Jeremy Kyle | The Most Hated Man in the World?

Jeremy, how did it feel to get blamed for someone's death after your show? It's a really interesting question because I have to say that I thought about that so many times over the last five years and that's the most important thing to say to you. Somebody died. I know now as I perhaps knew all the way through but perhaps it's now out there. There were many reasons that Steve Diamond sadly took his own life. It was not down as the coroner said what six weeks ago.

to ITV or the Jeremy Kausho, but you become a really easy target. And I think if you're doing a show like that, that's quite vociferous, quite raw. You put yourself out there. It was a difficult time, not just for me. It was difficult for a hundred kids who worked their asses off and lost almost everything overnight. I guess if you're at the helm of that, certainly if you're names on it, then

You expect to get criticism. It was pretty full on for a while, I have to say. And for me, there will be plenty of people who would say, I deserved it. He had that coming. It's a television show. As I said at the time, I played a person I didn't select after care.

do any of that with the guests. I met Steve Diamond, tragic Steve Diamond, for 11 minutes. And for him and his family, it's so sad that that happened. But it was really important that the truth came out. Five years was far too long. COVID, of course, the legal system. And people who I will not get involved with criticizing ever, you know, all put their two penny worth in. And in the meantime, I was, I guess you'd say, understandably, the man that got blamed for everything, to be fair. And so that whole inquest took five years. It did.

for all sorts of reasons, some of which I can talk about, some which I can't, Covid. I mean, just people saying things and then not backing it up and legally it was such a big thing and I get it. I mean, I understand why the coroner perhaps now was as methodical as he was because you've got a large conglomerate and a family, but the family obviously had

a reason for doing what they were doing. And it was really important for me to be able to speak the truth, defend my position, but I couldn't do that while the legal process was on. So unlike other people who you might have seen on television or situations like that, I didn't say anything. I didn't do an interview, I didn't go on social media, I kept my mouth shut because I felt out of

respect for Steve Diamond. That was the right thing. And of course, like I just said to you, if you're the host and they assume you're on telly and you've got money and your life's wonderful, it doesn't matter what I think, I can tell you that some of the dark days were awful, the darkest I've had, but nobody gives a damn about that. And I understand that, I'm fine with that, it's cool.

Well, you're here and I'm talking to you and I do care about those things because you're a human being and a person like everybody else. Was it hard to not be able to put your point across for that time? And of course, whilst the world judged and programs were made, you know, Channel 4 dispatches program and

and there were new accountless newspapers. And I get it. I get it. I work in the business. You can't stick your head above the parapet and expect if you're doing something like that. You can't go, oh, I expect 100% of the time people are going to go, he's great. 50% think I'm great. 50% think I'm the worst thing since sliced bread or did. So I get that. But not being able to put your two penny worth in and then getting ill. And again, I said this once and everyone's like, oh, that's easy to say. I mean, I think one of the

the good things that's happened in this country, the world in the last few years, is that people can now talk about mental health, right? And they never could. It was a no-no, it showed weakness. So that was really good. But I was, me, the one who used to poo poo antidepressants and say, come on, what did a mum used to say? Get off your backside and go back to work. I couldn't get out of bed for three months. And if it hadn't been for my wife,

who literally saved my life. I would never have gotten seen somebody and I found myself an antidepressants. I found myself literally not able to go out terrified by what the reaction would be. And so, you know, nothing. I never found myself in a place that Steve did. And many others do. No, just really for somebody who lives off, you know, 24 hours a day, it never seats more than four to six hours a night and has been at it for however many years, 60 next year, haven't got too much of a complex.

It was really, really interesting, weird, scary to be any just, any just, okay, so the word energy less, I don't know, just knackered the whole time and down and not motivated, not wanting to read or watch television or have conversations, just wanted to go to sleep. So do you think it gave you a sense of sympathy or empathy for other people's mental health challenges when you had your own?

I absolutely do, and that's the point I just made, but I also, I can't ever lose the honest tag. I think for every single person who is unable to talk about their mental health, I think we also have to be really careful in this country that it now doesn't for some become an easy label on which to attach themselves because, you know what I'm saying, suddenly everybody has anxiety, which is probably true.

talking about it, there are many, many, many people who have suffered in silence. I just don't want it to go the other way so that everybody says, you know, somebody says, how am I, my job? You're not very good. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to take a week off. I'm suffering with anxiety. There's a difference between that. You know, it can never be used as an excuse. But for me, it was an eye opener. For me, it was, you know, it was, um, wow. And I think, I think what happened was it, I got the show finished in May, I think. And if you 15 years of my life had been literally timed,

Car here, studio there, five shows, get on a plane, do this. And all of a sudden that's gone. And I think I was all right. The first month was horrendous. And I disappeared to my best mate's house up north because it was horrendous. And then the summer came and the kids were there because I've told you I've got more kids and Boris Johnson's ridiculous. More than Elon Musk? I don't know how many Elon Musk's got. Is 10 or 12? Well, he's obviously got more than me than hasn't he? But I think I've got six.

No need for a DNA test. You just thought I was gonna put that in. And then so the summer you're sort of, the kids, when it hit me, was September, October, November, when everybody went back to work. And suddenly there was no schedule in my life. And so by the time lockdown came, I'd been in lockdown for six months. I remember just not being able to leave the house. And so yeah, she dragged me, Victor, to her to her doctors. And that was the good thing. And it was all at that point, everything was piling in.

And I'm writing a book at the moment with the help of a man who can write, because I can't. And I remember saying to him something like, you know, one minute you're the king of the castle, and the next minute you're not allowed in the castle grounds. And that's good. There's plenty of people that will listen to this and go, good, good, bastard. Shouted at people for years, and was this down the other. But you asked me from my point of view, and it was a real life changer. Looking back now, I then had my son in January of 2020, and so

That was wonderful. And I was able to nurse my old man, literally every day for two years we laughed until he did. I mean, let's say we laughed, we did. He was a bugger. But all of those things wouldn't have been impossible and that gave me confidence. But I didn't ever think that it would change somehow. I was just stuck in this. I don't even know how to describe it. Wow.

So you've opened up about four things I'd like to talk about. The first one was you mentioned that a hundred kids, it was all over. So are you saying this thing happened and then bang, you're off the air. You've lost everything. It's all gone. I was very lucky. I'd signed a contract before. That's fine. I wasn't talking about me. I was talking about these kids who had worked their asses off. And one of the good things about you. You mean the crew, the people who were involved in the show. Yeah. So there's a hundred people involved in the Jeremy Karl show. They were.

These kids do add mortgages and everything. Show ends overnight. Obviously, they have the opportunity to look elsewhere. I suppose if you asked me my thoughts seriously on that morning, it was, oh my God, a man's diet. How does poor man get to that position? That's my first theory. My second thing is those kids, I didn't think about myself.

for the reasons that I said to you. But yeah, they lost their livelihoods and many of them struggled with that to a degree, but they got on with their lives. But I think, you know, you also have to step back and you have to go 15 years, the Jeremy Karl Show was on. It was a bike, it's a bike on era. You can't say shit anymore without somebody writing a letter of complaint to HR. It was a very honest, direct, raw show that was the most popular television, ITV daytime television, or the daytime television program probably ever.

And that says an awful lot, doesn't it? Because all the people who jumped up and down, you want to have an argument with them and say, so you're telling the people that watched it, they're wrong. You're just blaming me for everything that went on in the world. It was a television program. Yeah. Switch the button off. But yeah, the kids, the kids were a phenomenal. We had a thing on car where I think something like, I don't exact percentage, but 90% of kids that started as runners ended up as producers. So they were invested in it, 1 million percent. Wow. And do you think a show like the Jeremy Carl Show could exist today? No.

