Jeff Brazier has candidly discussed how he leaned on the support of his mum to help raise his sons following the tragic death of Jade Goody.
The 45-year-old TV host is the proud dad of EastEnders and Strictly star Bobby Brazier, 21, and 19-year-old Freddy. Fans recently saw Jeff and Freddy travel around South America as part of the hit BBC reality show Celebrity Race Around The World - with the duo bonding on the unforgettable trip.
Now Jeff has reflected on the difficult years following the devastating death of former partner Jade - who passed away in 2009 at the age of 27 when Bobby was five and Freddy was just four. Jeff and Jade had split in 2004, and he found himself suddenly raising the boys as a single dad.
Now the star has explained how he was able to rely on his mum to help care for his kids while he earned a living for them. Opening up on Laura Hamilton's new podcast, titled Mile Fly Club, Jeff cast his mind back to those challenging days.
READ MORE: Space NK unveils beauty advent calendar worth over £1,200 but costs £250
He said: "I wasn't [in a relationship] with Jade [when she died], so I didn't feel like I really had the right to make it about me in the slightest, even though I knew I was the one who was holding the weight of the responsibility of bringing the kids up and what that meant and knowing that, you know, obviously there was a public interest in it as well.
"But my mum was incredible, as was my auntie, Leslie. I always have to mention that, because my mum went so far as moving home to actually support us in those early years when I really needed help. I was working [on] This Morning, sort of two or three days a week at the time with other stuff, and I was really grateful at the time."
He added: "I remember just thinking this is amazing that my mum can do the school drop and I'll always be home to pick them up, and I know a lot of kids wouldn't see their parents that much. But I knew there and then that that was a sacrifice that I was gonna have to make, in that it wasn't about working all the hours. In fact, I I made sure that I didn't do that.
"I made sure that what I did was reasonable, so that I had a balance between bringing these boys up and being present which I knew was going to be really, really important, and going out and working and whatever else comes into it."
Jeff also confessed the grief he experienced over Jade's death didn't fully hit him until years after she passed away. He explained: "I didn't start coping with it I don't think, until maybe seven or eight years later, when I started having therapy. At the time I remember doing what is quite typical, really, and that is that I made it all about the kids."
Laura Hamilton's Mile Fly Club podcast, produced by Studio Bolt, is available to listen to via all major audio streaming services and can also be viewed and subscribed to via
Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , and Threads.
