Alex Reid turned to 'self-harm' after Jeremy Kyle Show appearance

Katie Price's ex-husband appeared on the ITV show in 2012
Regrets: Alex Reid appeared on the ITV show in 2012
ITV
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Alex Reid has revealed that he regrets appearing on The Jeremy Kyle Show, claiming that the experience prompted him to “self-harm” by taking part in professional fights “without training.”

Katie Price’s ex-husband told Metro that he did not receive aftercare and instead chose to “distract” himself with “destructive” martial arts fights.

Reid’s statement came hours before the show was pulled off air indefinitely by ITV following news that a former guest was found dead after failing a lie detector test.

The 43-year-old said that he initially took part in the show hoping to “get [his] side [of the story] across” and described his interview as “fairly non-eventful.”

Exes: Alex Reid and Katie Price pictured together in 2010
Getty Images

He went on to slam the ITV programme for “feeding off insecurities” and leaving participants with their “mental health endangered.”

“The show feeds off insecurities, heaped with high drama petrol to create at best, an on-stage explosion but at worst, a chilling exposure of our society’s desperate car-crash media thirst,” he said.

“There are hordes of good people chewed up and spat out by the reality show machine. How many end up taking their own life? Very few. But how many have their personal life destroyed? Career crushed? Mental health endangered? Probably all of them.”

Suspended: The Jeremy Kyle Show has been pulled off the air
ITV

He said that his decision to “tak[e] on martial arts fights without training” was “probably [his] version of self-harming,” reasoning: “At least I didn’t feel the pain of social media and public ridicule.

“While fighting gave me a temporary purpose and a distraction, it was destructive.”

Standard Online has contacted representatives for The Jeremy Kyle Show for comment.

Filming and broadcasting of the show had been suspended after Steve Dymond, 63, died after failing a polygraph test on the show. He reportedly took the test in an attempt to convince fiancée Jane Callaghan he had not cheated on her, but the couple are thought to have split soon after.

ITV bosses said that they were “shocked and saddened” by the news.

“Everyone at ITV and The Jeremy Kyle Show is shocked and saddened at the news of the death of a participant in the show a week after the recording of the episode they featured in and our thoughts are with their family and friends,” an ITV spokeswoman said.

“ITV will not screen the episode in which they featured.”

The broadcaster has confirmed that the episode will be submitted for a review due to the “seriousness of the event."

​For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123, or visit a local Samaritans branch. See samaritans.org

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