Guests of The Jeremy Kyle Show are subjected to sleep deprivation, vicious untrue rumours and plied with booze before their appearance on the show, one veteran of the daytime telly programme has claimed.
In the aftermath of the shock death of guest Steve Dymond - which resulted in ITV suspending the show indefinitely and pulling every single episode from its Hub catch-up service - former participants have told Mirror Online of their treatment at the hands of ITV producers.
Their shocking testimony is sure to bring into question the future of the highest-rated ITV daytime TV show - and whether it still has a place in 2019.
Here is Charlie's story in his own words.
Charlie Henson, 31, from Barnet - episodes in 2011 and 2015
Charlie, who appeared on the show twice - the second time 'Jeremy Kyle Show left me inches from suicide': Guest left homeless and disowned by family , who also spoke to Mirror Online - said the aftercare offered by Jeremy Kyle's team is nonexistent. He was so worried about Harry's distress that he thought his brother would take his life. He first went on with his now ex-partner and their friend, who physically lashed out at Charlie on stage. Charlie claims all three of them were put in a taxi back home straight after the show and he was offered no support over the fracas.
It doesn't surprise me at all that a guest has died.
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We had to jump in this cab, I had no clothes with me, about £20 on me, but the producers were like 'don't worry about that, we'll get you clothes when you get here, we'll get everything you need', so we reluctantly got in the cab.
I thought when I talked to them it would be the next week we'd go on, but they wanted us on the show the next morning. They wanted someone else to come so we brought Josh.
We were saying we really need a fag and they were like, 'don't go to the shops, don't walk out the hotel, stay where you are' cos I think they were scared we were going to go out clubbing or whatever.
So they sent a cab with wine and cigarettes - two bottles of white and 40 fags between us.
The cab driver came to the hotel and left it at reception. We did run up a bill as well, they give you £30 each for food and drink, but I don't think they really cared.
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Once you're in the hotel, the producers are calling you constantly. They were talking to us until 4am, they'd say 'ring us when you wake up', I think they're scared people will go home.
You get breakfast then they pick you up in a cab, we were still really drunk and hungover.
We were thrown into this lie detector - I don't even think that's real.
It's just this thing on the end of your finger and a strap that goes round your chest.
I was telling the operator I was on Diazepam at the time for bad anxiety and he was like, 'that's OK'.
I thought, 'no it's not, I'm tranquilised right now.'
He said, 'you've only had this much so it's fine', so I said OK.
I had to take a tablet before I went in for my anxiety and they didn't tell me not to beforehand, they just said, 'don't do drugs'.
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You're separated from the other guests and put in different rooms with a magazine to read, then you're left alone for hours.
These producers would come in and go, 'oh my God, do you know what Josh is saying about you down the hall?
He's going to tear you up on stage. He's going to say this, you should say that this happened blah blah blah'.
When we met up later I asked him about what he'd said and it turned out the producers were telling him what I'd said, which wasn't true.
They were s**t-stirring, basically. Me and Josh saw through them luckily.
I was 23, they were like 19-year-olds. I found the whole thing like a youth club, like there were no adults around.
They were like jumped-up kids on Red Bull, they were more focused on 'oh my God, you're going to be on TV!' whereas me and my ex wanted to sort our relationship out.
They didn't really care about that, they just wanted some drama on stage.
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Even during the programme the producers are still feeding you lines.
When we went on a break they came running on and said, 'you need to say this', and I was like, 'am I saying what I want to say or what you want to say?'
It was all very staged in my eyes. We both failed the lie detector, I think we both knew we were going to cos we did cheat on each other and I admitted it on stage.
My ex got upset and then Josh went to attack me and we got separated by security.
After that we were a bit shaken up, it was a bit too much to take in.
You've just been on The Jeremy Kyle Show - I was a bit dazed and confused and really needed a cigarette.
We were literally just pushed out the door, we didn't see Jeremy or Graham [the show's psychologist] after - Graham said there'd be aftercare and we would hear from them.
We didn't hear s**t. The only other time we heard from them is when they phoned to say when the episode would be on. It was probably six to eight weeks after filming, it aired in September 2011.
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You are put straight into a cab seconds after the show's finished and you never hear from them again. There was no aftercare or anything like that. They say there is, but there's not.
I was in a cab with Josh and my ex all the way back to London, we had to sit there for six hours after Josh went for me. I was a little bit scared but we were OK after. I would have preferred a cab on my own.
The second time I went on was in 2015 when my brother Harry was accused of taking our mum's partner's golf clubs.
At the time we needed to know if Harry had stolen them.
He was the one who suggested we went on the show and I thought, 'well he hasn't done it then'. I made the call because he asked me to.
They were all, 'Oh Jeremy remembers you! He can't wait to have you on again!' And I thought, 'you're such a liar, Jeremy doesn't remember me and you haven't even asked him yet.'
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I was really, really worried about taking Harry on, because when we were on stage, as soon as he failed the lie detector test I was in shock.
