It was never a retcon.

I don’t recall her being called out exactly. Sometimes Bobbie would talk about what she had overcome, even in scenes with Ruby. Luke seemed to take offense at questioning their past, but some of that was because he didn’t think any of them should be ashamed for having to survive. And especially later Ruby was very happy Bobbie had Tony and such a stable life.

15 minutes ago, titan1978 said:

I don’t recall her being called out exactly. Sometimes Bobbie would talk about what she had overcome, even in scenes with Ruby. Luke seemed to take offense at questioning their past, but some of that was because he didn’t think any of them should be ashamed for having to survive. And especially later Ruby was very happy Bobbie had Tony and such a stable life.

Maybe madams were though of as different back in the day? There is a point in late 1983 where Bobbie and Ruby's past is outed by Jackie Templeton ( and 40 plus years later her son would be trying to put Bobbie's grandson in jail) during Luke's campaign for Mayor and they acted like an outing of a person spending a few years as a sex worker as a teenager and a person who presumably spend decades running girls were equivalent outings.