Wife Swap contestant died of drink and drugs binge after partner ran off with lesbian lover

Dad-of-two Simon Foster, 40, lost his wife, house and job after his family featured on the programme last year.

The show, aired on October 14, described Mr Foster and wife Jane as living 'an alternative' lifestyle - because both of them had girlfriends on the side.

Anguish: Simon Foster on Wife Swap, and his wife Jane, who later left him for her lesbian lover

Programme-makers RDF had promoted the edition of Wife Swap - which ran in the eighth series of the show - as: 'The free-spirited Fosters are a family with a difference - Jane and Simon both have girlfriends outside of the marriage.

'Mum Jane sleeps in the bedroom while dad Simon sleeps on the sofa. Despite their unusual arrangement Simon and Jane feel the relationship works for them and continue to live together in their Brighton home with their two children.'

Brighton Coroners Court heard today how Mr Foster became 'extremely depressed' after losing his wife - who ran off with her lesbian lover - his home and his job as a van driver in the months after the show aired.

Dad Simon Foster with his three children and Debbie Henderson, who lived with the family on the TV show Wife Swap

The court heard how he drank six times the drink drive limit and took 'mammoth' levels of methadone before dying in his bedsit in Brighton.

Paul Johnson, a friend of Mr Foster's found the Wife Swap contestant collapsed on the floor of his temporary accommodation on April 15 this year.

The court heard today how Mr Johnson called 999 and told operators: 'He's had too much methadone and too much booze and I can't get him to breathe.'

Coroner Victoria Hamilton-Deeley said Mr Foster had played 'Russian roulette' by taking such a large quantities of drugs and alcohol.

The binge followed the divorce of the couple, who sold their Brighton home. Jane moved to Derbyshire with the couple's two children.

Mr Foster refused to take part in a follow up show entitled 'Wife Swap: The Aftermath'.

Following his death, Mr Foster's friends said his life had been 'turned upside down by the show'.

Jane Foster, right, and her girlfriend leave the inquest into Simon Foster's death

'The show put enormous strain on him. He was never really the same,' said one.

'To be shown with your wife happily seeing another woman made him a laughing stock .'

Speaking after filming last year Mrs Foster said that filming had disturbed the couple's family life, saying: 'The TV company has an image of you they want to portray and they goad you into behaving how they want you to behave.

'There's an awful lot of pressure on you in the two months leading up to filming. I was away for nine days but the programme disrupts your life for several months.

'From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed you are mic-ed up. You can take the mic off when you go to the toilet and that's it. You aren't allowed to have contact with your own family. I missed my kids terribly.'

Simon Foster and his wife Jane on the Wife Swap show which 'turned his life upside down'

A spokeswoman for RDF Media Group, the makers of Wife Swap said after Mr Foster was found dead: 'All Wife Swap contributors are offered support both during and after filming and this care was of course available to Simon Foster. Our sincere condolences go out to Simon's family at this time.'

The inquest continues.