Harry kicked off big time, he wasn't going for anyone but he went to go throw a chair, but Steve [the show's burly bodyguard] and the other security guards got hold of him.
I was in tears, I was begging the audience to help - but they were sitting on him.
I was in shock and they heavily edited that bit out, obviously. Harry's life was ruined, he couldn't go home. He was homeless.
He had backlash from it - my mum broke up with her partner over it, because it was her partner's golf clubs.
But we found the golf clubs a couple of months later, they were in a shed.
We still don't know how they were moved there. But the lie detector said he was guilty.
After the show one of the producers sat on his lap and was all, 'Oh, I'm so sorry you've gone through this but don't worry, we can try and get you on the next show'. It was really weird.
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They knew he had mental health problems, they knew everything.
I was screaming at this one woman in the audience, I remember her face, she had her hand over her mouth looking really shocked.
They were they were sitting on his legs and hands, his face was red and he was screaming, 'I didn't f**king do it'.
A woman came along afterwards with a cilpboard, she was some kind of mental health specialist, I said, 'he's going to kill himself tonight, he's going to do something stupid'.
'I don't think he's in a bad way, I think he can go home,' she said. Where's he meant to go? I ended up having a massive row with this woman, saying, 'look what you've done, all for your TV show'.
She said, 'what would you like us to do for him?' Are you going to put him up in a hotel room until things blow over? 'No, we can't do that but we can offer some aftercare, some counselling' so we were like, whatever.
We were shoved in a cab then and told we'd hear from them about aftercare but we didn't ever hear from them again.
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Harry could have killed himself that night and that would have been it.
My mum cried her eyes out for weeks, she couldn't believe it. I phoned up the producers and begged them not to air the episode, and they said they'd edited out the part where Harry kicks off. I said, 'yeah of course you have, because that wouldn't look good on the show would it?'
Apparently because we'd signed forms and it was not so long until it was being aired, they couldn't take it off, but for some reason they told us after for legal reasons it wouldn't be on the catch-up Hub.
They wouldn't tell us what the legal reasons were.
Weeks after the show was aired, we found the golf clubs. Harry had never taken them.
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I was not shocked at all that a guest has died, I knew it was going to happen soon. I just knew it.
There's no aftercare at all, it's bollocks. I know they send people to rehab and it's really good, but for normal people that just go on for normal things, like the ones who aren't on drugs, you just feel really let down after.
They hype you up before and you think you're going to get help and this is it, and it's just bollocks.
I'm not surprised that guest died. That could have easily been my brother, that could have been Harry. And what would have happened three months down the line when those bloody golf clubs had been found?
I really hope the show never goes back on. It just ruins people's lives.
ITV's response in full
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Mirror Online has contacted ITV for comment. The channel did not respond to Charlie's specific allegations, but did provide a statement. Here it is in full:
"ITV has many years experience of broadcasting and creating programmes featuring members of the public and each of our productions has duty of care measures in place for contributors.
These will be dependent on the type of show and will be proportionate for the level of activity of each contributor and upon the individual. All of our processes are regularly reviewed to ensure that they are fit for purpose in an ever changing landscape.
"In the case of The Jeremy Kyle Show, the programme has significant and detailed duty of care processes in place for contributors pre, during and post show which have been built up over 14 years, and there have been numerous positive outcomes from this, including people who have resolved complex and long-standing personal problems.
"Prior to the show a comprehensive assessment is carried out by the guest welfare team on all potential contributors. The guest welfare team consists of four members of staff, one consultant psychotherapist and three mental health nurses.
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"The guests are interviewed by guest welfare face to face at studios and prior to filming. Throughout filming the participants are supported by the guest welfare team in the studios during the recording phase of their show.
After filming has ended all guests are seen by a member of the guest welfare team to ensure they are feeling calm and emotionally settled before any participant leaves to travel home.
"An evaluation of their needs is also carried out at this time and should they require any ongoing service regarding the problem they discussed on the show then appropriate solutions are found for them.
"This could include residential rehabilitation, counselling, anger management, family mediation, child access mediation or couple counselling for example.
"The day after recording of the show the participant will be contacted by production to carry out a welfare check and provide details of the services that have been sourced for them.
"The production team keep in touch with the participants in the days between recording and transmission and participants are given a production mobile contact number should they need to contact the show at any point following transmission.
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"To continue best practice, we regularly review our processes.
"As we have said, everyone at ITV and The Jeremy Kyle Show is shocked and saddened at the news of the death of a participant in the show a week after the recording of the episode they featured in and our thoughts are with their family and friends.
"We will not screen the episode in which they featured.
"Given the seriousness of this event, ITV has also decided to suspend both filming and broadcasting of The Jeremy Kyle Show with immediate effect in order to give it time to conduct a review of this episode of the show, and we cannot comment further until this review is completed."
If you're struggling and need to talk, the Samaritans operate a free helpline open 24/7 on 116 123. Alternatively, if you'd rather write down how you're feeling, you can email jo@samaritans.org
