Jeff Brazier on why he has not let his sons watch Jade Goody documentary
The TV star said he took part in the programme himself because he did not want Goody’s mother to represent him on camera.
The former partner of late reality TV star Jade Goody has said he has not let their children watch a new documentary about her life.
Channel 4 recently aired a three-part programme called Jade: The Reality Star Who Changed Britain, documenting the former Big Brother contestant’s troubled life, rise to fame and battle with cervical cancer that led to her death in 2009 at the age of 27.
Jeff Brazier, who has teenage sons Bobby and Freddie with Goody, described the programme – in which he appeared for an interview – as “really unsettling”, but said that he chose to take part in it because he did not want her mother Jackiey Budden representing him on camera.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival in a panel covering the duty of care of broadcasters, Brazier said: “I haven’t watched it. From a technical parenting point of view, whilst they are coming to the end of their childhood and they are able to take on board more adult themes, I don’t think they are quite ready to watch a large percentage of what has been shown.
“I don’t begrudge any of the content that has been used in making the documentary. It is particularly well-made and people have no issue with that.”
Brazier added: “But in terms of is that something they could watch? It’s not like they would find out so much more about mum in a lovely or warm or memorial way, or just looking back and remembering it.
“There are a lot of really adult themes there that they are probably not going to get their head around.
“They could find it upsetting and angry.”
He said it had been a “really tricky challenge” for him to consider whether to allow his sons – who were aged four and five when Goody died – to see the documentary.
Asked about his decision to appear in the programme to give an interview, Brazier said: “I agreed because I thought it would be better when they watched that they saw me giving some positive, really glowing remarks about their mum, as opposed to being an absence.”
He said he was convinced to appear in the documentary by a producer who told him that it could be his own words, or Goody’s mother Budden, on his behalf.
“That definitely got me in,” he said.
“Nobody wants to be represented by Jackiey.”
Brazier was not in a relationship with Goody when she died, and he has raised Bobby and Freddie since her death.
Goody found fame after appearing on Big Brother in 2002 and was often mocked for her lack of general knowledge but became an endearing public figure.
She was publicly vilified following allegations of racial bullying towards Indian actress Shilpa Shetty during Celebrity Big Brother in 2007.
But she was praised for the bravery shown during her cancer diagnosis and for raising awareness of the disease.
The third episode of the documentary aired on Wednesday, focusing on the final years of Goody’s life.
