Jade Goody’s decision to allow filming of the end of her life. Right or wrong?
Clicking on this image will take you to the touching Daily Mail article about Jade & Jack's engagement
The image above from the Daily Mail is without doubt the most touching, truthful and painfully sad depictions of Jack and Jade’s love that I’ve ever seen. The picture captures the desperately sad fact that despite their love for each other, they know they don’t have a long future, and it makes me weep every time I look at it simply because of the immense honesty of the picture.
And Jade Goody is, among many other things, honest; often painfully so. At one time, I would have said that honesty was born from the lack of sufficient intelligence to lie or carry out a deceit because as I’ve mentioned in my articles about Jade on this site before, when she first shot to fame on Big Brother in 2002, I couldn’t stand her.
I thought she typified the ‘chav’ type of young woman; loud-mouthed, inarticulate, crass, vulgar… in fact, I thought she was exactly what she portrayed herself to be – the ill educated product of a broken, dysfunctional family who lived on state benefits on a rough council estate. The fact that she seemed to be proud of – or at least not embarrassed by – “being thick” embodied for me many of the things that I felt were wrong with young people in this country today…
Here’s a collection of clips of Jade during her appearance on Big Brother 3…
Jade’s childishness and childlike persona on BB irritated the hell out of me and for a while, I thought it was all an act; her ‘thing’ was being thick and silly and vulgar, just as the lovely Brian Dowling’s ‘thing’ was to be funny and revolting Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace’s ‘thing’ was to be a repellent dog.
What I didn’t know initially is that her childlike behaviour on BB was probably simply because she didn’t have one at a time when that kind of behaviour would have been appropriate to have. While other children attended and/or dodged school, Jade would be doing housework or rolling joints for her drug-addicted mother, Jackiey. The police were frequent visitors to their home and Jade spent a great deal of time in and out of social services care.
Jade’s father was also a drug addict who, it’s alleged, used to “stash guns” beneath his daughter’s cot. He died from a heroin overdose in a KFC restaurant bathroom. “One of the classiest exits in history” remarked Jade of her father’s demise.
Now Jade is herself facing her ‘exit’ and is doing so unashamedly publically. As she told many media outlets, “I’ve lived in front of the cameras. And maybe I’ll die in front of them.”
Her decision to allow the end of her life to be filmed is not for the same reason that she joined the ranks of Big Brother housemates. She’s no longer a fame hungry wannabe but is now simply utilising the benefits that her original hunger for fame brought her.
However, whereas many ex-BB housemates have now faded into obscurity, their fifteen minutes of fame well and truly over, Jade, through good management, hard work and a dedication to capitalise on the opportunities that Big Brother afforded her has remained in the public eye.
Of course, that eye has often been a very critical one, and never more so than over the ‘race’ debacle when Jade and Jack Tweed appeared in the Celebrity version of Big Brother alongside Shilpa Shetty.
She wasn’t the only person involved in alleged racist comments of course; Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’Meara said just as many things that could have been – and were – construed as racist, however, the difference between those two and Jade is that Jade didn’t just crawl under the nearest stone, hoping it would all go away. She had the balls to apologise on camera… here’s a clip from just one of her many TV apologies.
And in fact, it was an attempt to build bridges over that event that prompted Jade to appear on India’s version of Big Brother, ‘Big Boss’, where as we know she received the news that she had cancer and that it needed treatment immediately. Here’s a clip from her reaction to that news on the show…
Since then, which was just six months ago, she – and we, through her reality TV series on Living – found out that she had advanced cervical cancer which had been ‘missed’ by doctors and her local hospital for three years and was, as we now know, at a point of no return.
OK, so all that is Jade’s potted televisual history which I’ve gone into such detail about not as some form of mini-biography, but simply because it provides the backdrop to the point of this article, which is to ask you if you believe it’s now time for Jade to step out of the public eye?
Should she live out the rest of her tragically short time in private, or, is she right to carry on doing what she’s been doing since 2002; that is, allowing her life to be filmed, scrutinised, commented upon and judged, albeit that it’s now for very different reasons?
As I mentioned earlier, she’s no longer simply fame hungry, she’s now a woman maximising her potential earnings to leave behind for her children.