No, said this during the coroner's court, it's a bygone era. I don't think the advent of social media, I mean there's an interesting point which you love and somebody made this to me the other day. Ofcom controls television quite rightly, that over 30,000 people came on the Jeremy Carr show, not a whiff of trouble, criticisms occasionally, right?

What happened to Steve Diamond was a tragedy and so sad. And yes, there have been other things on other programs, but the Jeremy Carr Show actually would not have lasted for 15 years. It wouldn't have lasted through 30,000 people unless the procedures and the practices were in place were really, really, and I mean this, second to none. And that is a point that you always want to say to people because it lasted a long time, but no, not today, of course not.

Can you imagine X Factor now? Can you imagine when Simon Cowers? I'm sorry, you can't sing and I don't like your dress. Oh my God, I've got anxiety. That's what we're talking about here. People always say to me about Jeremy Cowler go, well, those people, these people, somebody once said to me, I said this as well, a guy came off stage and went, how do I do? I said, you did fine. He said, you know what, on my state, it's cooler to be on Kyle than get an Asbo.

And I just think that's a great line, right? So when the bedwetters, as I call them, the liberals jump up and down, and they go, oh my God, it was terrible. That's their opinion, they're entitled to that. But go and ask the 30,000 people that came on it, and go and ask the millions that watched it. And so it was a bygone era, and I wouldn't be on today. Of course it wouldn't be on today. You can't turn in five minutes, you mean?

Yeah, but then, you know, my hero's Ricky Gervais is desperate to be canceled. I didn't set out to be canceled. I didn't even really, there was no sort of, you know, there was no sort of sitting down and planning how that show evolved. It just evolved. And for many now, that wouldn't, an understanding would be palatable, but it was incredibly palatable, I think, at that time. You know, it was, it was, it was successful, but we can look now. But, but here's my point. I was going to say, Julie Burture wrote it, the spectator, the other day. I thought it was brilliant. She said,

You know, shows like Kyle were governed by off-com, they lasted as long as they did. Social media, X, as was Twitter, the pylons, the crap, the abuse, the uncontrolled, unadulterated abuse that people give each other, that's far worse.

And that's going completely undetected, isn't it? The stuff that happens online, I think is far worse nowadays, or on the way to being, than anything you would see. And I'm not even talking about my shit, I'm doing all sorts of things. Benefit Street, you don't pay, we'll take away all that stuff. It was a different time. And I think we now live in a world where we always

I mean, you can see it, can't you? We always look back. I have arguments from my 21-year-old, because she'll say, that's outrageous. I know everything. We don't know everything, do you? And I'm not going to apologise for the rest. I'm not going to apologise for what your grandparents taught me, OK? Not everything. I'm glad you've got an opinion, but you don't know everything in the world. So I don't want to be an apologist. The Jeremy Cash Show happened. I'm sure for many people it was amazing. For some people, more other people it wasn't.

He had a chance to watch it or not watch it. What happened to Steve Diamond was an absolute tragedy, but it wasn't down to me or the Jeremy Carl Show. There were many issues. You can say, should he have come on the Jeremy Carl Show? And if you read the coroner's report and you know the facts, we received a letter signed by his GP saying he was good to come on. So, you know, we did all of this in court. And so for me, I will forever be sad that Steve Diamond took his own life. I know it wasn't. I met him for 11 minutes, right?

I mean, afterwards, I sort of went through this stage where I thought they're going to blame me for like, you know, income tax rises, upping off, the problems in the Middle East. I mean, there's a great story that my manager, Claire, loves to show. In the middle of the Jeremy Kasha, you love this. I've never told him this. GQ Magazine did a...

the most hated man in England. No, in the world was the world, wasn't it? And Pol Pot came forth, and Adolf Hitler, you can see where this is going, came forth. And Saddam Hussein came third, and I came second. And Saddam Hussein, no, what was his name? Osama bin Laden came first. And when they killed Osama bin Laden, I got it posthumously.

And she rang me and she said, you can't even bloody well win that, can you? No, I'm joking. But what I'm trying to say is it was a show and people get so wound up about that and I get it, I get it. But there was a lot more to the Jeremy Cash. The Jeremy Cash should put thousands of people into detox and rehab. There are thousands of people in this country who now know who their parents are, their fathers are. That doesn't mean it justifies the times when it was raw and sad and shouty and upsetting and all those things, but it was a television show.

But how does it make you feel being on the top of the most hated people in the world list?

But I'll give you an example about why I told you that story, about four weeks into the show. Somebody said, oh, we've got the first press cuttings. Charlie Booker, you know, Charlie Booker? No. He's married to Connie Hucky. Did that show, and he writes, anyway, so there were two articles which they bought me, and this moment I realized that you should never read the newspapers if you're ever on television ready. Charlie Booker, watching the Jeremy Kyle show, is that appalling? I would rather either break my arm

or drink a vat of cold cat sick. I'll never forget this. You said, I would lie awake in my bed at night wondering if Jeremy Gal is going to come into my room and quite possibly attack me. And in another newspaper that would remain in my nose, the television person put, oh my God, Jeremy Kyle wears television like a second skin. He's the most genius television presenter who's ever been on. And I remember my manager at the time going, both of them are shit really, aren't they? To be fair. Neither are actually things you should be taking about. Just, just, just.

And they're on the wall in the study because they're both sum up for me. It was a job. It was a show. We did it to the best of our ability. It brought some enjoyment. It bought some anger. It bought some reaction. And then I went home. It was it? 15 years, though. 15 years, long time. Nearly 4,000 shows. And of course, America for two years as well. So mad there.

I'd like to talk about that in a moment. I don't often reflect in the middle of an interview that I do, but I'm getting this real sense that you handle all this criticism and hate in a really calm, stoic way. I saw Obama said, if you can get half of America to hate you, you can become president. And that was like, wow.

How do you handle it calmly and just hold it? That's why I told you the story about when I had the breakdown. I didn't say it to people at the time, so they go, oh, poor him. I got that, but that's not the point. I have had. I'm really lucky. Forget the job. Forget all of that. I have an amazing wife, amazing kids, and I have people around me who, listen, my mates don't give a toss about television, and they,

They were there for me, the people. And we were talking about this earlier. And I had a very famous phone book that stopped ringing, which is fine. But you find out who real people are. And maybe that's part of life. Maybe at 55 when you've been doing this crazy stuff for 15 years. And like I said to you, there's always a car, there's always a flight, there's always, you know, and all this stuff, right? I brought it back to basics. I never went to the opening of an envelope. I wasn't interested in

you know, being seen here, there, or I did my show and I went home and being a dad and being a husband and being a son and being a mate was the most important thing. And those people got me through it from, you know, just, just, I can't even, they just got me through it. They got me through it. And I, and I, and I, yeah, I get the people who would say, Oh, you know, you've handled that. I, I, I, I said to somebody the other day in 12 years from 2012,

My marriage broke down. I lost America. I lost my job in England. I lost my home. I lost both of my parents. I had cancer and I lost my job. But guess what? I've never, ever not felt better. That's the wrong thing. But it does and has shown me with real friends and real people that you can get through. And I'm in a much better place as a person, if I'm honest. And you can look back and go, Jesus Christ, did I? But I listen.

The Jeremy Carr Show was a massive part of my life. I haven't ever apologized for it. It was extraordinary. It was extraordinary television for many, many people. Of course, it shone a light on a part of society that the bedwetters don't like. Oh, people on council estates. But there's the argument with Love Island. You can keep Love Island on candy because you've got a six back and perfect teeth. It just doesn't make any sense to me. But I don't need to get embroiled in that. I'm in a really good place. And I've learned the value of real people. I have to say, great friends. Great friends, fair, isn't it?

So yeah, it did affect me, but you've got to be slightly impervious to it. It's like Piers Morgan, my dearest friend. It's like water off a duck's back. Yeah. Well, you said out there, but because I said, you've had a couple of challenges. You said I eat challenges for breakfast.

