Jeff Brazier admitted he still struggled to make sense of Jade Goody’s death and accepts the trauma his sons have lived through makes family life very difficult
Jeff Brazier says the heartbreaking loss of son Freddy’s mother Jade is likely behind his addiction and life struggles.
The Big Brother legend died aged just 27 from cervical cancer in 2009. She left behind Freddy, who was four at the time, and his brother Bobby Brazier, who is a year older. At the time of her death she had broken up with his dad Jeff, and was in a relationship with Jack Tweed, who she married shortly before she passed away.
The boys’ doting dad says Jade’s void is still felt on a daily basis some 17 years on, and recalls how she sat him down to tell him the harrowing news that she had cancer – and had just months to live. Both of Jade’s sons have been open about missing their mother, but dad Jeff revealed how he repeatedly searched the streets to bring Freddy home in his desperate battle to save him.
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While the 22-year-old takes responsibility for his troubles, Jeff says the trauma they both went through at such a young age was always going to have an impact on their lives.
Speaking to Busted star Matt Willis on his On The Mend podcast, he said: “I can’t find any meaning around her losing her life when she had so much to give. She was the fierce, protective mum that they both really could have done with.
“I tried to do as much as I can, but you can never replace. I didn’t ever try and replace her. I think a lot of people maybe get it wrong when they say you’ve been mum and dad. I think that’s wrong.
“I feel disrespectful to Jade if I ever acknowledged that and said ‘yeah, thank you’. I haven’t. I was the dad. I could only play that role. They lost their mum. You can’t fill those boots no matter who I met and how lovely they were, they’re never going to feel that void.
“You realise that, just in case anyone who has lost someone thinks that that’s what they need to do. It’s not actually possible.”
The TV presenter told how he even went to the police for help and tried to physically stop Freddy leaving the house as he struggled to keep him safe.
Freddy fathered a child with former girlfriend Holly Swinburn last year, but with multiple splits and a period of the pair not speaking has added further strain.
Telling Matt more about the reasons behind his youngest son’s challenging couple of years, Jeff said: “Her void is felt on a daily basis because our family is far from perfect.
“We’ve got a lot of challenges that we still face to this day. A lot of it is probably, the root source of that, is their loss.
“I think prisons are probably full of people that have lost someone, and just didn’t learn how to control their emotions or didn’t learn how to heal. There’s a lot of things for us to work on and work through and we continue to do that to this day.”
Jeff admitted that he and Jade had struggled to make their relationship work, despite their hopes of providing a stable family life for their children.
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