Jade and her immediate circle of advisors and friends have all plainly and readily stated that the reason she intends to continue to be filmed right to the end is simply to make money; as much money as she possibly can in order that her boys can have a start in life that is infinitely better and world’s away from the one she herself had. Here’s what Max Clifford and Piers Morgan have had to say about this decision…
Jade wants her boys to have a private education and despite the fact that she believes many people will be critical of that decision, including the boys’ father Jeff Brazier, which decent mother doesn’t want the very best of everything for her children?
The very fact that she IS an excellent mother is something of a minor miracle, given the example she was set by her own mother. Through her fly-on-the-wall Living shows we’ve seen how devoted she is to her children and how she lavishes love upon them without turning them into ‘celeb brats’. In one of those shows, Jade said the main reason she was so determined to “beat the cancer” was because of her heartfelt belief that, “I’m the only person good enough to look after the boys” Sadly now, that’s no longer an option.
We’ve seen in the Living shows too how she’s forgiven her mum Jackiey for being a worse than useless mother to her in the past and equally, we’ve seen how Jackiey has been trying desperately hard to make up for all those past child-rearing misdemeanors by doing everything she can for her daughter now, when arguably, she needs her the most.
On Sunday, Jade will marry Jack Tweed and she wants Bobby and Freddy to be christened so they’ll be able to understand that there is a Heaven and will therefore believe their Mummy is looking down on them and watching over them.
I have nothing but respect for her decision to accumulate as much money for her boys as she possibly can. I just wish someone would give her the money she would have earned in return for nothing and allow her to enjoy her big day – and what are sure to be subsequent horrendous days – in privacy and peace… but dying sells. A celebrity dying sells even better, and how many of us, hand on heart, can say that we won’t watch or read anything about her last weeks? I know I can’t.
That said, Jade’s horrendous and very public plight has meant that literally thousands of women have now gone for smear tests which, without having heard about and watched her devastating story, they probably would not. As Max Clifford pointed out in the above clip, there’s been a 20% increase in young women demanding cervical smears, so she’s undoubtedly saved lives.
A sad footnote to her being under constant scrutiny is that she is very much conscious of what people might think of her. At one time, following the racism debacle, she couldn’t open her mouth without someone feeling the need to jump into it and right down her throat, which I commented on in a recent article.
In the latest of her fly-on-the-wall Living shows, Jade said of her bald head and generally changed appearance due to her cancer, “There might be people out there that think I look horrible, but I don’t think I look horrible, so I’ve still got a little bit of confidence. I’m fighting for my feminine, feminivity, feminivity, femma, femma, whatever – fighting for that.”
On the subject of the arrangements for their wedding this Sunday, Jack said, “She’s done it all from a little laptop. Booked the place, got all the catering, got a helicopter for herself.
“I helped her pick the food earlier. Well, I didn’t, I listened to her pick the food earlier.”
Here’s a clip from the latest Living show which also has footage of a frail looking Jade leaving the Royal Marsden…
On her big day, Jade will be wearing a £3,500 cream and ivory silk gown which was given to her as a gift by Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed. The dress will need to be ‘customised’ to allow the concealed containment of Jade’s pain relief medications. We heard last night too how Jade wept when she tried her dream wedding dress on while she was in hospital.
Pictures of Jack going down on one knee were offered for £10,000 and the wedding itself will earn Jade more than £1million from OK! magazine and LivingTV, a subject which was hotly debated earlier this week on Radio 4’s Today programme vis-à-vis the ‘taste’ – or lack thereof – of this paid coverage.
Much to his credit in my book, following the airing of that debate, the Prime Minister then felt behooved to speak out and he said of Jade, “Her determination to help her family is something that we’ve got to applaud” and he expressed his sympathies to Jade and her family on behalf of the nation.
So, we’d appreciate your views on this issue; is Jade right to capitalise on her fame – and her terribly tragic prognosis – for the sake of amassing money to leave to her children or should she live out her now regrettably short life in private? Let us know by leaving your comments below.
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I’m finding the whole Jade saga distasteful, the thought of her death being filmed and broadcast sick.
Why can’t she die with some dignity?
Today (22FEB) she is getting married in a massive media circus, I think this is also sick.
Yep a lot has to said about how your brought up..as im just finding
out myself.
As to jade continuing filming until the end…Well, I dont think
it will happen, but if she decided to do it ,then I say let her.