I think you have to learn to, don't you? I have had a couple of challenges. But then there are kids, you think I'm terrible. Look at what's happening in the world. Look at pensioners who are going to freeze this winter. Honestly, a lot of that is down to my parents. It's a story that I told in the book about my mum and I remember one day I was a salesman.

and it was really into it but I found myself waking up at like three o'clock in the morning writing things on posted notes so I knew my brain was fried and I they lived in the west country and I must have been driving through one day and I went in and she she had her back to me she always had her back to me she was peeling potatoes about four o'clock in the afternoon she went what do you want and I said oh I just took a cup of tea I'm stressed and she went sorry and I went to stress mum meetings whatever and she went stressed you're not stresses without turning around I went yeah she went it's doing your homework in an air raid shelter and the second world warner fuck off back to work

And for me being really serious, that was how I was brought up. And so letting go a little bit with the people that you love and the people who've been there, you keep going, don't you? There's a lot of people who have had terrible things. So I got blamed for something that wasn't my fault. It's okay. And is that why you mentioned before about maybe some of the mental health issues have gone a bit soft?

I never thought that I would admit that I couldn't get out of bed for the best part of three months. I never thought that I would admit that I was an antidepressants and I knew when I did that I would be criticized and that's fine. What I'm saying is I think it's really important to speak, really important and it's not even me being contentious. I just think we have to be careful

that it isn't hijacked. That's by certain. But like much is. Much, you know, there are problems in this world and in this country that are genuine problems that other people will hijack and that's not right. I think it's really important the mental health issue to talk about it as much as possible. But they're also, we're not going to sell at me old man. You don't want to lose your grit, do you? You've still got to also get up and try and get on.

So I might come back to that part, but I'm fascinated. And actually, this is probably not the most interesting question I've got, but it's the one I'm the most interested in, which is, what was the goal, the vision for the Jeremy Kyle show? And do you think you achieved it and what's its legacy?

See, that's a really interesting question. I mean, I got the Jeremy Kasha by default. I didn't really, I'd never been in a television studio. And they called me, I was working on radio and they asked me to do an audition. I was driven in the dead of night to Norfolk, which is in itself quite scary, as you can imagine. And I found myself in this studio that was obviously Trisha's studio, who was leaving to go to channel five. It's like a shrine to her. The microphones had her face on, the walls were adorned with pictures of her.

And he had to go on stage and it was a real couple. And it was a girl who was suffering from anorexia and a bloke. And I told a story to this girl, a friend of mine who had been in that position. She started crying and I walked off stage and got tissues and then he was crying. Anyway, and then I went home. Because I didn't know what I was doing.

We had this chat before about the bit between the seats and the stage is no man's land. I was so naive as I'm going to be blown up. There's probably a booby chopper. I literally knew nothing about it. And then several months later, they rang and they said, we'd like to come to ITV. You've got the job and I was like, shit. So we didn't sit down and go right. This is how we're going to do it.

Very early on, I remember uttering a line that came from nowhere. A guy said, I can't even remember the story. And I said something like, do you want me to lie? Do you want me to be honest? And he said, no, I want you to be honest. And I said, well, I don't know what I said. And he went, it's a bit harsh, but thanks. And the audience went nuts. And I think at that point, we thought, well, honest is quite a good thing. But it was never, listen, it was a raw journey. Of course, people will remember the Jeremy Carr show, you know, me being shouting at people. But they should also

They won't remember the shows we do make a wish. They won't remember all the stuff that we did, but they don't remember the the detoxes and the rehabs and the and the drug. We did all of those things, but you can't. It was a television show that provided in my very honest and proven opinion levels of care concern and selection that had never been done in other programs, but.

Unfortunately what happened with Steve Diamond? Does it tarnish it? I don't know. You talk there in your question about legacy. There's no legacy from the Jeremy Cash. My legacy is if my six kids can say it was actually alright. Television was never the be-all and end-all for me. I love it. Strangely and weirdly I can do it.

I never thought about it. Why did I want to be on television for Christ? I never thought about that. But no, it's not legacy. I don't see that at all. My parents told me, legacies, if you're a good parent, say, no. Well, I mean, things need to be built. I imagine someone who built hospitals that live.

Yeah, that's amazing legacy. Yeah. Bill, the cancels, Bill. Do a television show. Yeah, it's hardly similar, is it? I'm asking you. No, I think. I mean, that doesn't, that doesn't deride the people that worked and other people that came on it. But as a person, I would never want anybody to go. Ironically, of course, I know what you're saying. There will be a section of people that will forever say, you did that, Jeremy Cashier. Strangely, the public don't say that. The public go,

God, I watched that for a day. Oh, that was my guilty pleasure. Don't tell me mother or my mother loves you. Oh, my mother loves you, Jess. Jesus, we did the drinking game at university. Every time we did a phrase, we had a shot by 830. Really? Great, brilliant.

But I don't, it was a part of my life that was extraordinary and ridiculous and we went to America and all that. But I don't look at it like legacy. I don't know if you've interviewed, I mean, I've never really interviewed people from the television, if I'm honest. But have any ever sat in front of you and said, my share would be my legacy. I think not. I hope not. If they do, I don't know. But certainly not.

I find it more common with entrepreneurs. Well, yeah, because you're building something sustainable. Actually, the ironic thing about what you're saying is that Kyle lasted for 15 years. That's a hell of a long time. My best mate that I told you about created Sage. I mean, there's a legacy to create a computer program that's used as a counter. I mean, I was in Portugal the day. He's the godfather to my young son, and we were buying him a little present. And the one went to pay for it in the tick-tack shop in Portugal. And it was paid by Sage. And I thought, Jesus, the man gets everywhere.

Do you know what I mean? So it's not necessarily just being a parent that your legacy is it? Me. For me, my legacy is what I'm talking about. When I said about Peron, I'm talking about me. Yeah. But in terms of the Jeremy Cash, a television show, you know, a radio program, a podcast for me.

My legacy, if I get anything is that my six kids, but for other people that do really tangibly brilliant stuff, like you said, build a hospital, create a computer program, find peace in the Middle East, find a cure for cancer, I always think Jesus Christ, television shows now, does it? What would you put on your CV as?

Job title. Jeremy Kyle. I've written a few words here. What would you put on as your CV as what you are, what you do? Can talk a lot. Weirdly good listener, opinionated, direct. I'm going to give you something that will make you laugh. Soft is better underneath. You don't believe me, do you? I think I do. Completely. I think I do. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, loyal, outspoken, passionate, deliberate. Everybody knows I've got OCD so heavily organised all the time. Yeah. Um, don't know. Aics a lot as old age approaches. Doesn't get a lot of sleep, but this knees hurt very much more every morning now than they ever did before.

And would you give yourself a job title like TV presenter, entrepreneur, social commentator, anything like that? Broadcaster, probably. Broadcaster, if I was thinking about it. Radio was my first love, loved radio, still loved radio work now on talk, obviously, talk radio. And that's great because it's common sense and free speech. But radio is an incredible media because that's, you know, I think it transcends all the...

plucks for television. I think it's just you, isn't it, in a microphone? And I think that that connection is something that I... And it was weirdly, after sort of two or three years after Kyle finished Denny, my mate who runs talk, brought me back. And it was wonderful to go back on the radio. And I would forever want to do more of that and continue to do that. Because I can see myself at 70 in my shed in the garden with an ISDN line just doing one show a week. Because that's really how I started. I remember being a music jock and he called me in.

the old boss and he said, you're the worst music doc in the history of the world and I went great. And he went because you talked too much, but let's do a late night phone and show and we did and that was where it all started. And so talking to people, always been able to do that. Cheers. Cheers. Have a little bit of water. Do you want some more? No, I'm fine. I'd also like to thank you early because this is the first one of these I think you've done.

