Warning: This article contains discussions which some readers may find distressing
Footage of Steve Dymond’s unaired appearance on The Jeremy Kyle Show was shown for the first time today at an inquest into his death, which occurred just days after filming the show.
The 63-year-old, from Portsmouth, died of an overdose and heart problems at the age of 63 in May 2019, one week after heading on the ITV show and failing a lie detector test.
Winchester Coroner’s Court today (5 September) heard how presenter Jeremy Kyle, 59, had told Dymond to ‘grow a pair of balls’ as well as pressing him to tell his ex-fiancee Jane Callaghan ‘the god-damn truth’.
Following the Brit’s death, the episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show which he featured on was not aired and the series was cancelled by ITV.
But the footage of his appearance on the show has now been broadcast at the inquest.
In the eight-minute clip, Kyle explains that Dymond was being accused of lying about a myriad of subjects – including his age, serving in the Royal Navy, about his grandchildren and viagra which had gone missing.
(PA/Hampshire Police)
The guest had gone on the show in the hopes of proving to Callaghan that he had not been cheating on her, however, he failed ‘every single test’ after taking a lie detector.
Dymond had said that he had previously ‘lied’ to his partner for ‘no reason’, but insisted he had not deceived her ‘once’ since they had got back together.
Kyle branded him a ‘liar’ while delivering the results on stage, while Dymond became visibly upset.
The host said: “The test says you’re a liar, you failed every single test.
“I wouldn’t trust you with a chocolate button mate, I don’t think you know what the truth is.
“Be a man and grow a pair of balls and tell her the god-damn truth.”
Dymond’s son, Carl Woolley, spoke at the inquest this week and explained that prior to his death, his father had described feeling ‘thrown under the bus’ by the ITV show.
In a witness statement, Woolley said: “He told me he was made out to be a baddie… and that no one had given him any chance to put his point across, and that Jeremy Kyle was constantly ‘on him’.
“I said to him at one point: ‘What did you expect going on a show like that?’ and he said to me that he hadn’t realised he would be made a mockery of.”
(ITV)
Kyle today told the court that although his approach was ‘direct’, it was merely a ‘presenter persona’ which he took on because he was ‘paid to do a job’.
The former daytime TV star also revealed he had never received training to deal with emotional situations such as the one which he encountered with Dymond.
“What I see in those clips is, from the moment Steve Dymond comes out, I was very complimentary,” he said. “I called him mate, I called him pal, we had a bit of a joke.
“I de-escalated and I calmed down, ‘we are going to put you backstage’. It was about conflict resolution. For me, that’s what the show was about, conflict resolution, and people that came on the show knew that.
“The people that came on the show were aware of the approach. It had been on the air for 15 years, I think the approach for conflict resolution was always the same. Yes, it was direct, but it was manufactured…
“You can see empathy and that is, in essence how I saw it and how I see it,” Kyle continued. I think that persona was actually very, very regular and continuous. Yes, it was direct, it was also caring.
“I look at those clips and I see that journey.”
If you’re experiencing distressing thoughts and feelings, the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is there to support you.
They’re open from 5pm–midnight, 365 days a year. Their national number is 0800 58 58 58 and they also have a webchat service if you’re not comfortable talking on the phone.