She has a matter of weeks to live now. and considering how quick
all this has happened..I think she is a remarkable woman. I really dont think I could.. but thats what makes us all diffrent..I certainly dont think it sick! All she is doing is makeing sure her
sons are well looked after, after she has gone…what Mother wouldnt
want to do that!
She is making lots of money for her boys which is good. Max Clifford says filming will stop after the wedding their may be a interview with a magazine and Piers Morgan if she is well enough but she was never going to be filmed up to her death and this is just media hype.
I just hope that she sets up proper trust funds where her mum or Jack cannot touch them as I would not trust either of them. I am glad that she got her wedding day and is happy, personally this is not a marriage that would have lasted if she was not dying or maybe not even have happened but I hope it is a happy time for the rest of Jades life. Jade should be in charge of her last weeks/months/years whatever it is, but I hope now that she spends it with her boys and makes it a memorable time for her and them in private. To be honest where a lot of the media are concerned Jade will always be wrong whatever she does. I just wish her lots of happy times for however long she has left.
[...] Prepared For Wedding On Sunday Jade Goody prepares for wedding | vote tags: Tracking the Vote Jade Goody’s decision to allow filming of the end of her life. Right or w.. Jade Goody in Her Wedding Dress – Photo – FameCrawler Jade Goody prepares for wedding [...]
” MARRIAGE OF JADE GOODY” It is evident that these situations are propitious to create the most diversified polémicas. But I do not see reason to say that rapariga is passed of the head; quite to the contrary, I find it very courageous, and still well that it thus thinks and has courage to assume something that after entering in perpetual sleep never nothing has direction, and for the children a future leaves that can be promising. To who it badly finds to be remunerated by the presentation of the situations: marriage and death; it only sees who wants, and, if to an individual despite without having until any académica formation if they pay millions for giving kicks in a ball and that nothing it locks up of cultural, in these two acts will be able to see the attitudes mannering that to occur that they can be objecto of study for the people who if dedicate to the mannering inquiry of the human beings. I have penalty that I cannot contactar it to congratulate with its courage. But it is my intention and desire that it can, will be capable, to usufruct its last times in the way more pleasant than it is possible.
For it a great kiss. I have penalty of not being able to ask to it if it also had knowledge of the experience of its fellow citizen Jane Plant, who obtained, in terminal phase, to make to regredir its cancerígena illness today and as it says in its book, completely is cured, after being already convicted the certain death….
Give it a rest now please Jade, you are upsetting people who are dying with cancer.
Ijust can not believe how far a person would go. jade goodi dying, jade goodi making her dreams come true. What about other young mothers who dye and nobody hears about them?????. Who things about their children. Sometimes I don’t know what to think of all of this. Please stop because you are upseting people. I can’t believe there are journalists who can not stop writing about her.Do they ever think????….. or is it only about making money!!!!!!!! It’s sick.
jade can do no more everything that could be done for her boys,she has done,you have done well.jade should be left with her family and friends,( god bless)you will not be forgotten,
Anyone else using their *fame* till the end would be a disgrace, however Jade can get away with it because she’s not using it to make herself more ‘known’ She’s had a bad education. A drug addict father and complete disgrace of a mother. The only way she knows how to make big money is to sell stories. She knows that just one story regarding her death could keep her kids in private school for a long time. She never had the chance to do all this. She opened a beauty salon in Loughton which went bust but she tried to make a career for herself. How can she support her kids now? She can’t even stand up for long periods of time, this is her way of making sure her kids have a better life than her and good luck to her. If I was in her situation then I would do it too. What has she got left to lose? She’s being a good mum the best way she knows how.
I have been following Jade Goody’s story for a while now and been trying to contact her regarding her present situation, but I have no means of getting her contact number or e-mail address. I believe she can still be healed. With God nothing is impossible! When I read in the papers that she has been praying for a miracle, i have the encouragement to try to reach her through you. So,please pass this e-mail to her for her to contact me through my e-mail.
I have to say that i think that Jade and all of her family are remarkable.The commitment and love they are showing is wonderful to see it’s such a terrible shame that it is due to such awful circumstances. Jade is a wonderful, strong and very brave lady who deserves to decide for herself what she should do with the rest of her life. If she wishes it to be played out in the public eye then it is ultimately her decision and so it should be.She has done a wonderful thing to raise so much awareness and will hopefully save many womens lives by doing so. Jade is an absolute inspiration and that is exactly how she should be portrayed.