Yeah, I think what I said at the beginning was really important. I couldn't legally and didn't want to out of respect for Steve Diamond say anything whilst that was all going on.

And also, when you're in the, I'm going to say, the confines of a show that is like, I mean, there were so many of them, okay? I mean, the daytime TV shows. I mean, I make five a day, right? You were making five shows a day. Yeah, yeah. Five shows a day. At the height of what I was doing, I was filming six months in England and making 300, taking one week solid and then flying to America and making 250 and coming home on Christmas Eve, probably while I got cancer.

And it becomes, this isn't, I tried to say this in the coroner's court. It's a disrespect. The Steve Diamond story to me was a normal everyday story. There was nothing untoward. In fact, there were many more untoward stories in terms of how that would sit in my head. I think when you do as much as you do, you become focused on this sort of routine. It's what I was saying to you before. There was always a car. I had to get up at 4 a.m. on a Thursday and I'd still getting up at 4 a.m. and I'd look out, there's no car.

What's going on? That's how the world changed. Not the trappings of going to whatever, which is all bollocks anyway, right? I mean, it is, isn't it? I mean, they all get covered in makeup and they've all faces are all stretched and it's all lovely and fine. And that's great. I've done a couple of those, but there was never my bag. Yeah, I had a crazy 15 years, but I think I was lucky to... I think I didn't get into it until I was 40. Like, I always think about these kids who get into television at 21 and 22. You feel sorry for them, do you?

You get an agent, you get a PR person, you're going to go here, you're going to go there, you're going to get free clothes, you're going to get, it doesn't last like that, does it really? Your character is going to get axed or the ratings will go down. We lasted a long time and I think that that was for all sorts of reasons but beyond that now, getting back into radio and doing lots of different things and doing this because

Talking in court as I did was just the truth and I didn't interview the son and I've done this and I don't need to. I don't need to. Claire told me how good you were. Claire told me how good you'd been with Paris and I just thought, you know what? It's also part of it for me. I don't need to do it and I don't need to not do it. If I'm going to do it, I'll do it.

Well, that's why I wanted to take the moment, raise the glass and say thank you, because I don't take that for granted at all. Let me say the pleasure. Right. Where do we go next? Free speech, that's where I want to go. Because do you think it's changed? Do you think we still have free speech? Since you had the Jeremy Karl for show for 15 years, is free speech even a thing now? I think fundamentally free speech is really important. But what happens is that the whole area has been clouded, hasn't it?

We live in a society now, and I'm lucky enough to work on talk, and I see this every single day. There are extremes, there are factions, I think, that activists that attach themselves to the latest pet project. I think you should be able to have an opinion. You take what's happening in terms of immigration in this country, and I talk about this every single day, whatever your opinion on that. Ten years ago, we couldn't have mentioned immigration, and I say, we, I'm talking about all of us. You'd have been labeled, whatever you would have been labeled, racist.

Yeah. And I think, I think, I don't want to get to a point where people are too scared to say what they think. People got some prison for... Well, look, nowadays, yeah, yeah. Well, did she get 15 months, that woman, didn't she? Yeah, and she wasn't the only one, there's thousands of

And don't get me wrong, what she said was absolutely abhorrent. But in my mind, in terms of justice, it would have been a much better idea to say to her, right, you're going to spend six months integrating with the local Muslim community and understanding the difficulties that they've had and the problems they're experiencing and learning how your words were frankly disgusting. But if you live in a world, and I'm 60 now, right, where a woman can go to jail for 15 months for writing something abusive on Facebook,

And paedophiles can walk free from sentencing because let's be honest, apparently that's the way it works. And I'm not naming names, but we all know I'm talking about. I find that abhorrent. I find it wrong that, you know, we have, there are just many examples. I mean, what are they all using that phrase, two-tier care and two-tier policing? I just, for me, you should be able to say what you feel

in less. And there are plenty of, you know, those riots were appalling and quite right that those thugs were lined up, arrested, tried and put in prison, or within 24 hours on camera. That was quite interesting, wasn't it? But I had a woman phoned me up on one of the radio programs and she said, I'm a nurse, never forget the call from, from sorry. She said, I find the immigration situation incredibly annoying.

I find what's going on the NHS even more annoying and yet I can't go on the streets and moan about it because I'll be labelled a far right sympathiser and I'm not. I'm a taxpayer with an opinion and so I think that there is a problem there certainly and you only have to look at politics and you have to look at what's happening. But yeah free speech is important but we shouldn't set out to offend but we've also got to be very careful that we don't whilst we're doing that and ticking every single box. We don't quash what I think is quite important which is sort of democracy.

Do you think we have democracy in this country? Probably can't answer that without giving away my political preference. But democracy is based upon voting, right? Is there a reason you don't? I find it really, really annoying. I don't care what your political persuasion... I don't respect people who don't vote and then moan. I think you have to exercise your democratic right to vote.

I think the quality of politicians in this country on all sides is absolutely at an all-time low. And my mantra has always been, there are millions of people in this country. Take this as its men. I call them jams, just about managing.

They go to work, he and the wife go to work. They never break the law. They never get a handout. The kids don't misbehave, not very often, and they try and live their life by certain rules. They must look at our country sometimes and go, why the hell do I behave like that? I personally, probably, I don't understand why we're not prioritizing pensioners and service men and women who have given. I'm just just the way I am, right? That doesn't mean that I don't believe we shouldn't help as many people as we can, but we seem to be heading towards quite a fractured place in this country, I think.

Are you scared for your children? It's a really good question. Somebody asked me about climate the other day and I was flippantly go, that's their problem. So did I'm going to sit in the sun. Do I worry for my children? Oh, that's not mine. That's not mine or your bag. That's the next generation. I mean, we can spend our entire lives going on about climate change and how we should make it better. I just want, I had a policeman on the phone the other day said to me that he got into being a policeman because, you know, he wanted to try and help the community. So if an old lady's

house was burgled, right? He'd be able to go there for three hours. Makerty, comforter, put a new lock on the back door. Nowadays, I'd to leave. I get 11 minutes to fill out a computer I was for. And probably nobody goes to see. And I don't feel I'm doing what I should be doing. I just think we've lost a lot. But then I'm quite the old man was worked for the Royal Family. It was quite old fashioned. So I was brought up on what I call proper things like, you know, I'd open the door to a lady. Can't do that now, can you? I still do.

Do you? Yeah. Yeah. I did it. I did it some months ago. I'd, you know, lift and she went, I'm fine. Thanks. And I thought, see, you can't bloody win, can you? Surely it's important to. Well, that's how my old man taught me. That's sorry. I'm not, that's what I say to my daughter. You might, you know, we were, you can't, you can't.

I mean, I'm not going to apologize for everything I was taught. That's why I'm going to start. Don't see why the hell I should, right? I'm sure there's plenty that I was taught or from the past that we should be apologizing for. And I'm pretty bloody sure there'll be quite a lot of this generation have to apologize for in 25 years, but those did me all right. And they did, you know, do you know, I want to say that sometimes to them, do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, because I do sometimes think about how, because sometimes I must admit, right, the younger generation, maybe they've had it a bit easy. Maybe there's some entitlement, et cetera.

Bad shit, I think. Imagine dating right now. I mean, I don't even understand this. My daughter says to me, she's like, Mary Claire's at the side there. Imagine dating right now. So like, when I was a kid. Permission to unstrap your bra. No, no. And I know I've kissed you, but we're not at this moment in time, we're not official, and we need to sign a contract.

What the hell does that mean? No, no. And then we're not official. We are sleeping together. What? What does that mean? Now we are. It's happened this weekend. What's happened? We're now boyfriend and girlfriend, but you've been with him for six months. Yeah, I know, but it wasn't really what. So in that time, he was honestly, he was able to sleep while she was with somebody else. Well, probably as long as they've been honest about it, I would be absolutely bloody screwed.

