Ruby Barker, a fan favourite in Netflix’s romantic fiction Bridgerton, broke her arm climbing this week, and was rushed to hospital.
Born in Islington, London, in 1996, Barker was raised in her early childhood in the capital and Winchester before the family settled in Glasgow. Later, after her parents split up, she moved to Yorkshire with her mother. Committed to acting, she earned a string of roles on the stage and, following acclaim, began appearing on TV. This included landing a role as Daisie in the fifth season of CBBC’s Wolfblood. Two years later, she signed on to play Marina in Shonda Rhimes’ adaptation of Bridgerton.
Barker has now updated fans that she sustained a broken arm during a bouldering session in Leeds, a climbing sport where a harness isn’t used. The accident was captured on video and shows the actor falling from quite a height and landing on her arm after attempting a challenging route. Clearly in a lot of pain, she was then rushed to hospital, where she was informed of the break.
Barker shared the clip on Instagram with the caption: “You ok? This is what happened.” She shared further updates from the hospital, and in one post wrote: “Love Gas & Air apparently I didn’t want to give it back but have no memory of that, lol”.
Barker’s fall materialised only days after she revealed that she’d been diagnosed with bipolar, after a challenging few years dealing with several issues related to her mental health. She wrote in an Instagram post: “Hi, I’m bipolar I have a diagnosis now, cause for celebration”.
This follows Barker’s update in October 2023, when she revealed on Oxford University’s LOAF Podcast that she suffered her first “psychotic break” in 2019, following production wrapping on the first instalment of Bridgerton. She also said another emerged in 2022 and that she received “no support” from Netflix or Rhimes’ production company, Shondaland.
“Not a single person from Netflix, not a single person from Shondaland, since I have had two psychotic breaks from that show, have even contacted me or even emailed me to ask me if I’m okay or if I would benefit from any sort of aftercare or support,” Barker said. “Nobody.”
She claimed that her mental health battle started during the filming of the romantic drama, with the isolated nature of her character particularly damaging. “During filming, I was deteriorating,” she reflected. “It was a really tormenting place for me to be because my character was very alienated, very ostracised, on her own under these horrible circumstances.” She also claimed her hospitalisation a week after the first season was shot was covered up and kept quiet.