I was an ‘out of control’ teen on the ‘Maury’ show 25 years ago — it helped me turn my life around

Sex, cigarettes and sneaking out all colored Kristen White’s adolescence in the late 1990s. 

Scolds from older sister Noelle didn’t inspire the then-high school sophomore to fix up her act. Pleas from her cancer-stricken mother, Toni, fell on deaf ears. 

A wayward White — who behaved badly sans fear of retribution due to her mom’s failing health — even once threatened her family with a knife.  

But a 1999 appearance on the “Maury” show finally scared the then-16-year-old Jersey girl straight. 

“I got booed by the audience, drill sergeants screamed in my face, and I then was taken away to boot camp,” White, now 40, told The Post. 

“It was a scary experience,” she continued. “But it gave me the wake-up call I needed.”