Online swipe here, do this. Honestly, I'd be single. Probably, you know, after three wedding marriages, I probably would have done me good to it, but I just couldn't do it. And they all spend so much time trying to find somebody. Just maybe we'll get on with your life and somebody will come in and it might work and it might not, that's it.

Can't be doing with it. Jeremy, we need to relaunch your show. All this on your show would be wild. Mate, they say things like, you know, somebody said to me the day, so what we're doing is we're just planning, planning how we're going to announce our relationship. How long have you been together? Well, eight months, but what we've got is we've got to try and understand that the way that we announce it will impact on how people perceive us. I'll start off, honestly.

Going out with that. I'm going out with him. I'm not going. It's all gone wrong. It's gone tits up end of story. Whatever. Geez. I can't. I can't. I can't.

Right. So we've done a bit of politics, we've done a bit about the kids. Why do you think Jeremy Carr was so popular for 15 years? What was it that it captured? What was it about? Did you ever watch it? Yes, I did. Answer the question then. Drama. Voyeurism? Definitely voyeurism. Other people's trauma, but you're living vicariously through it and therefore... Make yourself feel better about your own act. Exactly, yeah.

All sorts of things. I once flippantly said that the best Jeremy Karl episode ever would have been the royal family because they're more messed up. No, I could do this. This is what I'm trying to say to you. It's very easy for people and I get it to go. Now, if you take into consideration there are hundreds of thousands, millions of people in our country who don't have people to turn to, who can't have those sort of candid conversations.

Most of us would have family members or friends, and I pointed that out when I was in a bad place. But for many of these people, I think Graham, my old sidekick from the Jeremy Carr show, probably nailed it for me many, many, many years ago when he said he was born on a Rochdale councilor state, one of eight, right? And he went, you know, this show, it was like that every day. And we either watched from behind net curtains and twitched or wished it on front grass. It all along road to watch.

And so, you know, this has been going on for years and long before the Jeremy Kausho. And so I think one of the things when it all finished was this, hold on a second, I didn't agree, this is just, you know what I mean? I mean, we are a nosy bunch of buggers, aren't we? It's like rubber-necking, it's an accident. You know full well if there's been an accident.

that the queue this side is going to be bloody longer because everyone does the old right hand turn or left hand turn. We are a nosy bunch of buggers that the human race aren't we? And so again, a bit like when you said, did you plan it? We didn't sit down and go, right? So this democratic, you know, there was some demographic evidence once, right? So do you know the two classes that work? I hate that word. You know, the ABs and all that, right? The working classes of what's the Jeremy Cash? Did you know the other most loyal group? The upper bleeding classes and you know, why don't you?

Got away with far more shit than anybody ever on the car show, but just got away with it because of who they were telling you. The old man worked for the royal family. Jesus man, you could have done that show. Wow. When Megan infiltrated that being on the Jeremy Karl show. How can you be so wonderfully accurate about that woman?

Oh, don't get me on a knot or comment. Well, you're a royalist. I don't like to label myself because there's so much of the world I don't know. I am fervently royal. I respect the royal family and what it's done for this nation. And just because you don't agree that that's the best way of rule. OK, but then go.

In a dictatorship, if you want. No, well, ask yourself how much the President of the United States cost the American people and ask yourself still. Despite its flaws, how much the British monarchy brings in to this country? Is it not our biggest tourist attraction? By a mile. Yeah. Mileman went for the Queen Mother, and he actually, before his death, said that it was, there was a mystique in the era that he worked.

Nowadays, the royal family use social media and do as much as everybody else. So you open yourself up for that. But in the days of the Queen Mother and the Queen and before, maybe a good thing, maybe not a good thing. Probably my daughter would say no. But there was a mystique to it. But there's a lot about the royal family that was wonderful. I'll tell you what, I tell you who I'm a massive fan of who I think.

I call her Iron Kate. I think this woman is the link, but I think she's the future of the British monarchy, and I think for somebody, and people never understand when I say this, she was a commoner. For her to marry into the royal family was a seminal moment in my mind.

a seminal moment. I have a massive amount of respect. I mean, the troll, you talked earlier about, you know, the Jeremy culture, the Jeremy, and I told you about social media, the stuff she got on social media and had to come out and admit she'd had cancer was going through treatment, disgusting. Right? None of that's controlled. People were saying heinous things to a pal, heinous things to her. And why don't you like Meghan?

Um, I didn't say I don't like Megan. I can see exactly where it would be squirmed. I can see where it will finish. Where will it finish? Well, he'll be back in England and she'll be in America with two kids. I said that five years. Don't you think they will? I don't know much.

I think he was very lost. I think he was very lost. Very affected naturally by his mother's desk. Who the hell wouldn't I don't go with this spare shit. Sorry. I'm not bothered about that. You're still the most privileged person bar one or two in the world. They got on great William and Harry and Kate. I lived on the long walk in Windsor for seven years. So we only just moved. And so I saw the wedding. I saw the funeral was extraordinary and I saw the coronation.

literally outside my door. My son was the fifth person Oliver in the world to lay flowers at the gates of Windsor Castle after the Queen had died and we got the picture extraordinary. I just think that he was and I am going to struggle to find a phrase that will not get me into trouble.

The second word is whipped. Do you know what the first word is? I do. Yeah. I just think that this lonely boy glamorous divorcee said and did everything right. I just, you know, I saluted them when they went, I don't want to be in this goldfish bowl. I want to go live in California. My kids, I thought, you know what?

Fair, fair play. And then you land in LA and you've signed $112 million deal with Spotify to basically intrude on every part of your life that you've just moaned and bitched about. You don't want in the public eye. And so at that moment, I'm like, well, that doesn't work, does it? That's a complete joke. That really angered me.

I've been podcasting for nine years, I've done 1150 episodes and they get just chucked 100 million and she's just so disrespectful, can't even produce any content. Do you think that if you were in America and like Rogan, you'd interviewed Trump and endorsed him? Do you think that would have helped Donald Trump? Do you think that you'd be the next Rogan? I think that...

Trump probably won the election based on being on Theo Fon. I agree. Joe Rogan. Absolutely agree with you. Logan Paul. I mean, he must have had, I'm going to guess, 300 to 500 million views from about four or five podcasts he did.

Honestly, it's a really powerful thing it is. And actually, it's changed the way that people, you know, choice. When we started working at News UK after we both left ITV, we set up talk and we did the television show. And I remember people would say, how many people watched Piers Morgan? I was on a train to Southampton about three days later. And there were three men.

at separate parts of this carriage at midday all watching peers is interview with whoever it was the night before we've changed we listen to podcasts we watch stuff online it's all about clicks isn't it Megan if i'm honest maybe i'm being harsh but i think she had an agenda all this i didn't even know who was she did

I mean, I don't know whether she's a nightmare as they say she's a nightmare. That's not for me to say, but I'm very, I'm a royalist and I think she shows little or no respect. And my biggest bugbear is this, and I would strip the buggers of the Duke and Duchess titles. If you don't want to be part of something, as I just said, absolutely. But your only source of income is to maintain your titles while slagging off the very thing you're financially basing your lives on you hypocritical bunch of, that's what annoys me. Leave, be Mr and Mrs. Whatever.

absolutely support you and salute you. But it's like, I'm going to have it, I'm going to slag it. I'm going to abuse it, but I'm going to use it. That's how I see it. Yeah. Yeah, it's very sad. Very sad. Yeah, I don't know. Well, I think the Queen's legacy. Like, if I had to pick one, I don't like, you know, who's your biggest hero, but I couldn't look much past the Queen.

