Last week a York couple went onto The Jeremy Kyle Show and the outcome was as sad as it was predictable.
And the man who took part has warned others never to go on the programme, saying the experience left him feeling humiliated.
As anyone who has watched more than a few minutes of the ITV1 daytime show will know, it is a place where relationships are trashed and friendships ruined, all in the name of entertainment.
For York shopworker Daniel Bruce it was his second appearance of the series. He had previously taken part when his girlfriend Chantelle Wright believed he was cheating on him.
But the show’s “lie detector test” – actually a polygraph test – “exonerated” Daniel.
‘Everything was perfect’
He then returned to the show in an episode broadcast last week (October 14) under the tagline: “You were sexting other men a week after I passed the lie detector!”
Daniel told Kyle: “Since the last show, when I came on here and proved my innocence, we got back together – everything was perfect for the first nine days. We couldn’t ask for a better relationship.”
But then another man had used Snapchat to message Chantelle. The result: more suspicion, and a second date with The Jeremy Kyle Show.
This time Chantelle took the polygraph test. It proved she had cheated on Daniel, Kyle insisted. When she ran from the studio, Kyle followed her and yelled: “Stop being an habitual liar!”
Daniel said he loved Chantelle.
Chantelle said she wanted to be honest so they could sort things out.
But Jeremy Kyle was having none of it, saying:
‘Don’t do it’
The outcome, announced at the end, was all too predictable and sad. And it reeked of hypocrisy; Kyle told the TV audience:
They didn’t manage to resolve their issues after the show and are both moving forward with their lives.
From that message you might think that Daniel and Chantelle had only positive things to say about their Jeremy Kyle experience. But that’s not the way Daniel sees it.
He told YorkMix:
And his advice for anyone who is thinking of going on the show?
The only piece of really useful advice to emerge from the whole experience.