Bobby Brazier will be dancing for the Strictly glitterball tonight… But a family feud means his beloved grandmother hasn’t been invited. So what’s behind the rift?
Just a few months ago, Jackiey Budden chose new paint and wallpaper to redecorate the modest-sized bedroom at her tiny council flat which is set aside for her beloved grandsons.
A gesture that will resonate with any doting grandmother, she excitedly described her plans to her friends. She couldn’t wait to see their smiles, she said.
To make her endeavours all the more poignant, the bedroom, in Bermondsey, South-East London, was the one where her daughter, the inimitable star of Big Brother Jade Goody, used to sleep as a child.
Sadly, neither Bobby nor Freddy Brazier have slept in the room for years — and may never again, even though it was once a place of solace for them following their mother’s death from cervical cancer at 27 in 2009, when they were aged just three and four.
And if that isn’t agonising enough, tonight the 66-year-old will have no choice but to watch her oldest grandson Bobby — the breakout star of Strictly this year — compete for the glitterball from her sofa.
Spotlight: Bobby Brazier with Strictly partner Dianne Buswell
Jade Goody’s mum Jackie Budden lays a heartbreaking tribute at her late daughters grave after being banned from watching her son Bobby at Strictly Come Dancing, December 13
Jade Goody with her son Bobby at her ‘Jade’ book signing in Bournemouth, May 19. 2006
Despite attempts to make peace with their father, Jeff Brazier, she has not had an invitation to the BBC studios to see the finals.
Sources familiar with both sides of the feud say that Jeff, 44, doesn’t want Jackiey there after a bitter row broke out between them some years ago.
READ MORE: Strictly star Bobby Brazier says he is ‘flattered’ by Harry Styles and Mick Jagger comparisons but admits he’s got a long way to go before taking on Hollywood – as partner Dianne Buswell predicts he’s destined for greatness
The fallout has robbed her of her once-close relationships with her grandchildren — the only link she has to her late daughter and a situation, say those familiar with both parties, that would leave Jade ‘absolutely distraught’.
In recent weeks, it has come to a head after Jackiey was left upset and angry that Jeff has been using 20-year-old Bobby’s allocation of audience tickets for himself, his wife Kate — with whom he was recently reconciled after splitting last year — and, of course, Freddy, 19. Not once throughout the 12-week run of the BBC One programme has she been given the opportunity to go.
She wasn’t even there two weeks ago when Bobby performed a tear-jerking ‘couples’ choice’ dance to Maxwell’s This Woman’s Work in memory of his mother. Neither did she feature in the pre-recorded clip before the performance where Bobby paid tribute to Jade. Jeff, however, had a starring role.
For Jackiey, it stung. Of course it did. Never one to hold back when it comes to expressing her frustration at the multiple poor hands she’s been dealt in life, she lashed out publicly at her daughter’s former partner with a few choice words.
Yet, ever the optimist, Jackiey still holds the faintest of hope that she might be invited to tonight’s finale, when EastEnders actor Bobby will again perform his tribute to Jade with his professional partner Dianne Buswell.
The pair will also recreate their samba to Candi Staton’s Young Hearts Run Free, as well as a medley dance to music from the 2016 movie, La La Land.
But Jeff is resolute. A source tells me: ‘It’s non-negotiable, Jackiey isn’t going to Strictly.
‘He thinks Jackiey is a bad influence on the boys and wants Bobby to be able to concentrate on Strictly without the worry that his outlandish nan will create a fuss while he’s live on television.’
Bobby faces former Coronation Street actress Ellie Leach and West End star Layton Williams in the final on Saturday night as the last remaining contestants compete for the Glitterball
BBC viewers have likened the EastEnders actor to Sir Mick at the same age because of his snake-hips, pout, and dynamic stage presence (November 18, 2023)
However, a friend of Jackiey’s tells me: ‘She is desperately heartbroken. While she recognises that she is not the most conventional grandmother, she loves those boys and has been there for them since the day they were born.’
In a final, desperate gesture this week, Jackiey made an emotional trip to Jade’s grave in Epping Forest, Essex.
There, as she fought back tears, she placed a picture of her eldest grandson performing his tribute dance, attached to a Christmas decoration, on her daughter’s headstone. Typed on the photograph were three simple words: ‘Doing Jade proud.’
There were other pictures of Bobby and his younger brother Freddy as children.
It was, I’m told, a ‘super emotional’ day for Jackiey. One friend said: ‘She wants more than anything to show Bobby that she is thinking of him on what is most certainly the biggest day of his career. If she can’t be there to watch him in person, Jackiey still wants to show her love and support and this was the only way she knew how.