Never complain, never explain. You know what thing about the Queen that was really, really, really interesting. Somebody said to me, an anti-roylist, because we covered it all when she sadly died and we were interviewing and doing all sorts of shows. And this person said to me, I'm not a royalist, but apart from my mum and dad, this is brilliant. She has been the only constant feature in my life for 63 years.

And that's true. And the woman was phenomenal, right? It's never going to be like that again. Never ever ever. I mean, Charles might last 10 years. William, I don't know. He started growing a beard like you. I don't know. But I just don't think Meg and Markle, I think she, she, she didn't respect it. And I think is my point is, don't we part of it? Go.

Don't use it to further your own. You know, but some people will say, poor Megan, she's been really treated very badly and it's not fair. Well, all the hundreds of millions, she's just been fronted. Oprah Winfrey, yeah. Yeah, that was a disgrace. Oh, note to self. Note to actually do anybody listening to this. If you do decide to run for President of the United States or Prime Minister of England, being endorsed by a bunch of left wing, I heard this, by the way, you know, all these celebrities that endorsed, you may get got paid.

He's ahead of me. Did you know this, Mary Clay? I didn't find out. All of these hypocritical bed-wetting lefties were paid to go out and support Carmella Harris, weren't they? Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Listen, what does that say? The American people weren't numb. I'm interested. Thank you very much indeed. I might not make my own mind about the economy and the cost of gas. Whatever all of us think about Donald Trump, unbelievable. Extraordinary example, but there you go. Amen. God, yes. Let's make Britain great again, yeah.

What do you learn about human behavior from 15 years running the Jeremy culture? It's interesting, actually, because I guess if you look back at all of those stories, and I said to you, some were very volatile, some were sad, some were raw, some were awful, difficult to deal with.

People are people, aren't they? That's why I said to you about the royal family. We all go upset. We all need to have a, hopefully, a dump every day. We all sit in the same way on the toilet. People eat different things, go to different places, do different things. But human emotions are amazing. We all have a level at which we're going to lose it, and we all have opinions. People are fascinating, though. I remember going to America in an interview asking me that.

And it was no different across the Atlantic. They just threw shoes at me. I mean, that was the only difference, apart from everybody else a bit more. But human nature is a strange thing. I could see correlation between many people, but they were always individual stories. I mean, these people would come on, they were good enough to talk, and I would talk back. I did it on the radio for years, just as confessions, and so it was natural to me.

Natural. Did you like people less or more with 15 years on the show? What people? People? Oh, I only have one rule. I gave it my all. When I got in the car at seven o'clock at night, having filmed 10 or eight or 10 shows in two days, just don't talk to me for a day.

Seriously, I get him. I'm sure my wife that I just I can't just don't I can't I can't I'm so talked out I don't want to talk to anybody about anything I haven't got a freaking opinion anything. I don't care if you're arguing they're going to score and like a jazz jazz um Date, you know me. I spent he did I don't want to know seriously. It's not my bag the jump out of cars. Jazz me girlfriend. I think she's been shit I don't care I played in the golf pram once at the belfry

10th tee, famous people, 2,000 people watching. Golfs me passionate, I got to the top of me back, someone and somebody said, Cheers to me girlfriend, shagging me best mate and I missed the ball. Honestly, I missed the ball.

So, you know, in the time, and I said this once and people get upset, I gave it my all, but after that, I can't, there was too much of it to take each story home or each person home or each how they should. I always did beginning, middle end move on. Does that, do you understand why? Otherwise I go completely nuts because if I'm going to, you know, there was too much. Yeah. So we do a quick fire round on disruptors. Yes.

Excited about this one with you Jeremy. Mary Cleres got that look on Mary Cleres, my age and she's looking very concerned. You're great by the way. Oh, thank you. I mean that you're great. Thank you. What's the craziest thing that happened on Jeremy Kyle? Craziest thing that happened on Jeremy Kyle. Wow. Can I come back to that one? Can we do that or not? Gosh, how many have you got? 12. Yeah, go back to that craziest thing on Jeremy Kyle. It's number two. It's incoming.

It's incoming. I'm just picking and choosing. I'd normally just do them in order, but this is a unique experience for me. Okay. A fun one. I know it was mostly ordinary people, but what one famous person would you have loved to have on the Jeremy Carlson? Let me say that again, because I fucked up. I don't normally edit myself, but get the fucking question out, Rob. I know it was mostly ordinary people, but one fuck, fuck, fuck, what, fuck.

Not you. Can I just say something? Not you because it had taken fucking ages to do the answer you wouldn't have.

I'm going to leave this in now. No, it's fine. What famous person would I most like to have interviewed? Well, we did a lot of celebrity specials. I did Michael Barrymore, which was a mind-blowing experience. Do you think he was guilty? See, I don't even know. But what I know is that a man, I mean, let's just get this right. He had 20 million viewers to strike it lucky on a Tuesday night. This was the biggest performer in England who obviously

struggled with his sexuality and was in an environment where he had to keep going. Yes, of course, what happened was again an absolute tragedy. And I don't know the facts because it's been a long time, but he ran away, didn't he, and didn't stay. And of course, that started that whole procedure. But I remember interviewing him. I remember him saying he was nearly at the end of his tether in terms of his life. And that was

I'd love to have interviewed Margaret Thatcher. Why? Extra. I've only got one testicle because of testicular cancer. I think she must have had about 10. It's not funny that I had testicular cancer. Is that what's funny or is it Margaret Thatcher having 10 bollocks? I like how you've taken this over now. I know. It's brilliant. And of course, because when I started working on torture, my hero was Michael Parkinson, who I can actually now admit to having seen Naked, which was one of the worst shocking things ever.

It's in a health club one day, they used to be long on member two in Surrey and went and had a massage, came out to the change rooms at three o'clock on a Monday afternoon to be confronted by the back of what looked like quite an old man and minding my own business. And he turned round and he went, Jeremy, it's so nice to meet you. It was Michael Parkinson and I am absolutely, it's my broadcasting hero and all I can do is look at his cop. And I don't want to, I want to look at Michael Parkinson and think, oh my God, amazing man, what a great man. Who would I like to have interviewed, Margaret Thatcher?

Why? Just think it would be fascinating. What were you saying earlier about politicians? And I include Blair in this. A conviction politician who says, here's my mantra. Here's what he's going to do. I'm going to meet massive opposition. If you oppose it, I'll sack you. At the end of the day, I'll be pushed out. This is what I believe. And this is what I'm going to do. Powerful. Powerful. Maybe what's needed right now.

Why do you think your man got elected in America? I mean, all those things that people say about him are true, but he has basically said to a middle America, I'm going to make sure gas is cheaper. I'm going to make sure the immigration problem's sorted and the food in the shops. It's not about... Of course you can talk about women's rights, the abortion subject. Of course you can talk about gender identity and identity politics, but 80-something million Americans went, no, actually, like I said to you earlier, it's about our payback at the end of the week, sorry. Yeah. You know?

We're not going to be told by billionaire pop stars. We've been paid a few million quid by the Democrats to say la la la la. So she always struck me like that. Blair struck me like that. Who else? Nelson Mandela would love to have interviewed. Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela. I don't know. I've interviewed quite a lot of them. They're only normal people, aren't they?

Or you would know. I mean, some of them aren't special in any way. What do you mean special? Aura. Two people I know who have got a massive aura. Chris Evans, unbelievable. What an aura. Walking to a room. Aura. Yeah. Cow. Aura. Right. Yeah. Again, I didn't go to the opening of whatever. No. I didn't. Not your thing. Not really. Used to go home and do the overnight feed or the dream feed or whatever it was on child number one, two, three, four, five, six.

I know, should have put something on the end of it. I know. Absolutely. What's the secret you've never shared or a story you've never told? My nickname at school was Kyle Pyle Hemroid.

