“I still see Jade’s boys – they’ve grown into lovely men” Jack:
This Mother’s Day lands on 22 March, which is also the 11-year anniversary of Jade Goody’s death. Here, her widower Jack Tweed speaks about her teenage sons, Bobby and Freddie, and how he will mark the difficult day
While many families will be celebrating Mother’s Day happily, Jack Tweed will be quietly paying tribute to his late wife, Jade Goody, who died from cervical cancer in 2009 aged 27, leaving behind her beloved sons Bobby and Freddie, who were just five and four at the time.
The boys – now 16 and 15 – have spent the past decade being brought up by their dad, TV host Jeff Brazier. Last year, Jeff told Closer that the anniversary of their mum’s death is “always a really difficult time” as it “stirs up so much in them”, adding, “You can see their behaviour is slightly altered as a result.”
But after years of hostility between Jeff and Jade’s widower Jack, who married Jade just a month before she passed, they have since put their feud behind them.
And Bobby – now a budding model – and Freddie have rekindled their relationship with their former stepdad, who lived with them for two years when he was in a relationship with their mum.
Speaking to Closer, Jack, 32, says, “I have seen the boys and I speak to them. On one occasion, Jeff came with them and we had a family lunch together, which was really nice. Bobby and Freddie have grown into such lovely and polite young men. Jade would be so proud of them, and Jeff has done such a good job bringing them up.”
Jeff, 40, banned Jack from seeing his sons following Jade’s death, after he “went off the rails”. In the following years, Jack “blotted out his pain” with wild partying.
SPECIAL MEMORIES
Now on the straight and narrow, Jack – who remains single and works as a builder in Essex – admits, “Jeff was probably right to do that.”
He and Jade first met in 2007 and married at Down Hall Country House in Essex just weeks before her death. A then-little known Mark Wright was Jack’s best man, and Jade described the ceremony as the “happiest day of her life”. She heartbreakingly told her guests, “Now, I’m ready to go to heaven.”
At the time of her death, Jack was just
21, and held her hand as she slipped away. But he says the pain of her passing is just as difficult now as it was then.
He says, “I think about Jade every day.
She is never far away from my thoughts. I have so many special memories of her
– her laughter, the funny things she used to say and do. Jade was a big personality – a real one-off – and she was also a very loving person. I miss everything about her.”
To mark her anniversary and Mother’s Day, Jack says he will spend time at her grave and lay flowers. He adds, “Each year I try to bring myself to watch
our wedding video – but it’s always just too painful. Eleven years on and I’ve still not watched it back, as it will upset me too much.
“Instead, I sit down with a photo of us on our wedding day and I think about the times Jade and I enjoyed together. One of our wedding presents was a lovely candle in a wooden box, which I got engraved. Each year on her anniversary, I light it for a short while.”
ROMANCE
Since Jade’s death, Jack has stepped back from the public eye. And he says his most poignant moments with Jade were the ones they shared privately.
“We used to laugh a lot when it was just us, behind closed doors together at night,” he says. “Jade loved romance. When she became ill, one night I pulled the sofa out onto the patio so we could lay together and look at the stars. She absolutely loved that. I remember looking across at her and wishing we could lie that way forever.”
A year after her death, in 2010, Jack embarked on a turbulent three-year romance with another Big Brother star, Chanelle Hayes, 32, before their bitter split.
Since then, Jack has “pulled himself together” and knocked partying on the head – but reveals he has not had another serious relationship since.
He says, “Every time I meet someone new, I tell myself they won’t compare to Jade and how well we got on. So instead, I end up holding myself back, and I start ignoring anyone who I get a little close with.
“I need to get my head together before I can move on. It wouldn’t be fair on that person until I’m ready. Maybe one day, I will move on. But it has to be when the time is right, and at the moment, it still isn’t.”
Thousands of heartbroken mourners lined the streets to say goodbye to Jade as her funeral was broadcast live on
TV. But while her legacy initially led to hundreds of thousands more young women undergoing cervical cancer checks, now the numbers are dwindling – and Jack is campaigning for that to change again.
He says, “It is so important to keep her name out there to remind people what can happen if you don’t go or skip appointments. I feel I have a duty to campaign for this, so her death won’t be in vain.
“I hope anyone reading this who has missed an appointment gets straight on the phone and books in to see a nurse.”
By Nick Owens
● For more info on cervical cancer, visit Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust at Jostrust.or.uk.
‘I miss everything about her’