‘She also wanted to get Jade’s voice out there. She wanted to make sure it was remembered that Bobby was Jade’s son as well as Jeff’s. She is the boys’ only link to Jade and she doesn’t want that forgotten.’
How the gesture was received by Jeff is unknown, but it’s unlikely to have done anything to thaw relations between the two.
So what exactly is the reason for the rift?
Jackiey, a former drug addict who has the use of only one arm following a motorbike accident, has been open about her failings as a mother, raising Jade on benefits in an often chaotic — and sometimes abusive — one-parent household.
Jade managed to make a virtue of her ‘rough diamond’ survivor image and won hearts.
Despite finishing in fourth place in the 2002 Big Brother series, she became one of its biggest and most memorable stars.
She met former professional football player Brazier shortly afterwards. Their relationship lasted barely two years, but produced their two sons: Bobby in 2003 and Freddy in 2004.
Although the couple never explained the reason for their split, Jeff later hinted that their life in the public spotlight — Jade became the first reality TV multi-millionaire — played its part.
‘It made a difficult situation impossible,’ he said.
Jade was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2008, and died the following year, shortly after marrying her boyfriend, electrician Jack Tweed, in a ceremony paid for by OK! Magazine.
For Jackiey, losing her only daughter was simply devastating. She’d cared for Bobby and Freddy as babies while Jade worked — she was the most in-demand British reality star — and continued to do so as her health failed.
When it became apparent that she wasn’t going to survive, Jackiey promised her daughter that she would always be there for the boys. Shortly after Jade’s death, she told me that she was never going to let them down and would love them until the end of her days.
Despite some of the Brazier boys’ friends today describing her as ‘bad nan,’ I know she absolutely meant it.
However, soon after losing their mother, Bobby and Freddy moved in with Jeff, who raised the boys as a single father, before marrying PR executive Kate Dwyer in 2018.
Jackiey, meanwhile, remained close to Jade’s widower Jack, something Jeff reportedly took a dim view of, and contact between the pair disintegrated.
Jeff always put the fall-out down to Jackiey buying the boys inappropriate presents, such as phones and even a hamster which he had to confiscate or give back.
He is also said to be concerned about Jackiey’s smoking habit around them.
‘There has been a huge breakdown in communication,’ said a source. ‘For a while Freddy was the go-between, but not any more. It’s quite simple: Jeff doesn’t want a row and Jackiey will most likely cause one.’
In 2021, Bobby confirmed in an Instagram video that he was back in contact with his grandmother after losing touch. Last year, they took part in a charity walk in Jade’s name together.
Bobby said of his grandmother at the time: ‘I didn’t see her for ages — for way too long — but I went to see her twice recently. And, honestly, if there’s one woman you shouldn’t underestimate, it’s my nan. Honestly, she’s like a wizard! It’s nuts.’
There was no such rapprochement with Jeff, however.
Sources say that she hasn’t spoken to Jeff for ‘a very, very long time’ and their most recent contact was through Freddy. Ever the protector, Jeff thinks he is doing the right thing for his sons.
Meanwhile, critics of Jeff accuse him of trying to ‘whitewash’ history and say that, by Bobby using his father’s surname in the public eye, any memory of Jade has been erased.
Indeed, many viewers had no idea of Bobby’s background when he started on Strictly.
Some sources believe that Jeff is trying to create Brand Brazier in the wake of Bobby’s success as an actor and model and now on Strictly.
He often talks about his son, who has been described as the ‘saviour’ of the BBC’ for his huge appeal to younger viewers, on social media.
When Bobby picked up his award for Rising Star at the National Television Awards in September, shortly after it was announced he would take part in Strictly, Jeff was in the Press room, schmoozing journalists and speaking of how he was in awe of his son’s success.
He is also said to be supportive of Freddy going into showbusiness, too, and is helping him assess offers of work.
Unknown to Jeff, however, Jackiey made sure she wasn’t totally excluded from the event: she was watching on at London’s O2 Arena after buying her own ticket.
She’d made the short trip from her home — two stops on the Jubilee line — with a friend and was said to be in tears as she watched her Bobby take to the stage to accept his award.
‘Jackiey wasn’t officially invited but there was no way that she wasn’t going to be there to watch that moment,’ said the friend.
‘Even back then she had hope that she would be invited to Strictly, she really thought she would be able to cheer him on.’
But as the clock ticks towards the Strictly final tonight, it’s an ever-more unlikely dream for Jackiey.
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