Jeremy Kyle cleans up: Reformed gambler celebrates

Punters at a bookies in Warrington watched in amazement as the daytime TV host jumped around and celebrated after his horse was first past the past

Jeremy Kyle went wild in a bookies after scooping a fortune in a bet on his own horse.

Punters watched in astonishment as the daytime TV host charged around the shop yelling “get in there!” after the horse was first past the post at odds of 5-1.

The reformed problem gambler hugged customers and even posed for a selfie after the win by Dormello Mo, which he owns with his wife Carla.

Kyle is said to have pocketed hundreds of pounds from the wager in the 2.40 at Exeter last Wednesday.

One punter at the bookies said: “He was bouncing around the place when his horse came in.

“Jeremy hugged several people in the bookies, and even posed for a photo with one woman. He was clearly over the moon about the result. I hope he spends his money wisely.”

Kyle, 49, told fans in the Warrington, Cheshire, outlet he was in town to record a TV show scheduled to air next year.

A friend of Kyle said: “Jeremy is open about his past issues with gambling and how they are now under control.

“He has never said that he no longer gambles. He went into the bookies in Warrington just to watch the race – the bet he had on Dormello Mo was placed elsewhere. He has never hidden his passion for horse racing.”

In a 2010 interview with the Racing Post about his love for the sport, the daytime TV host made it clear his days of problem gambling were behind him.

Kyle – who regularly lectures feckless gamblers on his ITV1 show – told the newspaper: “I choose to have a bet these days. I don’t need to have a bet. Racing is a passion and I don’t feel I need to apologise for it.

“It’s one of the best things in my life and I know now that it’s not the money or the gambling that’s the buzz.”

Describing the feeling when one of his other horses, Sonning Star, triumphed in a race, Kyle said: “It was amazing. They were hoisting me in the air.

“Everybody was screaming and, to cap it all, we went down to the weighing room after racing, not really knowing what to expect. The party went on for ages.”

In 2007 Kyle’s first wife Kirsty Rowley told how he frittered away £70,000 and ran up £4,500 debts at the bookies and on betting phonelines when his gambling problem was at its height.

A year later the talk show star was seen betting up to £120 a time on races at a bookmakers near his home in Ascot, Berks. In his 2009 autobiography, I’m Only Being Honest, Kyle revealed further details of the addiction he successfully overcame.

Kyle, who is a father of four, wrote: “Gambling is the mistress that truly seduced me. I will never understand what a hit of heroin feels like, but gambling I get. Big time.

“Plenty of days I can remember taking money out of the cashpoint and going to the bookies, and then losing and going again to the cashpoint – and back again and again.

“I would think ‘I’ve got to go now’ but there was this pull and suddenly I was chasing money, trying to achieve something that has never been achieved: making a bookie poor.

“I would get home and think, ‘I could have lost £100 but actually I’ve lost three times that’.

“It became everything. My friends were faceless men in dingy betting shops.”

Kyle has since revealed his second wife Carla, a former model, has agreed he can place the occasional bet – as long as he shares any winnin