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Jeremy Kyle producer took her own life after struggling for work when show was axed

Natasha Reddican, left, was struggling to find work after losing her job on The Jeremy Kyle Show, an inquest heard. (Reach/ITV)
Natasha Reddican, left, was struggling to find work after losing her job on The Jeremy Kyle Show, an inquest heard. (Reach/ITV)

A TV producer who worked on The Jeremy Kyle Show took her own life after struggling to find work in the wake of the programme’s cancellation and becoming “something of a pariah”.

Natasha Reddican’s job on the show was “everything to her”, according to her mother, but she lost the role when ITV ended the controversial show after the suspected suicide of a guest last year, an inquest heard.

The 31-year-old producer drank a quarter of a bottle of whisky and possibly half a bottle of wine after a planned online job interview did not take place and killed herself at her home in Salford, Greater Manchester, on 27 February.

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Her mother Laraine Law told the inquest in Bolton how important her job had been, and added: “For that to be taken from her in such a sudden and unexpected way, she became down and depressed. I think it really knocked her.”

The TV producer was found dead in February. (Reach)
The TV producer was found dead in February. (Reach)

Her daughter had an “amazing, bubbly personality” but would sometimes drink when she felt “a bit down or a bit low... and then you see that vulnerable side”.

The Jeremy Kyle Show was taken off air following the suspected suicide of Steve Dymond, who appeared as a guest in May 2019 and died after a drug overdose.

Watch: Inquest finds Jeremy Kyle ‘may have contributed’ to death of show guest

Reddican was found by her boyfriend, Mackenzie Hanafan, upon his return home. He worked with her on the show.

“Tash worked so hard to get the job and did it very well and had the respect of all of her colleagues,” he said.

Jeremy Kyle arriving at the 2015 TV Choice Awards, The Park Lane Hilton, London.
The Jeremy Kyle Show was taken off air after a guest's suspected suicide. (PA)

“The way everything played out, it was not a short period, it was dragged out over the year.

“It did weigh on her a lot.”

Annaliese Edwards, who worked with Hanafan, said although ITV offered support during the redundancy process, “some people struggled with the shame of what happened”.

Timothy Brennand, senior coroner for Manchester West, concluded on Thursday that Reddican died from suicide in a “tragic and harrowing case”.

He described her as having “such impressive potential” and a “local girl made good with a high work ethic who worked her way up from a modest post to become a producer”.

The reasons for her suicide were “multifaceted” but after losing her job she “seems to have been regarded as something of a pariah in the industry”.

The reason the job interview did not take place was unclear but not Reddican’s fault, Brennand said.

Watch: 'The Jeremy Kyle Show ruined my life'

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