ITV's newest drama, A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story depicts the life of Britain's last hanged woman. Drawing from Carol Ann Lee's blockbuster biography, A Fine Day For A Hanging, viewers are transported to 1955's opulent London club-land scene that celebrated Ruth Ellis as its youngest club manager.
Portrayed by Lucy Boynton, Ruth enters a stormy affair with motor-racing ace David Blakely, which spirals into abuse and culminates in his murder, leading to her dramatic arrest and sentence to death.
On the fateful morning of July 13, 1955, at 9:01 AM, 28-year-old Ruth met her grim fate and sealed her infamy in British criminal history.
READ MORE:
READ MORE:
But beyond the headlines, Ruth was a mother to two children fraught with their own struggles. This is what happened to her two children and where they are now.
Ruth Ellis had two children at the time of her death, namely three-year-old Georgina and ten-year-old Andy, known formally as Clare Andria Neilson, who faced a harrowing life shadowed by their mother's notoriety.
Striving to right past wrongs, Andy made recordings from interviews with his mother's prosecutor in a quest to refute claims that painted Ruth as "cold-hearted".
He was taunted all his life about his mother to the point where he destroyed the marker on her grave at Amersham, St Mary’s Cemetery in Buckinghamshire.
Tragically, Andy died by suicide in 1982.
His half-sister Georgina was moved to live with an adoptive family and struggled with the impact of her mother's death throughout her life. Georgie, as she was known to many, led a fast-paced lifestyle that mirrored her mother's in many ways - working as a model, businesswoman and writer with numerous celebrity connections.
In the past, she had revealed an affair with Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, as well as high-profile relationships with footballer George Best and actor Richard Harris. Georgie released a book in 1995 called Ruth Ellis, My Mother, which shared memories of her mother and how Ruth's life shaped her own.
Married twice with six children, her eldest daughter Laura Enston wrote in The Telegraph about how Georgie's lifestyle and behaviour affected their family home and her childhood in Didsbury, South Manchester.
In reflection, she said: "Lately, my attitude towards my mother has shifted to a more compassionate place. The government allowed Ruth to hang for her crime, and my mother never received any mental health support.
"I am guilty of underestimating the devastating impact this had on her."
Georgie died in 2001 at just 50 years old due to cancer. She had also campaigned to have Ruth's conviction reduced to manslaughter and sought for the case to be heard at the Court of Appeal.
Ellis's son-in-law Mike Blackburn described the impact Ellis's execution had on her daughter, his wife Georgie. Mr Blackburn, hailing from Beverley, East Yorkshire, shared: "She was constantly reminded of it. Complete strangers would come up to her and ask her if she was Ruth's daughter.
"It haunted her all her days. "
You can watch the first episode at 9pm on Wednesday, March 5 on ITV1 and ITVX.
