Jade Goody facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jade Goody
Goody in 2007
Born	Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody (1981-06-05)5 June 1981 London, England
Died	22 March 2009(2009-03-22) (aged 27) Upshire, Essex, England
Cause of death	Cervical cancer
Resting place	Epping Forest
Occupation	Television personality
Years active	2002–2009
Known for	Big Brother
Spouse(s)	Jack Tweed ​ (m. 2009)​
Partner(s)	Jeff Brazier (2002–2004)
Children	2, including Bobby Brazier
Parent(s)	Jackiey Budden (mother)

Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody (5 June 1981 – 22 March 2009) was an English television personality. She came to public prominence in 2002 when she appeared on the third series of the Channel 4 reality show Big Brother. She went on to star in her own television programmes after her eviction from the show, which in turn led to her launching a variety of products under her own name. Immediately criticised by the British press for her perceived lack of decorum and intelligence, Goody was dubbed by multiple outlets as "the most hated woman in Britain". The country's celebrity magazines were less derisive, publishing reports of her affable nature and competent school performance from those who knew her.

Public opinion of Goody reached its most negative in January 2007, when she was involved in the Big Brother racism controversy while appearing as a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother 5. Following her eviction, Goody made a number of apologies, but continued to garner negative public reactions. In August 2008, she participated in Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother, but left the show early and returned to the UK after finding out that she had cervical cancer. By February 2009, the cancer had metastasized and she was terminally ill. She married fellow Celebrity Big Brother contestant Jack Tweed on 22 February 2009 and died one month later, in the early hours of 22 March 2009, at age 27.

Public opinion of Goody had softened by the time of her death. Sky Living broadcast five tribute shows from 2009 to 2012, documenting her life from early childhood through her rise to fame and her final months. The last episode of Big Brother on Channel 4 featured a 15-minute tribute to Goody, praising her as the ultimate Big Brother contestant. She was one of several people to appear on the front cover of the final edition of News of the World on 10 July 2011.

Early life

Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody was born in the Bermondsey district of London on 5 June 1981, the daughter of English mother Jackiey Budden (born 1957) and English-Jamaican father Andrew Goody (1963–2005). Her paternal grandfather, Winston Coyne, was from the West Indies and emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1956. At the age of five, Goody made an uncredited appearance as a primary school student in the 1986 television film London's Burning, which later spawned the television series of the same name. Before entering the Big Brother house, Goody worked as a dental nurse and lived in Upshire, Essex, where she was still living when she died.

Career

2002–2003: Big Brother 3

When Goody appeared on Big Brother 3, she was ridiculed by the British tabloid press for her lack of general knowledge. She thought the English city of Cambridge was in London; when told that it was in East Anglia, she assumed East Anglia was outside Britain and referred to it as "East Angula".

2003–2006: Initial fame and Sky Living series

Goody appeared in her own reality TV shows and, regularly, in celebrity, trivia and gossip-oriented women's magazines such as Heat and OK!. She participated in the 2006 London Marathon but did not finish (collapsing after 34 km [21 mi] of the 42.195-kilometre [26.219 mi] course), and recovered overnight at the Royal London Hospital. Before the marathon, Goody described her preparations to TV chef Gordon Ramsay: "I've been eating curry, Chinese and drinking." She said afterwards, "I don't really understand miles. I didn't actually know how far it was going to be ... I didn't want to let everyone down." Goody raised £565.20 for her chosen charity, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

On 16 February 2004, Goody entered the Back to Reality house on Channel 5. The series, similar to Big Brother, featured contestants from other reality shows such as Big Brother and I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. She was evicted on day 20.

In 2005 Goody created and introduced her own fragrance (Shh...) with distributor Jigsaw ESL, who gave its exclusive rights to Superdrug. Shh... became Superdrug's third-bestselling fragrance, behind Kylie Minogue's and Victoria Beckham's. On 2 May 2006, Jade: My Autobiography was published. That same year she won a celebrity edition of the ITV singing game show Stars in Their Eyes as Lynn Anderson performing "Rose Garden".

2008–2009: Return to the public eye, Big Brother and final projects

Goody said in April 2008 that she planned to introduce her second fragrance line, Controversial. In mid-2008, she appeared on Bigg Boss 2, the Indian version of Big Brother, at a rumoured salary of £100,000. Goody entered the house on 17 August, saying in her opening videotape that the incident with Shetty was "in the past" and she was "not proud of it". Two days into the show she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and immediately withdrew, flying home to England. Scenes of Goody learning of her diagnosis were not broadcast in India.

A reality-television documentary, Living With Jade Goody, was shown in September 2008 as part of the Living With... series on Living TV. In October she opened her second beauty salon, "Homme Fatel" (for men), and her second autobiography (Jade: Catch A Falling Star, covering her time on Celebrity Big Brother 5) was published by John Blake Publishing. A documentary film, Jade's Cancer Battle, was aired on 11 December with further shows planned if Goody could participate. At the end of 2008 she played the Wicked Queen in a Christmas pantomime version of Snow White at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln to critical praise, but withdrew from the production in January 2009 for health reasons.

Personal life

Goody had two sons during her 2002 to 2004 relationship with television presenter Jeff Brazier; Bobby, who was born in June 2003 and Freddy, who was born in September 2004. In 2006, she began a relationship with Jack Tweed, who appeared with her on Celebrity Big Brother. Tweed lived with Goody and her children in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, until his imprisonment. He served four months of an 18-month sentence before his release on 27 January 2009, with electronic monitoring and a curfew. Goody and Tweed exchanged rings on 15 February in a private, informal ceremony on the banks of the River Thames, and they married on 22 February at Down Hall country house. Goody wore a £3,500 Manuel Mota dress, a gift from Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed. The couple signed an exclusive £700,000 deal with OK! magazine for photographs of the ceremony, and Tweed was exempted from his curfew for 22 and 23 February.

