Jeremy Kyle breaks silence on mental health battle after show was axed in 2019 following contestant suicide

Jeremy Kyle has revealed he was left suffering anxiety so severe he couldn’t ‘leave the house or open the curtains’ after his talk show was axed in 2019.

The Jeremy Kyle Show was pulled off air following the death of contestant Steve Dymond by suicide, leaving the presenter battling his own mental health.

Speaking out for the first time since the show ended, Jeremy, 56, told The Sun he was ‘completely devastated’ by what had happened.

He explained: ‘I used to think “get a grip” when some celebrities talked about those sort of problems.

‘But suddenly I realised first-hand you can’t always do that. I never thought they would affect me like they did.

‘That was a shock — but I’ve always said, “If you have a problem, admit it, and then seek the proper help”. So that’s what I did.’

Jeremy is set to return to broadcasting with a weekday drivetime show on talkRADIO, and revealed he had treatment after struggling with a series of difficult times, from having the US version of his show cancelled to getting cancer, bereavement and a divorce.

He revealed: ‘I was completely devastated at first and then I became completely demotivated. Every ounce of energy seemed to have gone and I just couldn’t bring myself to leave the house or even open the curtains.’

Steven Dymond — Steve Dymond took his own life before an episode he had been due to appear in aired

Jeremy admits he felt ‘scapegoated’ and ‘hunted’ after the show was pulled following the death of a contestant, as he was the ‘face’ of the production.

While he says many friends and colleagues distanced themselves from him after the fallout, he names Piers Morgan, Kate Garraway, Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, Rob Rinder and Dec Donnelly as those who stood by him and reached out.

He added: ‘I stand by something I wrote in my book — “if you put yourself out there and it goes wrong, you have to face up to that”. I took the big salary money and all the perks. If I had wanted to swap it for a conventional nine-to-five job, I could have done.

‘So I get that people wanted to have a go at me. But it did start to feel like a massive pile-on and one I’ve never really been allowed to have my say on.’

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