I’m not sure what any of us would do if we were put into a similar position as Jade, I only know that I would do anything for my kids, and if this is how Jade wants to do it by letting them film her to the end, then so be it. Remember if you dont like what she is doing then you dont have to watch it. There are all different types of death shown every day in the news, and some of them horrific, at the end the doctors will make sure she is comfortable and pain free, and that can only help a lot of people get over the fear of dying as well. I salutte you Jade for even thinking about it, you have been strong, vigilant and also a pain in the backside to a lot of people, but girl, have you put yourself in past and future history, so be well proud of that, God be with You and Yours.
i think that jade has done all she can. now she should stay withher family and live her last days with the people she loves.
god bless you jade.
x
DEAR JADE,PLEASE GET A SAINT BENEDICT CROSS,AND PRAY IF YOU CAN. I WILL BE PRAYING FOR YOU EVERY DAY.I STRONGLY BELIEVE IN YOUR CURE. XXXXXXX
Jade should do anything she wants in any way she wants. It’s her life to do with as she pleases. She doesn’t have long to live so I think she should be left to choose how she lives the rest of her life. I personally think she is fantastic for doing what she’s doing. Good on her for wanting the best for her children. If anyone of us were in the same situation had the ability to raise that kind of money for our children before we die we would do anything we could and I don’t believe anyone who says differently.
I also believe Jack should have his tag conditions lifted until after Jade has passed away. Not for him but for her. They only have one chance at a very short life together, let them enjoy it as best they can and give Jade the family life she has longed for.
I think Jade is the most honest, loving, caring person anyone could meet, it is her decision for the filming and to protect her children and to do the best she can with them, anyone would do the same, she is also saving thousands of lives by telling people to take the tests to prevent cancer. Jade you are wonderful, I only wish you had more time with your family and friends and suffer less pain. x x x
i think it is very sad bot jade it makes me want to cry all the time i think about her like she part of me n them lil boys its a sad time 4 jade an family we are thinking of u xxx
my heart goes out to jade and her family, its a tragic thing for anyone to go through, especially a young mum. I feel that perhaps its now time to move away from the spotlight and spend time with her children in privacy…. These children have to carry on with their lives even after there mum has passed away, their lives are in the public display, they will have to deal with the fact that thier mum has made herdeath a bi of a freak show now. As they got older other children will find out who they are and quite possibly be bullied because of it…. i have followed jades story but really feel she has done as much as she can for her children its now time tocherish the time she has left.
i am sad that jade hasent got long to live but its life
Cloe,
Imagine it was your life and you were leaving your babies – not so easy to say now is it!!
I admire & salute to Jade’s courage.
she is not doing this for the fun of it.. she is not using the cameras for fame!! she has openly admitted she wants to make as much money as she can for her boys, so to all those who put her down because the cameras are still on her, u need to get a grip an support and respect her reasons as she is doing no harm to anyone.. there is nothin sick in what she`s doing!! and to those call her for it, well i think its you`s who are the sick ones.. your a goody jade, much love to u xxx
Godbless you Jade…..You have helped doctors see the need to check on young women for ovarian cancer.and in the long run will save millions of lives..I admire the way you have organised everything from the wedding to your own funeral..My regards to you and your family and Godbless you Jade.xx
jade has made a big difference doin what she has done in this short time,she managed to get through to young women who delay having these smear tests for fear of embarresment.Im one of these women.Im 29, after reading and hearing about jade,jus thought too myself.get ya self checked for gods sake.whats one day compared to the end of a life. So i think people shud stop mocking her and start supporting her.Shes amazing, she really is. god bless u jade xx
donna says:
March 17th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
jade has made a big difference doin what she has done in this short time,she managed to get through to young women who delay having these smear tests for fear of embarresment.Im one of these women.Im 29, after reading and hearing about jade,jus thought too myself.get ya self checked for gods sake.whats one day compared to the end of a life. So i think people shud stop mocking her and start supporting her.Shes amazing, she really is. god bless u jade xx
jade i feel sorry for you diening at this early of age and you have to kids and you have made a big diffrence because the goverment might lower the age for smear tests and people should stop mocking you and start to help to support you r.i.p jade god bless jade xxx
i would say so many things to Jade she is an was so loved by everyone. Jake wish you all my love an the boys she will be watching you all . lots of love debbie xxxxxx R.I.P jade xxxxxx