New Netflix Doc Resurfaces Jerry Springer Porn Star 'Romp': What Really Happened

Netflix’s two-part docuseries Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action gives a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the sensationalistic talk show, which was known for its knockout, drag-down fights. It also resurfaces a 1998 sex scandal that Springer was embroiled in at the height of his show’s success. Although the incident, which involved an alleged threesome with at least one former guest, largely flew under the radar at the time, it could have, in today’s media landscape, derailed his television career. 

Let’s revisit the so-called “romp” with a porn star and her stepmother.

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Did Jerry Springer have sex with his guests?

Generally speaking? There’s no proof that Springer routinely had sex with his guests. But in 1998, photos surfaced of the talk-show host in the midst of an alleged threesome with a former guest, porn star Kendra Jade, and her stepmother. 

The scandal, which broke in a British tabloid, didn’t gain much traction at the time, but it comes up in the Netflix docuseries Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera, Action. 

In the doc, Springer producer Toby Yoshimura recalls NBC convening an emergency meeting one weekend. “Jerry walks in,” he remembers. “He just says, ‘You know, guys, I’m really sorry. But, you know, there’s nothing more to say now.'”

“We’re all like, What?”

When Yoshimura learned that there was a story about Springer “having a threesome with some guests from the show,” he didn’t believe it. “I’m like, ‘There’s no way. There’s no way, they’re lying.'”

And then, he said, “I saw the pictures.”

The story broke in Britain’s News of the World with a front-page story headlined “TV Chat King Romps with Porn Star.”

As reported by The New York Daily News, the tabloid claimed that Springer met with Kendra Jade and her stepmother in a Chicago hotel room and later “rebuked” Kendra on TV, “where she was appearing [on his show] as a ‘serial sex’ guest.” According to the outlet, he told her sex was “supposed to be confined to loving couples in a special relationship.” 

It’s unclear from these reports if Springer was alleged to have had sex with Kendra Jade before or after she was set to appear on his show, and whether Kendra’s stepmother guested on the show as well (Yoshimura makes it sound like both women appeared on the show, but the Daily News does not).

“It was weird ’cause it was Jerry, because we never looked at him like that,” Yoshimura says in the Netflix doc. 

“He got very lucky that it just kind of fizzled; I mean, if it had happened now, it would have been a canceled moment, for sure. The guests are the guests; they’ve got their own problems. So you don’t cross that line.”

“But the audience honestly didn’t care,” Yoshimura concludes. “I mean, he’s Jerry Springer, for f–k’s sake.”

Related: Jerry Springer Laid to Rest in Intimate Ceremony