked him for the final time whether he was involved in the 1994 murders,” she wrote in The Times.
“I was sure we could get him to confess. But he simply turned to the camera, said, ‘No’ and gave a rueful smile.”
In the most shocking clip from the interview, Simpson knocked on Wax’s door and made stabbing motions with a banana. “I think it was his idea of a joke,” she said in the original episode.
According to Wax, Simpson (who died in 2024) phoned her after they’d finished filming and said: “Hi, it’s OJ. I did it… April fool’s.”
Donald Trump
Wax interviewed Trump as part of her Ruby’s American Pie TV in 2000. In her words, it’s the “worst interview [she’s] ever done” and one of the “most excruciating moments of [her] career”.
She met with him on his private jet, engaging in conversation that rarely (if ever) rose above being incredibly awkward. She laughed at the prospect of him running for president and asked: “You have this plane, you have this great life that anybody would want to live. Why would you want to run for president?”
“Well, we would save a lot of money with Air Force One. We wouldn’t need Air Force One. Think of how the tax payers would benefit from that… I love the country. I love the United States. Honestly, if I didn’t think I could do a really good job, I wouldn’t do it,” he replied.
Wax was eventually “thrown off” the plane, with Trump telling her he had a headache. “Do you hate me?” she asked, and he replied: “No, I think you’re fine, but that’s enough.”
As she said on I’m A Celebrity, he “didn’t think it was funny”, and he also called her the “most obnoxious person [he’d] ever met”,
During an appearance on Louis Theroux’s Grounded podcast, Wax recalled how she felt “the hatred in his eyes and how stupid he thought [she] was”.
Ruby Wax’s interview with Madonna
Wax interviewed Madonna in 1994 off the back of her Girlie Show tour (which was controversial at the time, with politicians decrying its lack of “decency”).
Unlike with Trump, she thought she’d get along with the singer, but “[Madonna] hated [her] on sight”, she’s claimed.
Speaking to Heat last year, Wax recalled how Madonna tried to take control of how the interview was filmed.
“I had to make sure she wasn’t insulted, because she was ready for an insult or a hardball question to be thrown. She was totally defensive, and that’s not a way to do an interview,” she explained.
Wax was conscious of trying to keep things light, but she was “answering [her] in a kind-of snide way and not being honest”.
“I can only be honest, so it was a car crash. I think, in the end, she thought I was funny in a goofy kind of way. But she couldn’t get serious,” she said.
Wax told this story to Angry Ginge and Kelly Brook on I’m A Celebrity, revealing that she also put a pair of Madonna’s underwear on her head in a desperate bid to make her laugh. It’s safe to say, it didn’t work.
Bette Midler
Not all of Ruby Wax’s interviews have ended badly. In 1996, she sat down with Hocus Pocus star Bette Midler.
“She was a diva by then,” Wax recalled during a BBC retrospective. Their interview was only supposed to be five minutes long, but after some playful bickering, Midler joined Wax to go shopping.
In one clip, she asks Midler if she’s ever worried about her husband dumping her for a younger woman; specifically, a “younger [her]”.
“Where is he going to find such a creature?” Midler asked, laughing, before answering: “I think he’s hoping that I dump him and give him a nice fat settlement.”
Wax said it felt like “playing with John McEnroe”, with the pair having constant banter. “She loves women, she loves girl, so it was a match,” she said.
Ruby Wax’s interview with Jim Carrey
Wax interviewed Jim Carrey at the height of his movie stardom in 2003. By this point, he’d starred in Dumb and Dumber, The Truman Show, and was about to headline Bruce Almighty.
He was also expectedly quirky and energetic in his interview with Wax (he even did her makeup before they got started).
“Just be interesting,” she told him, and he joked: “Mommy put cigarettes out on me, so I became a comic.”
Carrey also spoke about his memories of his father while sitting on Wax’s back, and he attempted to swoosh a table cloth without the plates and glasses going everywhere. He failed.
While speaking to Annie Mac in 2024, Wax recalled how she told him: “Please, my children will starve if this isn’t good. Please give it everything.”
In the end, Carrey and Wax spent four hours together, with the actor delivering “genius” comedy.
“The interview was over, and I tried to make him leave, but he wouldn’t leave. He kept knocking on the door and coming in as different characters… we loved each other.”
Ruby Wax’s interview with Bill Cosby
Wax’s interview with Bill Cosby may be her most infamous encounter next to OJ Simpson.
They met in 1997, three years before extensive sexual assault allegations emerged against the late actor and comedian.
During her Ruby Wax Met… series, she said: “When I interviewed him… he was the father of America. He was revered. This was like the pre-Obama.”
Wax had idolised Cosby growing up and was really excited to meet him. However, things didn’t go to plan.
Cosby wasn’t aware of who she was when they first met, and he didn’t appear to be that interested either. He told her a story about her mother bringing leftover food home and how he ate lobster with her brother, and in Wax’s eyes, it became apparent that he didn’t like her.
It got worse when Wax called Cosby “Bill”, forgetting that she’d been asked to address him as “Doctor Cosby”.
“You probably just got a little too familiar.. that’s too soon. Mark that down as one,” he told her and his team before faking a phone call to end the interview.
“I know that I’m dying… when I left that, I literally felt dirty,” Wax recalled. She felt “humiliated” by him and eventually gave up when he wouldn’t even look at her.
“I remember feeling sick afterwards, because it was abuse,” she said.
Read more: I’m A Celebrity 2025: Fans convinced Ruby Wax starred in Grease