Illness

Goody had a number of health scares during the 2000s. In 2002 (shortly before her Big Brother 3 appearance) a cervical smear test revealed abnormal cells, a possible indicator of cancer. She was tested for iridocyclitis in 2004 and bowel cancer in 2006, with negative results for each. Goody had hospital tests in early August 2008, after her fourth cancer scare; she had collapsed four times. On 19 August, while she was on the Indian reality show Bigg Boss, Goody was told that test results confirmed cervical cancer. According to her spokesperson, "It looks like her cancer is at an early stage but we will have to wait until she gets back to Britain and sees a specialist and has more tests".

On 1 September 2008, it was reported that Goody's cancer was "advanced and life-threatening" and she would have surgery followed by chemotherapy. Doctors gave her a 65 per cent chance of survival. Further tests and a radical hysterectomy "went well", according to her publicist, and Goody began chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In an interview with Irish broadcaster RTÉ, Goody said she had begun planning her funeral, was losing her hair and had decided not to explain her illness to her children, aged 4 and 5 at the time.

On 4 February 2009, Goody's publicist, Max Clifford, confirmed that her cancer had spread to her liver and bowel. A previous 40 per cent chance of survival was withdrawn, and she began treatment to prolong her life. On 7 February, Clifford reported that Goody had emergency surgery in London to remove a tumour on her bowel.

On 14 February, Clifford confirmed media reports that doctors at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London had classified her cancer as terminal; she could die within weeks, and at best was unlikely to survive more than a few months: "She was informed yesterday that tragically, she's terminally ill. She was obviously devastated." Goody then began drawing up a will and planning for the care of her two sons.

On 5 March in the Royal Marsden Hospital, Goody asked to be baptised; two days later, she and her sons were christened. Clifford confirmed that this was her last public appearance, and she had already said her goodbyes to her family: "We're hoping and praying that Jade pulls through, but the fact of the matter is that she now only has a short time to live." He confirmed that during the next 24 hours her doctors could assess how long Goody had to live, but she had a very short time left in any case. Jack Tweed was allowed to extend his curfew, spending a last night with his wife before she said goodbye to the rest of her family.

When the news spread that Goody's cancer was terminal, medical authorities in the UK began reporting a surge in requests from women (particularly younger women) for cervical-cancer screening. This reversed a trend which had seen demand for screening decline over the past decade, with the greatest decline among women aged 25–29.

As a result of the publicity surrounding Goody's illness, on 13 March 2009 government health ministers agreed to review the National Health Service policy not to screen for cervical cancer until age 25 in England (age 20 in the rest of the UK). That day, she issued a press release that she was "immensely proud" to have prompted the review.

Death

Goody died in her sleep at her home in Upshire, Essex in the early hours of 22 March 2009, at the age of 27. Her reported time of death varies by source. Her mother, husband, and family friend Kevin Adams were at her bedside when she died. Her funeral service took place at noon on 4 April at St John the Baptist Church in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, and she was buried in her wedding dress later that day near her home in Epping Forest. The funeral cortège included a Bentley. Her sons did not attend the funeral. Thousands of mourners followed the funeral service on large screens outside the church. It was broadcast live on Sky News, which followed the service from outside since Goody had wanted a private ceremony for friends and family.

Media coverage

Tributes

A car in Goody's funeral procession in The Blue, with East Angula [sic] spelt out in flowers

Goody's death was widely covered by the British media, and the BBC was criticised for its extensive coverage of her illness. She received tributes from many different areas of society. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that she was "a courageous woman both in life and death and the whole country has admired her determination to provide a bright future for her children". From 2009 to 2012, Sky Living aired five tributes to Goody, documenting her early life, fame, and final months. The final episode of Big Brother on Channel 4 featured a 15-minute tribute, praising her as the ultimate Big Brother contestant.

In April 2009 Digital Spy called Goody the "ultimate reality TV star", and plans were announced for Jade the Musical. That month Michael Parkinson wrote that Goody had become media property "to be manipulated and exploited till the day she died", representing "all that is paltry and wretched about Britain". On 29 December 2009 The Independent reported that, according to an online tribute site, Goody was the most-mourned celebrity of 2009 and received over 600 tributes, which was more than Patrick Swayze, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson who had all died that year too. The premiere of Big Brother 10 was dedicated to her memory, and a tribute was shown on the last episode of Ultimate Big Brother.

A show aired from 7 to 21 August 2019 documenting her life from her rise to fame to her death featuring never before seen footage and contributors to the programme who had never discussed Jade publicly since her death including Davina McCall, Dermot O'Leary and her ex-partner and father of her children, Jeff Brazier.

Cervical cancer awareness

In October 2009 it was reported that the number of women between 25 and 64 having pap testing the United Kingdom had grown by 12 per cent during the previous year, an increase (after year-to-year declines since 2002) credited to Goody's public battle with cervical cancer.

According to Health Secretary Andy Burnham, "Jade's bravery and openness in her fight against cervical cancer has brought home to young women across the country the importance of regularly going for these checks." Gordon Brown stated, "Her family can be extremely proud of the work she has done to raise awareness of cervical cancer which will benefit thousands of women across the UK."

Filmography

Books

• Jade: My Autobiography

Fitness DVDs

• Jade's All New Diet (with Steve Kemsley, 2003)
• Jade (with Steve Kemsley, 2004)
• Jade's Workout/Workout with Helen – The "Girls" from Big Brother (with Helen Adams, 2004)
• The Big Brother Collection: Jade's Dance Workout, Dance Workout with Helen Adams and Latino Dance Workout with Nadia (2005)
• Jade's Shape Challenge (2006)

See also

In Spanish: Jade Goody para niños