Digs up stink guarded by old lovers (7)

I believe the answer is:

exhumes

'digs up' is the definition.
(exhuming is a kind of digging up)

'stink guarded by old lovers' is the wordplay.
'stink' becomes 'hum' (I've seen this in other cluesasomething with a bad).
'guarded by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'old lovers' becomes 'exes' (ex-partners).
'hum' inserted into 'exes' is 'EXHUMES'.

(Another definition for exhumes that I've seen is " Disinters".)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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