Jeremy Kyle
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Jeremy Kyle guest faked his OWN kidnapping for just £80 ransom from his pregnant wife

The ridiculous conman sparked a £30,000 police operation last year

Jeremy Kyle viewers are notoriously hard to shock, but today’s guest managed to leave the studio audience – and those watching from home – opened mouth in horror!

Leigh appeared on Friday (1 February) when his wife Zoe accused him of cheating on her. But that even wasn’t the dramatic bit!

TV fans couldn’t believe Zoe had stood by Leigh (Credit: ITV)

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Zoe went on to reveal that husband Leigh had once faked his own kidnapping, so he could have money to go out drinking.

Even worse, he had demanded the money from his PREGNANT wife – and had only asked for £80!

Unsurprisingly, the Twitter world exploded in laughter and incredulity at the news, as Leigh attempted to defend himself.

Couldn’t he have made it a clean £100? (Credit: ITV)

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Leigh explained that he had not wanted to ask Zoe for the money outright, so he had chosen to turn a trip to the supermarket into an elaborate kidnapping plot instead.

Zoe was terrified when Leigh and other men – disguising their voices – called her and threatened to throw acid at Leigh if she didn’t pay up.

She told the host: “He rang to say, ‘I’ve been kidnapped,’ but I put the phone down the first time – I was 35 weeks pregnant.”

Jeremy Kyle Zoe £80 kidnap
Oh Zoe, you’ve picked a wrong’un (Credit: ITV)

She continued: “He rings me back and says he’s been terrorised, he’s going to get acid thrown on him if I don’t do this ransom, I had to put £80 from my bank into another bank for which he had the card.

“I didn’t know what to think, I was 35 weeks pregnant and I had a poorly baby, my baby has spina bifida.

“He phoned back again and then men spoke to me on the phone, and they said if I didn’t do it they were going to harm me and harm my baby.”

Host Jeremy revealed that Leigh was eventually prosecuted for wasting police time after an investigation into his disappearance cost the taxpayer £30,000, and saw police from all over the country coming together to try and save him.

Zoe has a child with spina bifida and had another one on the way when her husband was ‘kidnapped’ (Credit: ITV)

Zoe explained: “I put the money in the bank first, then I rang my brother who’d been out. I came home, checked the bank to see the money had gone, phoned the police and within 15 mins I had armed forces at my door with guns… And it was a £30,000 operation.”

She said Leigh walked back into the building the following morning, but Zoe was not allowed to see him as they arrested him and prosecuted him for wasting police time.

To make a ludicrous story even more tragic, she explained that he then spent some time in prison, meaning he missed his son’s birth.

Understandably, Zoe said she “wanted to kill him”.

Leigh tried to explain himself, saying: “It was stupid, I wanted to help a friend.”

Understandably, Zoe had been left not wanting to trust Leigh anymore and now suspected her husband of cheating on her.

However, a lie detector test told Zoe that Leigh was telling the truth and hadn’t been playing away on his trips to the shop.

https://twitter.com/readman_emily/status/1091267079800532993

https://twitter.com/vamplacey/status/1091267555195531266

Fans were outraged by the guests, with one saying: “He faked his own kidnapping for 80 quid!! It cost the police £30,000 of resources to try and find him so obvs he spent time in jail and too right. #jeremykyle.”

Another said: “Faked his own ‘kidnapping’ for an £80 ‘ransom’ to secure his ‘release’. Ends up costing the taxpayer £30k. You couldn’t make this [bleep] up #jeremykyle.”

A third said: “Worse ransom demand in history #jeremykyle.”

After the show aired, the official Jeremy Kyle Twitter account wrote: “Zoe and Leigh state their relationship is better than ever since being on the show, and that their trust issues are gone with no further ‘incidents’.”


Helen Fear
TV Editor