It's not funny, is it? I was just taking a big intake of breath. I used to. Kyle Pyle Hemroid. Why? Don't know, don't know. Piles! That's honestly dreadful. Yeah. And people know this and they don't believe it. Shy's kid in the school till I was 15. Couldn't say my name without going bright red. You can't believe that's true. Think that about a lot of performers. Yes. Remember the good life was a great program. Richard Breyers would be physically sick before he went on stage and what an actor he was. Physically sick every time.

So your pursuit of your career is somewhat running away from the pain of your past. Where did that come from? Probably the last interview I just did. I don't have any, you know, I had a difficult few years of no pain. I've been very lucky, haven't I? How can a kid from Reading who was an insurance salesman end up with that show and the things that I've done and seen and been? Yeah, but a few hiccups along the way. Lost a bollock, lost a show. But yeah, I'm silly, mate. Very lucky, I think. She's still kicking.

Do you think that's a big part? I've probably three times picked up basically on. You feel grateful that you feel a sense of fortune. I'm proud. I will say I'm proud. There's been plenty many times in the last 10 years that I probably could have thought Jesus Christ. I've never been allowed to feel sorry for myself. That doesn't happen in our house from my parents. I think you'd have to think about good fortune when you when you've had the opportunities I have. There's millions of people that could have done what I did with it. Comes some bad times, but say you come out of it, but you redefine what I'm trying to say is that

I remember, again, people, I said this once and they just slagged me off, but she's my wife. I remember when it always, when it happened and I was devastated and big, when what's the worst thing that happens here? The lovers that love the haters were like, we lose everything, we're going to live with my parents. I never had that, that was a mate, that's amazing thing to say. That takes everything off, right? Amazing, amazing. And then tells me to go and empty the dishwasher obviously because she's in charge.

So, if you could have Jeremy Kaushar back and it's airing tomorrow, would you do it? No, why not? Because it would never come back, it wouldn't be right. No, but if it could, nobody wouldn't, I don't think it will. I don't think, I do believe, not in my lifetime, I do, and this is nothing to do with Jeremy Kaushar, I believe that we will go in reverse to this apologetic counts or news to the wrong word there.

culture, people are offended, all of that. I think that will change. I think it will swing back. I think people will. I tell you what, I tell you the premise that I put this on. This is a good one for you, Mary Clay. You'll love this. I worked in radio a long, long time. And in radio, in the old days, we would do like zoo radio. When Chris and I were on Virgin and we'd play one song and talk for 20 minutes, and then the Australians came in, and the Australians changed radio in the 90s, and they

It was all about playlists going down to 600 songs and how did songs, how did they in terms of you do all this data and stuff and Robbie Williams his angel will be played every hour because that was the most popular song and you can only speak for 30 seconds in a link and we all suddenly were like. And then that and the figures went up and then people go, we missed the personality of radio DJs and said, we'll go back to zoom. I think that what will happen is people will go, hold on a minute. Hold on a minute. Not at the moment as we seem to have been taken over by a

I don't know, my favourite word woke, there's won't miss everywhere I go, but... Why? Why have we been taken over by that? Yeah, why is there won't miss? I don't know, I said to already presented the other day, well made anonymous, the problem in my mind is that so many... And I understand it, so many presenters spend so much time trying to keep their jobs, they forget to do their jobs, but maybe you can say that if you've been cancelled, I don't know. Piers always says that, which I think is quite a good line.

Um, some work is some sure is good, but we're getting to a point where I think people are too scared to be themselves. That's what I would see as dangerous in whatever environment, a work environment, not just broadcasting in a work environment, you know, I met her. Not a met. We had a story some months ago on JK live with peers about a guy who

had known his work female work colleague for years in fact his wife and her husband the four of them would go out for dinner blah blah blah she was going to a ball one night with the husband came out of the female toilet into the office in a ball dress and he said you look very lovely and a colleague thought that he was being sexist and he got an official written warning for objectifying her sexuality despite her saying he's my friend sawed off

That was on the record. That's what I'm talking about. Wow. Wow. That's true. Yeah. That's where we've got to. That's what I think. So nobody wants anybody to objectify somebody's sexuality and some of the things that have happened in the past totally fundamentally wrong. But that's bloody ridiculous. It's saying she made you look nice. She didn't mind. She went to the bus and said, what a little bit of old Tosh. And he got a written morning. Wow. What's the biggest disruption that's ever happened in your life, Jeremy? Cancer. And how did you beat it?

It was a really weird story. I was doing Ant and Dec's Tech Center, and I went to the doctors in the morning on Friday the 19th of December. I don't even know why, but I think I chowered and I sort of felt a bit weird. Anyway, and he was very nice, and a good doctor, a friend of mine, and he said, oh, can you come back tonight? And I didn't even see what he... Yeah, sure, but I've got to go... Did you take Timmy?

And I remember walking in and he did and he went, um, put it to us. And I went, great. It's been lovely to see you take care, try to give him a man hug. And he went, no, no, sit down, you've got cancer. And within 12 hours, we were in the operating theater, um, completely knocked me sideways far more than anything. I mean, do you not like feel a lump or anything or feel a little bit? Yeah. But I remember waking up and then everybody went and then I remember this amazing nurse, Polish nurse, she said to me at nine o'clock at night, I don't know if I'm right.

I have to go now and I started crying. It's the first time I cried all day. Please don't go. Why not? Because if you go, I'm going to die. I think the door will shut. They'll go dark. Stay with me all night. Amazing. Wow. No, but that's the proper person, isn't it? What does she get? No, no money. How did I beat it? I don't know. Lucky, I guess. Had chemo. I remember feeling shit and phoning the dotch and said, I feel shit. She said, well, he will do. I've poisoned you. That's what happens.

Weirdly, because it always happens to me, weird things. I was supposed to lose me hair, but I lost the skin on my hands and my feet. So when I go from hot to cold, or cold to hot, all the skin peels off my hands, singing detective for about two days. It's not funny at all. She's laughing again. I'm not though. No. Harsh. 20% to laugh at me, it's graceful.

Um, but yeah, it's true. Cancer, yeah. And I think then once you've heard cancer and chemo, it's an unwanted club that you'd never want to be part of again, but it does somehow. I don't know. I remember, you say, how did you beat it? I don't know, but I remember leaving the last day at sort of four and a half months, going back to the hospital and I had an oncologist and another doctor and the other doctor went, listen mate, you have had scans top to toe for six months.

And when you go out on the street today, just I'm telling you, bud, that you will outlive 99.9% of the men you see of your age, because they don't know what's inside them. And I've long been an advocate. I know it's expensive to have a scam once a year. And I thought, oh, that's nice. And a bit like the two press cuttings. And the oncologist said, no, you need to be careful because your body's shown that it could be prone to cancer and it could come back. Great. I think I'll just go with the other thing, might be.

And that's it. Yeah, it was scary. And it really upset my parents. I didn't expect your kids to have cancer, do you really? No. What's the biggest risk you've ever taken? What's the biggest risk I've ever taken? I nearly flippantly said having a fake testicle put in, which had to come out because it was too heavy. It was titanium, please don't laugh. I couldn't walk straight. It was £279.99. I told Jonathan Ross this.

And it hurt because it was too heavy. What's the biggest risk I've ever taken? Giving up a job at Melody Radio as the sponsorship manager on a huge salary in London to go and do two evening shows on a Victor FM in Kent from 7 till 10 on a Friday and Saturday night, 50 pounds each. I thought it was worth it. Was it worth it?

Yeah, I think so. I think so. I think even if I hadn't managed to get on a bit, then I would have thought it was worth it because it was one of those things was brought up by a man who was so into duty. But I do know of the old man that there were things that he wished he'd done, but he didn't because it was about duty to family and pay the mortgage and do right by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, blah, blah, blah. Do you know what I mean? So I said that sort of maverick streak. I'm going to give up a massively well-paid job for a 4,000, 800 pounds you're doing and being a DJ on a radio station somewhere in Kent that I've never heard of.

