Millions of Britons have watched Dwayne Davison’s appearance on the Jeremy Kyle Show. He was labelled the most hated Jeremy Kyle guest ever. He wants them to know he struggled for work and was mocked in the street as a result, and tried to kill himself after sustained public shaming.
“It’s the worst thing that has ever happened in my life,” Davison said. “They put the spoon in and stirred around my whole life.” He said the show was designed to provoke participants into causing offence, footage was edited to portray them in an unflattering light, and any attempt at aftercare by the production team was undone by the way footage was used.
ITV is facing pressure to cancel the long-running daytime programme after the death of another Kyle guest, 63-year-old Steve Dymond, who failed a lie detector test on the show. MPs say the format of playing out angry family disputes in front of a live audience has run its course. But ITV executives are backing the production team, saying they have taken the show off air in order to “protect” it.
Davison, 27, approached the Guardian to describe how the attention he had received as a result of an appearance five years ago, sustained by the show’s constant repeats and social media, pushed him to the brink.
“I’ve had loads and loads of abuse and in 2018 I decided I’d had enough,” he said. “My girlfriend had some toothache medication, I took a load of it, and I can’t remember the rest. A few hours later my girlfriend came upstairs and she called the ambulance.”
He had stopped breathing but paramedics were able to revive him: “At the hospital they said I would have died. I know this is putting responsibility on other places but I 100% put it on that show. That show has ruined my life. It’s evil.”
Davison was in his early 20s, unemployed and living in Nottingham when he become involved with the programme in 2014. He was in a relationship with an older woman and was convinced she had cheated on him. Seeing the show’s offer of a free lie-detector test to set the record straight, they texted the programme. What blindsided them was the speed with which events took place. A producer rang back and invited them to travel up to the show’s filming base in Salford.
“Within an hour there was a taxi at the door,” he said. “You don’t have time to think about it or phone your family. Once you’re at the hotel, you feel you have to do the show. My mum begged me not to go on.”
Davison said he was never asked by the show’s producers whether he struggled with mental health issues before appearing on the programme, and he signed a contract without being given time to read it.
He admitted he came across as surly and aggressive on the programme, swearing and doubting the words of his partner, while being accused of shoving a fellow guest and being rude to staff. He said this was a result of being kept in a backstage room largely on his own for most a day before filming began. In his telling, he was provoked by Kyle and the producers. “They tell you over and over again when you’re backstage that Jeremy hates people who don’t talk.”
He said he was advised to wear a tracksuit rather than jeans to fit the desired image. “They’re good at manipulating – it’s almost magic what they do.”
He continued: “These are things that people don’t understand. They’re watching thinking I’m evil and bad. They don’t get to see why I’m so riled up.” Later he said: “I wouldn’t want to talk to the person they portrayed on that show.”
After complaining to producers about his treatment, he was invited back on the show the following year. He was “begged” to return, he said, but he accepted he made the decision freely. “I came on to try and redeem myself but he [Kyle] saw I was calm, so he kept trying to prod and poke. It’s human bear-baiting and he knows just how to provoke a response.”
ITV has always maintained that it provides substantial aftercare to those who appear on the show, a claim backed by the ex-fiancee of Dymond in an interview with the Sun after his death.
However, Davison said the checks on him were not enough. “To get two phone calls doesn’t seem like much aftercare.”
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He said the real damage has been caused by the show’s decision to upload clips of his appearance to YouTube with hyperbolic captions describing him as the rudest and most hated guest ever.
These have racked up millions of views, creating a constant stream of fresh abuse from people watching his appearances for the first time. Davison said these viral clips undermined the impact of aftercare phone calls from the production team. “It’s like stabbing someone in the back multiple times and then asking if the person is OK.”
He said he had been let go from jobs after employers found the YouTube clips. “They have members of the public coming in all day and it could reflect on them badly if they’re employing the ‘most hated person ever’.”
A spokesperson for ITV said the show had duty of care processes in place for contributors pre-, during and post-show, and that prior to the show all contributors underwent a comprehensive wellbeing assessment by mental health professionals.
Five years after his appearance, Davison is still with the same partner, has a job as a pub security guard, and is seeking medical support from his doctor for depression. He wants ITV’s chief executive, Carolyn McCall, and her colleagues to reconsider the impact the show has on guests’ mental health.
“When are they going to take it seriously?” he said. “Is it going to take more people to die for them to think maybe we are ruining people’s lives?”
• In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email [email protected]. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.