Jeremy Kyle has spilled the beans on why he reckons his headline-grabbing ITV show was already on borrowed time even before it got the chop in 2019.
The daytime TV host was cancelled after Steve Dymond, a guest, took his own life a week after filming his appearance. But now aged 59, Jeremy has spoken out during his first TV interview since the Jeremy Kyle Show was axed.
The interview, recorded weeks after he was “exonerated” following an inquest into Dymond’s death, includes him admitting he understood why his show had to go. “I understand entirely that The Kyle Show had to fall on its sword because of that,” he admitted to Kate Garraway.
He also labelled social media as having “changed everything” as the world is “dramatically” different. “It was a juggernaut,” he said of his show.
“You’d look now and go ‘it’s a bygone era’. We launched in 2005, just before the advent of social media and I think that changed everything.
“People watched to make themselves feel better about their own lives but the world has changed dramatically – you can’t say boo to a goose now, can you? So understandably shows like that have gone by the by.
“I’m immensely proud of the 17 series, of taking it to America and the people that we genuinely helped. Fifteen years is a long time.”
Back in May 2019, the late Dymond broke down on The Jeremy Kyle Show when he didn’t pass a lie detector test that was meant to show he wasn’t cheating on his partner, Jane Callaghan. Tragically, just a week later, the 63-year-old was found dead having overdosed on morphine, reports the Mirror.
A clip from the never-broadcast episode played at the inquest showed Jeremy demanding Dymond to “be a man and grow a pair of b****”. Jeremy had earlier laid into him, calling the dad, who’d struggled with mental health issues and thoughts of taking his own life, a “serial liar” and even joked he “would not trust him with a chocolate button”.
In September that year, the coroner concluded that there wasn’t a “clear link” between Dymond’s tragic decision and his time on show with Jeremy. The coroner mentioned Steve’s heart woes and the overdose as the culprits but did note that his ordeal on set might have piled on the stress.
They said: “Steve Dymond’s participation in the show is one of a number of factors, and whilst it is possible that the manner of his experience added to his distress, it is not probable,” summing up their verdict. Steve’s son Carl Woolley remained convinced that Jeremy was to blame.
Carl said in a statement: “Anyone watching the clips of the show can see that he was in tears and was spoken to in the most brutal way by Jeremy Kyle. The only good thing that came of my father’s death, is the Jeremy Kyle Show is cancelled.”
Following the decision, Kyle proclaimed he was “exonerated” and expressed relief that his name had “finally been cleared” after choosing to remain “steadfastly silent in the face of lies, false accusations and unfair criticism over the last five and a half years”. Highlighting the immense impact the public scrutiny had on him and his loved ones following the cancellation of his programme, Jeremy shared with Kate: “You can be the king of the castle one day and the next day you’re not allowed in the castle grounds.”
As he stumbled onto the stage – joking he’s “clumsy, idiotic, OCD” – Jeremy conveyed his elation to open up about his entire life journey to close pal Kate. “It’s great to be back.
“ITV have been really supportive over the past five years and with you – we go back a long way. So, it’s perfect.”
In conversation with the Good Morning Britain star, Jeremy revealed that when he faced testicular cancer in 2012, which demanded chemotherapy and surgical intervention, he feared for his life. “I remember waking up to this amazing nurse who stayed with me all night and held my hand – it was terrifying,” he confided to her.
“I thought I was dead that night, I thought I was dead.”
Jeremy then delves into his childhood. Raised by his mother Nanette, who was employed by Coutts bank, and his accountant father Patrick – a man with prestigious clients like the late Queen Mother – Jeremy grew up in Reading, Berkshire.
Alongside his elder brother Nick, he attended the prestigious Blue Coat School in the town. Reflecting on those days, Jeremy remarks: “They worked hard and grafted and they decided to spend 60 per cent of their income sending us to private school which I really respected. They gave us a good upbringing.”
Despite the advantages, Jeremy’s school years were far from enjoyable. His third wife Vicky Burton shares with the documentary viewers that: “He was never very good at any contact sports and he always says at school he didn’t really have any friends.”
Jeremy, now a father of six, confirms this, yet acknowledges how it inadvertently prepared him for his future career. He confesses: “I hated it. I was the shyest boy in the school. They called me Kyle Pile Haemorrhoid. That was my nickname.
“Then there was a seminal moment when I was 15 – I worked out that if you became the loudest in the class and took the mickey out of the people who were taking it out of you, you’d be all right. And that’s what I did. It was a mask really.”
At 16, he found comfort in the bookies, developing a love for horse-racing, partly due to spending time at Clarence House with the royals as a youngster. He discovered his knack for conversation, with people opening up to him whether he wanted them to or not.
But he also developed a fondness for betting, once winning £5k from a £5 bet after picking the top three horses in the Grand National. Following this, he ventured into a career as a city trader, which lasted just six weeks as he was “useless”, and then as a recruitment consultant, which went far better.
“You learn what your strengths and your skills are and and for me, it was really obvious it was about people,” he shares. However, his gambling habit spiralled out of control, contributing to the end of his first marriage to Kirsty Rowley.
“There was a few months where work wasn’t great, the marriage wasn’t great and I ended up in debt,” he admits. “I owed 10 grand and ended up paying 13 grand back.
“I was really hacked off. That is the last and only time time in my life that I ever got into a position like that. After that I focused. I think that’s one of the greatest life lessons I’ve had really, if I’m honest.”
The journey of fatherhood has led him to have daughter Harriet, now 35, with Kirsty, then three more children with second wife Carla Germaine, and another two with his third wife Vicky, including the latest addition who is just one year old. His broadcasting career kicked off after a stint selling radio advertisements led to an opportunity to try his hand as a DJ, culminating in securing a late-night talk show.
He eventually moved to BRMB in Birmingham, where his Late and Live Show evolved into the infamous Jezza’s Confessions. He believes that to get people to confide in him on air, he had to share a piece of himself too.
He said: “How are you going to get people to respond to you unless you are open and honest with them about everything? I loved the fact that people would open up.
“I’m not an expert, I’m just a bloke off the street that they wanted to talk to. And I really respected that fact that people wanted to come on.
“I was taught by the old man that you have to tell people the truth and then you have to get on with it – and that probably shaped a lot of me.
“Some people would say ‘is that sympathetic?’ But I always felt, if you’ve got an issue, people can mollycoddle you or they can tell you how it is. And interestingly, tough love, hard love – the truth – that, for many people, is the right way to go.”