Ruth the Truth shuns psychic limelight

Apr 11 2008 By David Russell

“People are surprised when they find out I don’t live in a castle,” says Ruth Urquhart, sitting on a leather corner suite in front of the big screen TV in her fashionably modern living room. “Fans who don’t know I’m from Hamilton are amazed when they see me here.”

But in Ruth’s line of work, people must be prepared to expect the unexpected.

Ruth Urquhart – also known as Ruth the Truth – is one of Britain’s most popular psychics, who is perhaps best recognised due to her newspaper columns in the Daily Star and the Daily Record, as well as in women’s magazines Chat and Best.

Of course, the reputation of being one of the top psychics in the country comes with a remarkable CV.

Ruth has experienced psychic phenomena from a young age – hearing disembodied voices and experiencing otherworldly visions – but did not realise that she was the only one who could sense them until she was 11 years old.

For a young girl, just starting secondary school, this revelation was not easy to handle.

Luckily, Ruth’s grandmother – believed to be a gifted psychic herself – offered to take the young medium under her wing.

With her grandmother’s tuition, Ruth says her gift grew, and to this day she uses the techniques learned during this time.

Later, Ruth studied Applied Microbiology at university, striving to find out the scientific truth behind her psychic abilities.

Although a career in science was not to be in Ruth’s future, leaving university with an upper second-class honours degree proves that she is no fool, and gives some credence to her belief in the psychic phenomena she experiences.

She decided to become a counsellor after realising that her gift could be used to help other people.

This decision led to work in the media – becoming Britain’s first psychic agony aunt, originally featured in the Evening Times.

Becoming a professional psychic in 1995, Ruth pre-empted the boom in celebrity psychics that has seen mediums such as Derek Acorah and psychic barber Gordon Smith become household names in recent years.

Unsurprisingly, television producers have sought to have Ruth Urquhart on their supernatural programmes, but in a typically maverick move, Ruth shunned the bright lights of London and the fame and fortune that would come from being constantly in front of TV cameras.

“People who have seen me on TV and in newspapers think I’m based in London, but the things that are important to me are my home and my family,” says 39-year-old Ruth, who lives in High Earnock in Hamilton with husband Ronald and their two children Jessica and Thomas. “I have everything I need right here, although Ronald thinks I’m crazy for saying no to the shows I’ve turned down.”

One of the programmes she was offered was a pilot called Haunted Houses, which became the popular series Most Haunted.

Ruth said: “It seemed like a good idea, visiting haunted houses and contacting spirits. The woman pitching the idea said ‘you will pick up on real spirits in some places, but if nothing comes, jazz it up for the cameras – kid-on you’ve been possessed’.

“Although Most Haunted was great for Derek Acorah’s career, I didn’t see the point. It was like selling out.”

Gimmicky reality television programmes have been offered, but again, Ruth has turned them down.

Wife Swap – which normally does not pay for contestants – offered Ruth a five-figure sum to take part.

She said: “It just didn’t appeal to me, I didn’t want to be away from my kids. The people they have on these programmes are either lowlifes or really posh and it would be hard for them to understand what I do, be it meditation or psychic stuff.”

However, Ruth enjoyed the media attention during the launches of her books, “Ruth the Truth’s Psychic Guide” and “Ruth the Truth’s Psychic Guide to Love”, which included coverage on TV’s Richard and Judy chat show. On this programme, Ruth read for Geri Halliwell, during which she correctly predicted a relationship between the former Spice Girl and Robbie Williams.

Other celebrity readings have included David and Victoria Beckham, whose move to Los Angeles was predicted before any other psychic, and actor Will Mellor who was then an actor in teen soap Hollyoaks. Ruth’s advice for Mellor was to branch into comedy and singing. Since then, he has had huge success with Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and won the first series of the BBC singing contest, Comic Relief does Fame Academy.

She also read for Ally McCoist in a cupboard during a Christmas party.

However, even having read for these big names and so many more, Ruth is not impressed by the fame of those she has read for.

She said: “I have big-name clients who I don’t name – they just come to me looking for a bit of hope like anyone. If I said who they were, they would not come back to me. They just come and go like any other clients.”

Ruth produces a reading for each coming year, and with each accurate prediction, her reputation as a genuine psychic becomes more and more solid.

The predictions for 2001 were particularly important – the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers were predicted 11 months before the incident.

Ruth said: “I was looking into my crystal ball and I could see two towers burning. I was on Johnny Walker’s show on Radio 2 and was explaining this vision, but all I knew was that the words ‘American red alert’ were connected to it.

“As it got closer to September 2001, I would dream of the towers and there would be a pungent smell of petrol.”

Ruth also predicted the July 2005 suicide bombings in London during her reading for that year.

She said: “I was told that since there had never been a suicide bomb attack in Britain, it could not be correct. The prediction was just pooh-poohed.”

But Ruth does not let sceptics get to her, and does not force her beliefs on other people – she believes that if people want to listen to her predictions they are free to do so.

Similarly, she has no time for people who do not expect her to be so down to earth, for example, when sensationalist Royal biographer and socialite Lady Colin Campbell was arranging to come to Scotland for a reading with the famous psychic, she asked if Ruth had a helipad on her house in the Earnock estate.

Of course, she did not, and the socialite’s helicopter had to be landed in an airfield.

In a similar case, when GMTV visited Ruth’s home for an interview, the crew were surprised that she did not live in a larger house - but unpretentious Ruth simply asked: “what’s wrong with the house I live in?”

For now, Ruth is happy to live in Hamilton, helping people through the use of her special gifts - and without having sold herself out for fame or riches.

She is currently setting up a new series of workshops – involving angels, crystals and psychic development – and looking to revamp her year-old website.

Ruth is also looking forward to completing a diploma course in past-life regression, and hopes to include this in her work.

Personal future is not all Ruth is concerned about – her predictions for this year appear to warn of the effects of global warming, with images of flooding and rain – or perhaps water pollution – appearing in the crystal ball.

But it seems that even without a castle and a helipad, as long as she has her home and family, Ruth Urquhart is content.