What happened to Ruth Ellis's children after A Cruel Love?

Lucy Boynton plays the title role of Ruth Ellis, who shot her abusive lover outside a London pub, with murder at that time being a capital offence.

Her legal representation made efforts to reduce the charge to manslaughter or to get a reprieve for her sentence, urging the government to consider the abuse she suffered at the hands of David Blakely (played by Laurie Davidson).

Ultimately, Ellis was executed, but the backlash effectively moved forward the case for abolishing the death penalty in Britain.

Adding to the tragedy of Ruth's case was the fact that she had two young children at the time of her death, whose lives were forever changed by the decision of the state not to intervene in their mother's case.

What happened to Ruth Ellis's children after A Cruel Love?

Ruth Ellis had a son, Andre or 'Andy', and a daughter, Georgina or 'Georgie', who were aged only 10 and 3 at the time of their mother's death.

After the events depicted in A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, Andy was sent to St Michael's College – a boarding school in Hitchin – where one of his few friends described him as "an absolute bundle of nerves" (via A Fine Day for a Hanging).

Andy struggled to settle into the school and was ultimately expelled for consistent truancy, after which he moved in with his grandmother and was treated for depression.

Tragically, he took his own life in 1982, at the age of 38.

Ruth's daughter, Georgie, was first sent to live with her father, George Ellis (a different man to Andy's father), but sadly, he too took his own life approximately three years after his ex-wife was hanged.

At that point, Georgie was placed in foster care. In 1995, she penned a memoir in which she wrote of how her life had reflected that of her mother's.

Speaking of her mother, she told The Independent in 1997: "Obviously I was very fond of her, although I was looked after by my grandmother and my mother's sister. I remember her – the closeness we all had. I've never had that since. Never. And I've always craved it. It's all I've ever wanted."

Georgie was omitted from an earlier dramatisation of Ruth's life (1985 feature film Dance with a Stranger).

Georgie passed away in 2001, aged 50, after a cancer battle.

"I've been blessed. I'm a lucky, lucky woman," she said of her six children, who she was survived by.

What happened to Ruth Ellis's grandchildren?

Ruth Ellis had six grandchildren via her daughter, Georgina, two of which were closely involved with the production of A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story.

One of her grandsons, Stephen Beard, kicked-started development on the ITV drama when he approached executive producer Kate Bartlett about adapting Carol Ann Lee's historical book on the case – titled A Fine Day for a Hanging.

He said that he felt that his grandmother's "true story had never been told".

Bartlett recalled: "That's the kind of email you get and you're immediately fascinated."

Later, Bartlett would also get to know Stephen's older sister – and thus, Ruth's granddaughter, Laura Enston-Jones – who had "always hidden away from her history" until reading Lee's detailed account.

"She first read Carol's book when we were in production and she said to us over Zoom that she felt like she just learned her family history for the first time – and that Carol's book just opened her eyes as to what had happened," said Bartlett.

"The family has watched all four episodes, and we got an email from Stephen, on behalf of all the family, to say that they were incredibly happy with how Ruth had been portrayed, written [and] directed."

Bartlett added: "The thing that stays with me [is something] that Laura says quite a lot now, actually: that she firmly believes that Ruth was a trailblazer in her life and a trailblazer in her death – which is an extraordinary thing."

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

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