A guest on The Jeremy Kyle Show was found dead in his rented room in a suspected suicide after growing concerned about the repercussions of his appearance on the programme, an inquest has heard.

Steve Dymond, 63, died about a week after apparently failing a lie detector test on the daytime show, which has since been axed.

The construction worker was found in Portsmouth on 9 May after splitting from his on-off fiancee, Jane Callaghan, Portsmouth coroner’s court heard.

His death comes at a time of growing scrutiny over the duty of care reality TV programmes have to participants.

DS Marcus Mills of Hampshire police told the inquest, which opened on Wednesday, that Dymond had moved into his new accommodation on 10 February.

He said Dymond told the owners of the flat, Michelle and Sam, that he had been in a relationship with a woman named Jane.

“They had split up and he had been kicked out of the house following allegations he had been cheating,” Mills said.

“Steven had also mentioned they were going to go on The Jeremy Kyle Show for a lie detector test to get everything sorted. Steven told Michelle that things didn’t go well on the show.

“He became angry when talking about Jane. He became concerned about the repercussions of the show and the rumours that had started as a result.”

The ITV show was axed after a 14-year run following the death of Dymond, with Kyle saying he was “utterly devastated”.

MPs have launched an inquiry into reality TV, and the media regulator, Ofcom, has said it will look into the use of lie detector tests on TV shows.

Dymond had been in touch with his estranged son, Carl, and discovered he was a grandfather, the hearing was told.

Mills said: “There were no signs of foul play from any other parties. This was a suspected suicide. He was known to have issues with his knee, which he was on medication for.”

The hearing is awaiting results from a postmortem.

The senior coroner David Horsley adjourned the inquest until 21 November.

No family or friends attended the hearing, which lasted about 15 minutes.