I can’t say I am not delighted to see the end of the Jeremy Kyle show – but I don’t entirely blame the obnoxious host for its demise!

Don’t get me wrong. I have never voluntarily watched the programme and have only seen snatches when I was in an area where I was not in control of the remote.

What I have seen was enough. Kyle was sickening in his arrogance, he was a bully and if he had a participant metaphorically on the ground he would kick and kick again. I couldn’t abide his holier-than-thou superiority.

But I can’t help but compare the Jeremy Kyle Show with the whole Princess Diana thing.

A man killed himself and it is believed that he killed himself because of the show.

Princess Diana was killed because her driver was drunk, but also because she was being pursued by the paparazzi.

Who was to blame?

Well, the people directly involved, of course but they are not the only ones. We – you, me and almost everyone else.

Why were the paparazzi chasing Diana? Because every time her photo or story appeared on the front of a magazine or newspaper, sales rose. She was big money so she was offered up for sale and we were the ones who bought.

I had a colleague who vowed never to buy another magazine after Diana died and she never did, right up until the time of her own premature death from cancer.

I read that ITV had made a brave decision in axing Jeremy Kyle because it was their most popular daytime show.

That is nothing that we can be proud of. It means that so many of us wanted to watch this car wreck.

I honestly believed that people must be paid to go onto that show. Why would they be on otherwise?

And the people who appeared often seemed to be suffering a multitude of problems including poverty, alcohol or drug addiction and more. They seemed to all come from the most vulnerable sector of society which made them all the easier to pick on.

But we watched them!We added to the success of the show! We aided and abetted the suspected suicide that followed. We contributed to the death of Diana.

Reality TV is cheap and easy to make. It only requires a group of people who crave their 15 minutes of fame – and there are plenty of those to go around.

Of course,the added pinch of spice is conflict. What are any of these programmes without conflict?

I love Strictly, Dancing on Ice and Britain’s Got Talent. They are reality TV but celebrate talent rather than aiming to bully or destroy.

I am glad Jeremy Kyle has gone. I hope his production team find new work because they won’t get the pay-off he will.

I hope we can all think of the part we have played in this and so much other distress simply by embracing the television, social media and print that glory in tearing people down.