Daughter of KKK Member Who Appeared on “The Jerry Springer Show” 3 Times as a Teen Says Show 'Destroyed My Life’
Daughter of KKK Member Who Appeared on “The Jerry Springer Show” 3 Times as a Teen Says Show 'Destroyed My Life’
Angela AndaloroWed, April 22, 2026 at 6:45 PM UTC
0
Jennifer Kreis on 'Jerry Springer' at age 14 (left) and tearfully watching footage todayCredit: courtesy of ID -
In the new docuseries Hollywood Demons, former guest Jennifer Kreis shares her experience filming The Jerry Springer Show
Jennifer first appeared on the show when she was 14, alongside her father, a KKK member
Jennifer says her involvement with the show ultimately "destroyed" her life
Jennifer Kreis, who first appeared on The Jerry Springer Show when she was 14 as part of an episode on white supremacy, opens up about her experience in the season premiere of ID's Hollywood Demons.
Jennifer and her father, Ku Klux Klan member August Kreis III, were invited on the controversial '90s talk show three separate times for their involvement in the white supremacist hate group, which promotes beliefs fueled by antisemitism and racism. In the docuseries' first episode, focused on The Jerry Springer Show, Jennifer says she was initially exposed to her father's radical ideology following her parents' divorce when she was 12.
According to Jennifer, she attended "rallies, violent marches and cross lightings" alongside her father before the two were first invited on the show in 1993.
"They flew us in. They paid for everything, round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations, unlimited room service, and also paid him," she alleges. In the docuseries, production for The Jerry Springer Show denies that guests were compensated despite Jennifer claiming that August was paid $1,000 each visit.
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Jennifer Kreis, age 14Credit: courtesy of ID
When they arrived on set, Jennifer says she remembers being coached through the experience by producers. "The producers told us exactly what words to use, exactly what to say. They wanted me to say it with as much hate and anger as I could, and they weren't happy until I did that," she says.
During her first appearance, Jennifer joined her father on stage, where the two used antisemitic and racist hate speech. Later in the show, Jennifer threatened to kill host Jerry Springer's daughter for being Jewish.
While rewatching the footage 33 years later, Jennifer, now 47, tears up and says she feels "embarrassment, anger and sadness that I was ever put in that position by all the adults."
"I just felt like I was a circus animal under attack, but no one knew the truth," recalls Jennifer, who says she was sexually abused throughout her childhood. "I was a kid. What choice did I have?"
"The producers knew that how I was being raised was abusive in and of itself," she claims. "So why would they want to add to that by exploiting me for that same reason? How are they any better?"
Addressing the handling of controversial guests, producer Houston Curtis shared, "When the show was over, everyone was trained to get these people out."
Jennifer Kreis, age 17Credit: courtesy of ID
Fellow Jerry producer Brad Kuhlman then adds, "We had a thing. We would say you pick them up in a limo, send them home in a cab, and that's kind of how it worked."
Curtis noted, "And then we would literally read off a script. I could be wrong on the exact number, but 'This episode costs $92,000 to make, and everything that you said on this episode, we accept as truth. If you go to the press or to the media and state that anything you said on the show was not true, we will sue you for the entire cost of the show.' And let's be honest, these people weren't super educated people, most of them, right? It was very cruel and it made me feel like crap."
According to Jennifer, her mother's consent was never obtained despite her parents' joint legal and physical custody agreement.
"I remember thinking, 'Please God, please God. Hopefully, this means I don't have to do it,' " she recalls. "I guess it was brushed under the rug, because we still went on."
Advertisement
In the time between filming the episode and it airing, the family moved.
"I was 14 years old, just trying to come into my own as a teenager, and I was already dealing with the backlash of his beliefs in school. I was threatened on a daily basis. I had to start carrying mace to school. They tried jumping me, a handful of times. I just had to deal with it."
During their second appearance, Jennifer and August were thrown off the show. Still, the family returned a third time when Jennifer was 17.
"I think, by that point, I was starting to get really mad because I did not want to be there," she says. "I didn't want to be saying these things. I didn't want anything to do with it."
Jerry SpringerCredit: Ralf-Finn Hestoft/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty
In Hollywood Demons, Springer show creator Burt Dubrow recalls how angry Springer was during the family's final appearance, during which August falsely claimed that the Holocaust never happened.
In footage from show producer Reena Friedman Watts' interview with Springer shortly before his death, the host said of that interaction, "The show was about dysfunction."
"These neo-Nazis certainly fit into that category. And so, I lost my temper on one show. But this is America, and if you want to get on television... It's about a free society. I'm not allowed to censor you. I'm not allowed to say, 'Because I disagree with you, you can't be on.' "
Says Jennifer of her experience on the show, "The Jerry Springer Show destroyed my life, and I'm sure many other people's as well."
"It was horrible. I hated it. It wasn't me at all," she continued, noting that she left home at 18 and, along with one of her siblings, reported her father for abuse in 1996, but authorities "refused to even investigate," something Jennifer has questioned over the years. She believes it was related to how people saw her publicly as a result of her appearance on the show.
Jennifer Kreis cries as she watches footage of herself on "The Jerry Springer Show"Credit: courtesy of ID
Weighing in on how Jennifer's abuse factored into the situation, Dr. Drew shared, "To be fair, think about Jennifer's Nazi salute there. That's what Jennifer did. She was being abused; she was a mess. She was under the influence of this horrible parent. That's where that comes from, right?"
August Kreis was serving 50 years in prison for child molestation after he "was found guilty of one count of criminal sexual conduct involving a child and two counts of committing lewd acts on a child" when he died in May 2025, per the documentary.
Jennifer also spoke about the situation in a 2022 appearance on the Beyond Barriers Media podcast, explaining how "freeing" it was to share her side of the story with the world as an adult and to reclaim agency in her life.
"I was finally able to say, 'Look, this is who I am, this is what I went through, this is why you know I said the things I said. And don't get me wrong, I can't even watch it without crying myself, on those shows, the things that I've said. It's extremely traumatic for me just to hear my voice saying those things. It's... unfortunately, I can't change the past."
She continued, "I have no control over that, but I completely understand a thousand percent why [hearing] that would hurt people and enrage people. I get that and I acknowledge that and I'm very sorry for hurting people. At the same time, grant me the grace that you can wrap your head around and understand that I had no choice. It was about survival, for me. I lived surviving. I wasn't living. I was surviving."
Hollywood Demons is available to stream on HBO Max.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
