Michael Barrymore to discuss drug addiction, demise and the death of Stuart Lubbock on The Jeremy Kyle Show

The former TV personality has signed up to allow chat show Rottweiler Jeremy Kyle to chew through the murky details of his past

It appears that Michael Barrymore may just be a braver man than perhaps his history implies.

The former TV personality has signed up to allow chat show Rottweiler Jeremy Kyle to chew through the murky details of his past ̶ including his battles with drug addiction, alcoholism and coming to terms with his sexuality in a somewhat crass “Celebrity Specials” series set to air this summer.

Barrymore, 62, will also allow Kyle to pick through the details surrounding the death of Stuart Lubbock – the 31-year-old guest who was found dead in his swimming pool at his mansion in Essex in March 2001. It was believed that he had been sexually assaulted.

He has previously described the traumatic event as “just a party that went disastrously wrong, with a tragic ending”.

The presenter fled his home shortly after discovering Lubbock, and was once arrested on suspicion of his murder. However, he remains insistent that he is not guilty of murder and no charges have ever been brought.

“I didn’t run away - first thing I did was go and get help,” he told Stephen Nolan on Radio 5 Live in 2013.

“I was standing there and instead of going, ‘I should stay here,’ I went with the lads down the bottom of their drive to their flat.

“As I went out I rang my PA - I’ve never had a PR agent - and said a guy’s by the side of the pool - the ambulance has been called if the police need me I’m in James’ place at the bottom of the drive.

“[It didn’t look good] Absolutely not - one of the worst things I could have done. But that doesn’t make me guilty of something that never happened in the first place.

“No way did I do it. And if I did then I’d have put my hands up 10 years ago. I haven’t spoken about this like this probably really at all to be honest.

“I do find it difficult to talk about. Not because I’m guilty of anything but because I didn’t do anything. I did a stupid thing - I walked away from the scene, but I’d already gone and got help to bring him out. Nothing happened to the guy there.”

Other guests gearing up for the unenviable task will include Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, the Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder and Tito Jackson.

The Barrymore episode will air at 2pm on 9 June 2014 on ITV1.