Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody was born on June 5, 1981, in London, England. Her childhood was very difficult, in part due to the estranged relationships between family members. Her father, Andrew Goody, suffered from a drug addiction that separated him from the rest of the family and would eventually claim his life. Jackiey Budden, Goody's mother, had problems of her own. She gave up Goody's brother for adoption, and then an accident impeded her memory and made her right arm useless, forcing Jade Goody to drop out of school at age 5 to care for her.
Though she made it into adulthood in one piece, Jade Goody faced new challenges. She was holding a job as a dental assistant, but her then boyfriend was abusive, her finances were in shambles and she was concerned for her mother's well being. As her significant debt wasn't going away, as a means of change, Goody applied to be on the third installment of the British reality series, Big Brother.
jade goody on big brother 3
In 2002, Jade Goody was accepted as a contestant on Big Brother 3 and immediately made an impact. As the youngest contestant in the history of the show, she said as she pleased, professed her love of shopping and rum, stripped naked on-camera, and got mixed up in sexual shenanigans with a fellow contestant. She finished a surprising fourth on the show and became a fan favorite.
Jade Goody's run on Big Brother paid off her debt and bought her a fame ticket that even she hadn't expected. She appeared on other reality spin-offs and game shows like Celebrity Driving School, Wife Swap, The Weakest Link, and Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen. The LivingTV network also created a series of shows such as Jade's Salon, Jade's P.A. and Just Jade that followed Goody in her new career endeavors. A beauty salon called Ugly's, a perfume named Shhh…, a book (Jade: My Autobiography), and a weekly Now column all made Jade Goody a millionaire and a British pop culture fixture. A 2007 poll by the magazine Heat placed her 25th on the list of the world's most influential people.
jade goody on celebrity big brother 5
In 2007, Jade Goody returned to Big Brother for the fifth celebrity series in a house that also included Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. The two of them were almost immediately at odds, and some of Jade Goody's comments toward the actress incited cries of racism. In time, the viewers had to vote one of the two from the house, and 82% sent Jade Goody packing.
The controversy from the show put a damper on the past success of Jade Goody's reality TV career, but after releasing her newest perfume, Controversial, she tried to make amends by appearing on Bigg Boss, an Indian spin-off of Big Brother. Jade Goody's stay on the show proved to be short-lived when she was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer. Despite her failing health, she still appeared in a theater production of Snow White, opened yet another salon, released a new book, and bravely detailed her cancer battle on a special called Living With Jade Goody. On March 22, 2009, just a month after marrying Jack Tweed, Jade Goody passed away. Her funeral attracted thousands of mourners, and her legacy will live on through her two sons, Bobby and Freddie.