Springer: 'I wouldn't do show if mum was alive'

Jerry Springer is "embarrassed" by his long-running TV chat show, insisting he never would have made it if his mother was alive.

The former politician, 63, reveals he would have been deeply ashamed if his mum - a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany - had watched him on The Jerry Springer Show, which sees dysfunctional guests come to blows in front of a studio audience.

He says: "I wouldn't be doing the show if my mum was alive.

"(I'd be embarrassed) because my mum was very proper and I just know my reaction in front of my mum. There are things you don't say in front of your mother, there are things . . . I'm old-fashioned in that way. So I just know I never would have started the show. I would have said, 'Oh, I can't do that if mum is watching."