S Poddar
Steve Dymond, 63, died of a suspected overdose, complicated by a heart problem, days after appearing on ITV’s The Jeremy Kyle Show. The May 2019 incident has raised serious questions about the effects reality TV has on vulnerable people.
Dymond, from Portsmouth, was discovered dead a week after he appeared on the show and took a lie detector test at his ex-fiancée Jane Callaghan’s urging, who accused him of cheating. The test showed that Dymond was deceptive, and afterward, he became deeply distraught. In his last message, he wrote to Callaghan, “The Jeremy Kyle Show killed me,” underlining the desperate suffering he felt following the show.
Visibly distraught, Callaghan described the days leading to Dymond’s death to Winchester Coroner’s Court. She said that Dymond was desperate to clear his name through the lie detector test in the hope it would prove his fidelity and allow them to move forward. But the outcome of the test seemed to push him into despair.
Callaghan also spoke of Dymond’s immediate reaction right after the show. According to her, Dymond was devastated by the accusation and treatment on air. She remembered how he implored her, insisting that the test results were wrong and he had never been unfaithful. Despite his protests, the damage had already been done.
Callaghan testified that Dymond had described to her how the host of the show, Jeremy Kyle, treated him brutally and how Kyle ‘egged on’ the audience who booed him to a greater degree. Evidence to this came in testimony from Dymond’s son, Carl Woolley, that his father felt the lie detector test had labeled him a liar before a national audience. Woolley described his father as very distraught in the days after the show, frequently calling him multiple times a day in distress.
Her brother Leslie recalled heart-wrenching stories of Dymond’s last days. In a statement read at the inquest, Leslie recalled how Steve described feeling “overwhelmed” and unable to “get out” of the situation. Leslie says his brother felt cornered during the taping of the show, at one point positive that he was going to pass out and unable to get himself free from the onslaught of heckling from the audience and pressure put by the show’s staff. Steve reportedly told his brother that he had attempted to leave via a side door, only to find it locked with no way out.
Leslie also highlighted the physical nature of how stressful the experience was for Steve: “And he was saying, ‘I was on my hands and knees, thinking I was going to pass out from the stress and anxiety from the vibe on set’ “. Distress at such a level can aggravate any underlying heart condition, which might have led to this tragic decision.
The inquest also determined Dymond died from both an overdose of morphine and left ventricular hypertrophy of the heart. Coroner Jason Pegg mentioned at one point that the inquest was not to cast blame but rather understand what kinds of circumstances had led to Dymond’s death.
Steve Dymond’s tragic case puts into perspective the dark side of reality TV, especially for participants perhaps emotionally or mentally vulnerable. It brings us back to some key questions about the responsibilities of television producers and pre- and post-production support systems that deal with participants in such shows. Dymond’s death and the resultant axing of The Jeremy Kyle Show really show just how serious real-life repercussions can be when a show sets out to entertain.
