TV show host Jeremy Kyle says he has been diagnosed with anxiety disorder and was left unable to leave the house after his TV show was axed following the death of a guest.
The Jeremy Kyle Show host was suspended indefinitely by ITV in May 2019 after participant Steve Dymond died a week after the programme was filmed.
The series, an ITV staple since 2005, was axed for good after the incident and calls to bin the show from MPs and members of the public.
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Mr Kyle told the Sun newspaper : “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.”
He added: “Critics will say I got a taste of my own medicine but I’d been through a fair amount up until that point — and I guess it all caught up with me at once.”
The TV presenter acknowledged that what happened to Mr Dymond, who died of a morphine overdose and heart problems after facing a lie detecter test on the Jeremy Kyle show, as a "terrible tragedy", and said he does not want to sound "woe is me", but said Mr Dymond's death and fall out "hit me hard". After feeling unable to leave his home, a doctor diagnosed Mr Kyle with an anxiety disorder.
He added: "And it’s been awful to feel so scapegoated, and without being able to have my say about the accusations that often seemed to be levelled only at me.
“I’ve felt hunted and made out to be responsible for everything that ever took place around that show. But I was just the face of it.
“A hundred people lost their jobs that day, and I felt truly awful for them too and worried for their futures. But I felt completely alone,” he told The Sun.
Following the cancellation of the daytime show, MPs launched an inquiry into reality TV.
Earlier this year, Dame Carolyn McCall, chief executive of ITV, told the BBC’s The Media Show the broadcaster was “looking at” cancelling Kyle’s programme prior to it being pulled from the schedules.
She said there are no plans for Kyle to return to the broadcaster.
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