The former boyfriend of Jade Goody, who clashed with Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother two years ago, has offered to marry the former reality television star as his final St Valentine's Day gift after the mother of two was told yesterday by doctors that her cancer is terminal
The former boyfriend of Jade Goody, who clashed with Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother two years ago, has offered to marry the former reality television star as his final St Valentine's Day gift after the mother of two was told yesterday by doctors that her cancer is terminal.
Jack Tweed, 21, who was in prison for violently attacking a youth, was released early on compassionate grounds and intends to stand by Jade during her last days, he told her standing by her hospital bed yesterday.
It is understood that Jade, 27, and Tweed, who have had an on-off relationship, intend to marry as soon as possible.
Jade's spokesman, Max Clifford, said: "She was informed yesterday that tragically, she's terminally ill. She was devastated."
Jade, whose sons, Bobby and Freddie, fathered by Jeff Brazier, another television personality, are now five and four respectively, added more recently: "I don't want to die because I have so much to live for. The reality is I have gone from a 40 per cent chance of a cure to seeing how long I can stay alive."
Goody, who is being treated at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, London, had a golf ball-sized tumour removed during lengthy surgery last Friday.
According to Clifford he once acted for Shilpa until his services were terminated by the Bollywood actress's mother Jade was informed by doctors informed that her cervical cancer had spread to her bowel, liver and groin.
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Jade was now working to put her legal affairs in order as she faced up to the harsh reality of her condition.
A girl from a broken home and with little formal education, Jade is now recognised as being the classic creation of reality television. In a piece, 'Jade Goody, a broken toy we made and want no more', commentator India Knight wrote sympathetically about Jade in the Sunday Times last week: "No allowances were made for the fact that Goody, who is mixed race, was the first underclass television celebrity. Her father was an addict and a criminal; he served time for robbery and died of an overdose aged 42. Her mother (Jackiey) is a one-armed lesbian who used to be addicted to crack."
Another writer, Joan Smith, suggested in the Independent that "Jade's history may have cost her life itself". She argued in essence that those who live by reality television can die, literally as it has turned out in Jade's case, by reality television.
"The lack of education that made her a laughing stock seven years ago has shortened her life, and you would have to be very callous indeed not to see that as a tragedy," noted Smith. "For years, Ms Goody was treated as a semi-house-trained pet, willing to perform without fully comprehending the malicious pleasure she evoked. It wasn't just Big Brother fans who laughed at her ignorance of basic geography; gleeful commentators claimed her as a symbol of the worst aspects of working-class culture, as though people from her background are congenitally stupid. In fact, far from being stupid, Ms Goody made the most of an unexpected opportunity."
