LOOKING across at his devastated wife of 18 years, Kev Mulholland struggled to take in Jeremy Kyle’s words – he’d failed every question on the lie detector test.
The dad-of-six had been desperate to come on the ITV show to prove he’d changed his love-rat ways – and to put an end to a three-year sex ban wife Haley had given him for previously cheating with their neighbour.
But as the damning test results were read out, saying he’d cheated for a second time, Kev’s mouth dropped. He stormed off the stage, as a heartbroken Haley branded him a “liar” and the audience booed.
It was a dramatic scene, and one that was mirrored hundreds of times on The Jeremy Kyle Show, which was axed after 14 years this week after guest Steve Dymond, 63, died from an overdose.
But in his case, Kev furiously claims the test results were fake.
He exclusively tells Sun Online that he was left in such a state after the filming that he feared he’d lose both his wife and children and even contemplated jumping to his death off a bridge.
He says he was so desperate to prove his innocence to Haley – and save their marriage – that he forked out a staggering £700 to get a private lie detector test done around a week later.
And, he says, the results showed he was being truthful, he hadn’t had sex with anyone else.
“Jeremy’s test was completely wrong,” he claims. “I feel for families who have been on there. It’s always the poor bloke who gets the finger pointed at them.”
Today, more than a year on, Kev, 50, and his wife are still together and the sex ban has been lifted – although Haley, 49, admits she sometimes has flashbacks of her hubby’s old cheating ways.
The couple, from Bristol, decided to speak out after hearing about the “sad” death of contestant Steve – a digger driver who was found dead 10 days after failing Jeremy’s lie detector test.
Steve – who also insisted he hadn’t cheated, although his fiancée Jane Callaghan has said she knows he did – told relatives before his death how host Jeremy “really laid into” him.
And speaking today, Kev – who had appeared on the show once before, in 2015 – claims: “I’m quite a big bloke and I felt quite intimidated by Jeremy because of the bodyguards he has.”
He adds: “I’m glad the show has been banned.”
An ITV spokesperson has said the The Jeremy Kyle Show “has significant and detailed duty of care processes in place for contributors pre, during and post show which have been built up over 14 years”.
Despite his claims about Jeremy’s lie detector, Kev admits the same test worked just fine four years ago, when he first appeared on the show to address claims he’d cheated with a neighbour.
As we previously reported, the couple, who tied the knot in 2000, had turned to Jeremy for help after Haley found suspicious messages on her hubby’s Facebook and heard rumours he was cheating.
By this point, Haley had already put Kev on a sex ban – because she “smelt a rat”.
And her suspicions were proved right when her husband was revealed to be a cheat on TV.
During that episode in 2015, Kev barged off Jeremy’s stage, swearing the results were fixed, before admitting to his wife hours later that he’d cheated on her – but “it had only lasted five minutes”.
Today, he admits: “On that previous show, I did do something wrong and I failed the test.
“It was a mistake I made and I regret it every day.”
After the shocking reveal, Haley forced her hubby to move downstairs. She admitted that while she didn’t want him anymore, she didn’t want anyone else to have him either.
While she monitored his movements – checking his phone and sniffing his clothes for perfume – Kev bought her Cornish pasties, made her cups of tea and gave her roses to try to win her back.
And finally, Haley decided her “heart of gold” hubby deserved another chance.
However, she had one condition – they go back on The Jeremy Kyle Show to BOTH undergo lie detector tests and put the past behind them. And Kev tells us he was onboard.
But during their appearance on the show, which was aired on March 21, 2018, Kev sensationally failed all the test’s questions – yet Haley passed all of hers.
While Haley was asked whether she had had sexual intercourse or contact with anyone else since their last appearance on the programme, Kev tells us he was asked about his actions since the start of 2016.
LIE detector tests were carried out on The Jeremy Kyle Show by qualified polygraph examiners.
The guest taking the test – which is also known as a polygraph – would be asked pre-agreed questions.
They would be monitored for any changes, using a number of sensors attached to their body. Physiological changes would indicate whether or not they were telling the truth.
Lie detector tests record blood pressure, pulse, respiration and skin conductivity while the subject responds to a series of questions. A major change in any pattern, also known as a “response conflict”, is a sign a person is lying.
Jason Hubble, Chief Polygraph Examiner of Lie Detectors UK, warns cheats: “If you lie you will be caught.”
He tells Sun Online: “When I speak to a client prior to taking a booking I always say ‘If you have done what you have been accused of don’t take a polygraph test as you will fail’.
“This still doesn’t stop the 20% who do fail a polygraph test for which a large percent then make admissions.”
Following Jeremy Kyle guest Steve Dymond’s recent death, he adds: “As an industry what we can’t stop is people lying to us in order to take a polygraph test.
“Yes we do due diligence on every client and ask in the pre-test about their mental health in a variety of ways, any red flags would stop us from running a test.
“What we can’t stop is someone who lies in the pre-test, should we now be asking for a doctor’s note for every person we test? Is this a feasible approach?
“I have run thousands of tests like many other examiners in the UK and this incident has enforced the responsibility we share in running a polygraph test.
“When we are given the right information we do refuse to run tests as the Jeremy Kyle show would have done.”
“My wife at the time – that was it. She was going to say she wanted to end the marriage,” Kev says.
“I was at rock bottom. The thought of jumping off a bridge went through my mind.”
He adds that he feared he would have to move away from his kids, the youngest of whom is nine.
“I was devastated, I was a mess,” he says.
Fortunately for Kev, Haley had a gut feeling he was telling the truth this time.
The mum tells us: “You know your instincts.”
And the couple claim just days after their appearance on the show, they did the private test.
“It came back as positive with no deception,” Kev says.
The results papers, seen by Sun Online, show there was “no deception indicated” after Kev was asked whether he had had sexual contact with anyone else since the start of 2016.
He adds: “I contacted Jeremy Kyle and said, ‘I was on your show, I have done a lie detector and I want to come back and prove to yourselves I wasn’t lying,’ but they refused to let me go back on the show.”
The dad, who has a bad back and a damaged leg, claims he hadn’t admitted to smoking cannabis and taking medication like morphine and Tramadol before he underwent Jeremy’s test.
He believes these factors could have influenced his results. Critics say medication and drugs can affect lie detector results, but experts claim the test, in these cases, will likely come back inconclusive.
Kev also claims that Jeremy was “rude” to him, but the show’s off-stage team were really polite.
He and Haley had sex for the first time in three years just after the private test results – sent to them by Polygraph International UK, which describes its tests as “reliable” – came back.
When asked what their first time back between the sheets was like, Haley says:”Sex was as normal for me although [I] still think of past episodes when he did cheat thinking will I ever be good enough?”
Kev, meanwhile, acknowledges that it was a long time to go without sex.
But he tells us: “You don’t marry someone for just five years, you get married for life.”
Today, the couple say they are keeping “no secrets at all” from each other. While Haley once used pore over the messages on her hubby’s Facebook, she now never looks at it.
“Secrets in the closet always come back to bite you,” Kev tells us.
He adds: [Haley] never goes on my Facebook anymore.”
In a statement earlier this week, Jeremy said: “Myself and the production team I have worked with for the last 14 years are all utterly devastated by the recent events.
“Our thoughts and sympathies are with Steve’s family and friends at this incredibly sad time.”
“We wouldn’t be together… and it would be because of a man who, in my eyes, lied to us,” he claims.
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
