Ruth Ellis’ children: where are they now and how her family responded to ITV’s true story drama

ITV’s new historical drama, A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, tells the tragic tale of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to hang in Britain. 

Based on Carol Ann Lee’s thoroughly researched biography, the four-parter follows London club manager Ruth, who shot her abusive lover, David Blakely, in 1955 and was sentenced to death. 

Keep reading to discover what happened to Ruth, where her children are now and what her family think of the ITV show…

Who are Ruth’s children and where are they now? 

When Ruth was hanged in 1955, she left behind her three-year-old daughter, Georgina, and ten-year-old son, Andy. 

According to Georgina’s daughter, Laura Enston, her mother lived a “chaotic life” and “could not be the mother that my siblings and I needed”. She drank heavily later in life and died of cancer at the age of 50. 

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Georgina, who was married twice, was a mother of six children. Laura’s father, Eric Enston, was granted full custody of her and her two siblings after his divorce from Georgina. 

In 1995, Georgina released the book Ruth Ellis, My Mother, which included memories of her mother and how her own life was shaped by Ruth’s.

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According to the synopsis, Georgina enjoyed the “champagne lifestyle in a string of affairs that embraced George Best, Richard Harris and the man she came so close to killing, property tycoon David Beard, father of her last two children and, like David Blakely, also a lover of motor racing”. 

Meanwhile, Ruth’s eldest child, Andy, died by suicide aged 37. 

What have Ruth’s family said about the ITV drama? 

Executive producer Kate Bartlett said that ITV had “kept in contact” with Ruth’s family throughout the process of making the drama, particularly her grandson Stephen Beard and granddaughter Laura, who were both “incredibly happy” with Ruth’s portrayal in the show. 

Ruth’s story had previously been dramatised in the 1985 film, Dance With a Stranger, which failed to reference her daughter, Georgina. 

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“Georgina watched the film and was written out of history, which understandably she found very traumatic,” Kate revealed. “So Laura has always hidden away from her history. She was bullied at school because she was Ruth Ellis’s granddaughter.”

Kate went on to reveal that when Laura read Carol Ann Lee’s book during production, she felt she “had just learned her family history for the first time” and told ITV producers that the book “had opened her eyes as to what had happened”. 

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“The family watched all four episodes and we got an email from Stephen on their behalf to say that they were incredibly happy with how Ruth had been played and portrayed, and how the show was written and directed,” said Kate.

What happened to Ruth? The true story 

Ruth Ellis was a nightclub hostess and mother of two. Before her death aged 28, Ruth became entangled with 25-year-old upper-class racing driver, David Blakely, after meeting him at the London club she worked at. 

Their relationship was a very troubled one and David was physically abusive towards Ruth. He attacked her on several occasions and caused her to suffer a miscarriage after punching her in the stomach.

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Ruth killed David outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead, where she fired six bullets – four of which hit him. Ruth immediately confessed to the crime and handed her gun over to an off-duty policeman. 

Her trial lasted just over a day and concluded with a unanimous guilty verdict which resulted in a death sentence. 

A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story is available to stream on ITVX.