Inside the torment of Jade Goody's mum: KATIE HIND (2025)

Usually she would have spent Mother’s Day with her grandsons, the closest connection she has to her only child, Jade Goody.

She would nestle herself in the late reality televisions star’s old bedroom, maybe even watch one of her workout videos, with the boys she was once so close to.

Then they would visit Jade’s grave to pay their respects and remember her.

But Jackiey Budden‘s Mothering Sunday this year will be an even sadder one than usual because her relationship with her youngest grandson, Freddy, has been thrown into a turmoil.

His father, TV presenter Jeff Brazier, is said to be taking legal action to stop Freddy having any more contact with his grandmother.

While Jackiey is yet to receive any paperwork, and says she only learned about the move when she read about it in a newspaper, it feels particularly cruel, especially because the story landed just a day after the 16th anniversary of Jade’s death.

‘This is not fair,’ Jackiey told the Mail. ‘I’ve tried so hard with Jeff over the years, to keep the peace and to keep the family together and the boys close – I even send him a Christmas present every year, but he doesn’t appreciate it. He probably throws them in the bin.

‘All these years, I’ve been the closest thing to their mum,’ she says.

Jade became the stand-out star of Big Brother in 2002, with her relentless cheer and comical ignorance (she famously thought East Anglia was a foreign country), that saw her win hearts and attract ridicule in equal measure.

She died of cervical cancer, aged 27 in March 2007 when her two boys, Bobby - now a model and EastEnders actor, and who was a runner up in Strictly last year - was five, and his brother, Freddy, also a model, just four.

The boys then went to live with their father Jeff, from whom Jade was separated, and Jackiey became a hands-on grandmother, helping with childcare as he adjusted to life as a full-time single father.

Yet the two have clashed terribly over the years. Those close to Jeff say he’s sought legal advice in order to ‘keep Freddy safe from a relationship that has been incredibly detrimental to his well being for a long time now’.

‘The fact that he is going down this route shows how concerned we all our and how our efforts to keep Fred safe are being grossly undermined by other people.’

True, until very recently, Freddy did spend a lot of time with Jackie, 68 - a colourful character, to put it mildly.

A former drug addict, who lost the use of her left arm in a motorbike accident, she’s openly admitted smoking crack cocaine while Jade was a child, and in 2010 a video emerged of her taking cocaine.

Until very recently, Freddy regularly stayed with her in her two-bedroom council flat in Bermondsey, south east London - the flat where Jade grew up - and from where he’s posted a video on TikTok of him appearing to smoke cannabis.

It’s also true that Freddy has had his fair share of mental health problems: he posted another video online this week in which he spoke of having ADHD and bipolar disorder.

Yet Jackiey points out that Freddy is 20 now, and perfectly capable of making up his own mind about who he sees and accuses Jeff of using Freddy’s problems to forcibly drive a wedge between them after years of ill-feeling.

Jackiey is the first to admit she isn’t exactly a traditional grandmother and it’s true she has a hell of a past. Today she’s still brash and sweary. She still drinks and smokes cannabis - but clearly adores her grandsons.

Freddy returned to his father’s home in Essex ten days ago, after spending three weeks staying with Jackiey. It is understood that this was the last straw for Jeff, and is now taking legal advice as to how to keep them apart, permanently.

Yet Jackiey insists her flat is a place of sanctuary for Freddy, and the two get on well: ‘My house is safe for Freddy, and it always has been since he was little.

‘The boy is an adult now, and Jeff treats him like he’s ten. It made sense seven years ago when Freddy was still 13 when Jeff first tried to stop him from seeing me, but now he’s 20 years old.

‘What possible basis does he have? And do you know what? He’s a clever boy Freddy. He’s not stupid.’

It is certainly a sad state of affairs for Jade’s legacy. When she was alive, her millions of fans saw Freddy and Bobby as cherubic toddlers emblazoned across the cover of celebrity magazines, posing next to their proud, beaming mother.

Indeed, the brothers melted hearts in their mother’s wedding photos where they served as page boys as she married boyfriend Jack Tweed a week before she died.

To be fair to Jeff, he did step up as a single father, putting provisions in place to protect his sons’ privacy and it was not until 13 years later that we saw them again, with Bobby, 21, winning a role on BBC soap EastEnders and latterly a place on Strictly where he made the final with professional dancer Dianne Buswell.

Relations between Jeff and Jackiey had soured so badly by this point, however, that she was forced to watch from home after Jeff banned her from the audience at Elstree studios, fearing she’d cause a scene.

Bobby and Jackiey’s relationship has also cooled recent years. She says she rarely sees him nowadays, which is quite the contrast to the days before he found fame. In his teens he had a job at the Shard at London Bridge, a little over a mile from Jackiey’s home, and she would take him a packed lunch every day to save him money.

Meanwhile, aspiring model Freddy starred alongside his dad on Celebrity Race Across The World last year where their fractious relationship was laid bare for the show’s viewers to see.

In one shocking scene Jeff, 45, stormed off after Freddy claimed the family did not speak openly to each other and as result he ‘keeps quiet’.

Freddy told the cameras: ‘Part of me came on this race to open up with my dad and already he’s storming off. That’s not good. He might not like what I say, I’m just trying to talk to him really but it’s hard.’

But the secret feud between the pair is not merely a case of squabbles over getting home late or disagreements over suitable girlfriends, but something that runs significantly deeper.

The Mail can reveal that there were incidents during Freddy’s teens which those who know the family say have contributed to the difficulties that he experiences as a young man today.

For legal reasons we cannot divulge them, but they are at the very heart of the fall-out between Jeff and Jackiey.

She is furious at how she says Jeff dealt with what has happened to his son, and accuses him of not wanting the ‘gloss to come off of the Brazier brand’ which has seen Jeff elevate himself from a barely-known reality TV show contestant to an in demand television host on shows such as This Morning.

Whatever the truth, Freddy’s problems were obvious this week when he posted a shocking clip on TikTok, to raise awareness for epilepsy - which he doesn’t have - saying: ‘Seizures or any illness shouldn’t be made a joke or something to laugh about,’ he shared in the footage which was filmed in September.

‘Me myself, I suffer from serious mental health and I’ve got ADHD and bipolar, and it’s not nice when people want to belittle you or talk down on you because of it.’

Any parent - or grandparent - would be distraught at seeing a young man so vulnerable.

Those who know the Braziers say that Freddy has ‘been through hell’ and Jackiey says she has done her best to cheer her grandson up. He would always visit her at weekends, particularly after Jeff got together with wife Kate, a PR director, whom he met on This Morning in 2013, and married five years later.

Jackiey says she would take Freddy to bingo or go-karting, but knowing how it angered his father, he’d often visit in secret.

‘Freddy used to lie to Jeff about where he was, but about a year and a half ago I asked, ‘Does your Dad know you’re here?’ and he just replied, ‘Yes,’ and said he was sick of lying about it.

‘I’m not condemning Freddy, he’s a lovely boy. He’s very vulnerable and thinks everyone is his friend. He would accept [people] as his friend, and then they’d turn their backs on him.’

Jackiey, is adamant that she will fight Jeff all the way, so she can keep seeing her grandson.

She insists that she will see him in court, adding: ‘I’ll say absolutely everything - I won’t hold back. I could ruin him if I wanted to. Jeff is still riding on my Jade’s coattails, even now. I’ve texted him and told him what I think.

‘I told him, ‘You’ve got the wrong person here.’ But I’ll always be here for Freddy, and he’ll be back soon enough. And I still speak to Bobby too - I have more communication with my two boys than Jeff has any idea about, and if they ever want to talk to me, they will, and I’ll be there.’