Alicya Eyo played Ruby Haswell in Emmerdale between 2011 and 2015 – but she has since opened up on her battle with alcoholism and her time in rehab

ITV star Alicya Eyo, famed for her role as Ruby Haswell in Emmerdale from 2011 to 2015 and her part in Bad Girls, courageously disclosed her battle with alcoholism on the Soap from The Box podcast. She tragically revealed, “I ended up losing everything, including myself. That was the main thing.”

Alicya detailed how the journey led her to rehab, where specialists worked with her to unravel the reasons behind her actions.

The actress pinpointed lockdown as a particular low point, describing how she coped with the initial confinement but struggled thereafter, saying, “The first lockdown we had, all fine, all good. Then this lockdown (the second one) has been really difficult for me.

“So, I went to rehab. They helped me figure out why I was doing what I was doing.”

Alicya Eyo played Ruby Haswell in Emmerdale but later went to rehab (Image: ITV)

She added: “The first lockdown we had, all fine, all good. Then this lockdown has been really difficult for me. Fortunately, I’ve had the support of my mum, my brother and my partner who have got my through it.

“I’ve really, really suffered. You’re just scared of going back to where you were before.”

Alicya’s ongoing career has seen her feature in several other TV series like The Gathering and Waterloo Road since leaving the dales behind.

Alicya’s character Ruby was killed of in August 2015 after a helicopter crashed into the Emmerdale village hall.

Speaking about her emotional death scenes, Alicya said: “Playing Ruby’s death scenes was quite hard and sad, but I was just so lucky to have such a great director and Laura Norton and Liam Fox there filming with me.”

Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7pm on ITV1.