What's your most brutal life lesson? Brutal life lesson. What is an experience? Yeah, watching my mum die, pretty shit. But also, this is going to sound really, really awful. They both died in my arms, but she was the most erudite, most switched on, hardworking, she had fortitude, she was like Thatcher.

And the old man was, I mean, you'd have had him when he was a comedian. He said, it was all going around the world. It was a Tuesday morning. He said, and I'd come downstairs. I'd had a shave. And she said, can you take the rubbish out? So I went to the bottom of the garden. I came back and she put my breakfast in the washing machine and never spoke again. She started going bla bla dreadful. And so for three months, my mother had this terrible, terrible stroke and couldn't speak. And I prayed to God every day that she died. I prayed every day because she was too, I'm not even saying classy. She was too good for that.

When you've seen both your parents end up in a nappy being spoon fed, and I'm not even being down when I tell you this, that's a life lesson. So, you know, you said to me at the beginning, oh, it's been hard, but compared to that, I'm going to make every bit of every moment I've got seriously. They were so dignified and so amazing, and the way that it finished to both of them was shit.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah. That's the truth. Yeah. And that, somebody dying in your arms is quite brutal, but also really quite, I mean, I don't mean this, it's going to, it was really important to do it. What's your biggest failure or regret?

My biggest failure? God, I've many failures. Where do you want me to start? The biggest one. God, it's my biggest failure. I was going to say golf, now I'm joking. Listen, I've made bad choices. I've made bad decisions. I've chased certain things too much, I think probably.

work, certainly. I needed to learn to pace myself. But yeah, I'm not at a point where I've suddenly become this melancholy person sat in the corner of the room going, oh, because I think you learn from life. You know, this people go, well, I wouldn't change anything. Well, I would change a couple of things to be perfectly honest. I would. I mean, what a load of old touch that is.

But I can't think of catastrophic mistakes apart from things that I won't talk about, but I would say that, you know, I think you need to put your ends in the air when you mess up, don't you? And I think I have, really.

But I bet, because I've messed up. Used to mess up on the show, I used to mess up, I messed up all the messed up last night. Left the fridge freezer open, apparently, then everything melted. I got the massive bollock income. Do you know what my dad used to call my mother? I've taken to calling Victoria the War Office. What are you used to say? The War Office are not in a good mood tonight. Ha ha ha!

So, back to this question that you wanted to come back to. You don't like the answer. The craziest guest of the thing to happen. I hate that word. I hate that word and I tell you why I hate that word. What about memorable? Is that better? And I tell you why I hate the word crazy, because for whatever the critics would say, I wouldn't want to disrespect and label it that, because there were hundreds of thousands of people who

tends there a bit, who came on genuinely. When I know to a lot of people, some of it was funny and some of it was sad, all the things we've talked about. But I don't, I don't, you know, there were plenty of moments when you thought, what the, right? But there were also moments when I literally could have broken my heart over stuff and there was stuff when I would have laughed my head off. And so trying to, you know, come out with, with, with, I mean, the one that everybody likes online is when the man threw the envelope at my head.

and it caught my then quiff, what was flat hair, which caused my hair to stand about six inches. I'll tell you what I look like. What was that woman's camera and D as in sliding doors after the bad moment? That's what I look like. You can see it online. And my hair is just one bit stuck still. I look like a mad professor.

But, you know, there were so many moments. There were, there were some unbelievable moments. But I can't, but I also, and people think this is being, it's not 4,000 episodes. I can't even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. And they, you know, this is one of the things with the core case at what happened five years ago at 10 past 11 and I'm not being, I'm not trying to be, you know, difficult here, but I can't remember that far back. But there were many. I mean, I loved it when people were reunited. I loved it when,

You know, I mean, Christ, I got added, and did a gotcher on me in America on the Jeremy Cash, so that was quite memorable. But I would never want to say, oh, that was better than that part, or that was funnier than that part, because for me, whether it resonated with people or it didn't, these people were good enough to come, I see it was just, you know, but again, I don't ever sit and go, I just never done that as a show. Yeah, fascinating, because you're gonna give me some titles now, aren't you?

Well, all I asked was the craziest thing that happened. And I think your answer came with a lot of maybe feeling of being judged. I would say that if I said to you that that was a crazy situation or a funny situation or a sad situation, that that would just be me judging, right? So I never

Strange enough, weirdly. I had an opinion, but it's a bit what I said to you earlier about, I would do it and cut it off. If you ask me a question, I would answer it. I remember one of the execs saying to some of the Americans very early on, don't ask him unless you want to know.

Oh, it's okay, Jay. So, you know, are you okay? Not really. I've got attention span of about 10 minutes and you've used it up, if I'm honest, it's boring, shit, this, isn't it? Do you know what I mean? So I wouldn't want to label them. I respect everybody that came on. Some people annoyed me, some people made me laugh, some people made me happy. Some, they would blow out moments. There were moments that you would go, my God, unbelievable. But I would never sort of label them. I would never sort of categorize them. That's me being honest. Yeah. Okay.

So this show is called Disruptors. What does the word disruptive mean to you? A four-year-old called Oliver. A nine-month-old called Iris. Disrupted children, really, predominantly. But disruptive? What, people in terms of life in general? People who get a kick out of just sticking their or in and causing trouble. Disruptors who disrupt the norm and make things better or make things worse. I'm asking you now. We're doing it all around the wrong way. What do you mean by the question? I don't like to label it anything other than that.

Oh, don't like Kalei. We've seen that. It's very good, that is. Disruptors. Kids are very disruptive. Disruptions are good if it does positive. If somebody says, no, no, no, normal in a second, there's a different way of doing it. There's something better. There are people who disrupt stuff for the sake of disrupting it, just to score points, pain in the arse.

No harm in ever talking out. If you've got a different opinion about something, go against the norm. If you believe it and they're not scared about the world might not believe it. But yeah, absolutely. That would be my mind. And that's the perfect way to end. Other than what you're working on right now. So as you know, we're going, we work on talk, talk radio. So that's on three days a week. I shall be doing some stuff with ITV, which is extraordinary in the new year, writing a book,

be doing some other television, lots of stuff. Can you tell us about the book? Could we go and pre-order that or anything like that? No, no, it's in the process of being, I'm going to say written by me. It's an incredible process. I couldn't write a book. It's an amazing man. I tell you what, this is why I can now do this.

It's amazing when he keeps saying things. And I feel like I've got a bloody story for everything. And then suddenly you feel like your brain's opening up, right? And that, you know, Jesus, unbelievable. And are you active on any social media that we can follow? At J. Kyle Official. Yeah. We'll explain everything that's happening. But as I say, television series on the way, lots more radio going to get involved in the racing side as well with the sun. Well, there'll be more about that. But just, you know what, if I'm honest, the Jeremy Kyle Show was a high

profile high octane full on job. It ended very quickly and one has to deal with that and the fallout and then the court case. But I feel like I can now breathe and I can make choices. And, you know, the critics will say, you know, they'll bring back the Steve Diamond thing. And as I started this, I'll finish this.

Not a day passed me by. A poor man lost his life. It wasn't my fault or the Jeremy Carr show, but you thought that you wouldn't want that or wish that on anybody. So my thoughts will always be at that point, but I have to get on for the reasons I told you and make the most. And so for me, the opportunity to do different things like this, honestly, I have to tell you, this has been lovely. Well, thank you. And I genuinely mean that. And I would never have done it because I would have said to you five years ago, oh, he's going to ask me, I've done it now. I'm fine. Yeah. I wouldn't have passed it. How was it for you?

really good. I feel very privileged that you chose to do this among I'm sure hundreds of thousands of others and you're brilliant and I mean that it's been a real pleasure. Thank you. Thank you as well.