As a father and son duo on the much-loved BBC show Celebrity Race Across The World, Jeff Brazier and his youngest boy Freddy won the hearts of millions of viewers.
Those watching were instantly endeared to sweet, good-humoured Freddy – who was, of course, left without a mother when reality TV star Jade Goody died from cervical cancer aged 27 in 2009.
Freddy was just four, his brother, Bobby, five.
It fell to Jeff, a television presenter who has since carved out a niche as a parenting expert on ITV’s This Morning, to bring Freddy and Bobby up as a single father.
And as Jeff and Freddy embarked on their trip to the Andes in southern Chile last year, fans watched how they bonded as the teenager tried to come to terms with his beloved mum’s death.
There were, even then, clearly fissures between the pair. A scene in the opening episode of the series showed Jeff walking away after Freddy claimed that their family don’t speak openly to each other.
As they struggled to navigate their journey through Brazil, both lost their tempers and Jeff stormed off. 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.’
At the time, their fallout was put down to the stresses and strains of filming in challenging locations.
Freddy, right, with Jeff on the BBC show Race Across The World. Freddy feels his father is trying to control his life and sabotage his independence
Today, however, nine months after the show, Freddy, now 20, is ready to break his silence.
And in this heart-wrenching, no-holds-barred interview with the Mail, he says he feels that his father is trying to control his life and sabotage his independence.
‘It feels to me like he only cares about his own image. He doesn’t think about anything that affects anyone else, not even his own sons. I don’t want to see him, and I won’t see him next week on Father’s Day either,’ a forthright Freddy declares. ‘But that’s because I feel like I’m being hung out. I don’t really deserve it.’
His words will surely be a body-blow to Jeff who, in the 16 years since Jade’s passing, has always seemed like a devoted father – lauded by onlookers for his remarkable fortitude.
Indeed, his relationship with his two sons has often seemed close.
Who could forget Jeff’s delighted and highly public cheers for Bobby as he sat in the Strictly audience every week while his popular son danced his heart out as a contestant in 2023?
Yet according to Freddy – an aspiring model who also reveals that he barely speaks to his EastEnders actor brother – Bobby and Jeff hardly have a relationship any more, either.
‘We are all barely speaking,’ says an emotional Freddy.
According to Freddy, Jeff hardly has a relationship with Bobby, pictured, despite his delighted and highly public cheers for his eldest son when he was a contestant on Strictly in 2023
At its root, the family rift appears to be exacerbated by Jeff launching a legal bid to stop Freddy from seeing his grandmother Jackiey Budden, Jade’s mother.
That the once close-knit family has been torn apart, says Freddy, is something that would have devastated his late mum, who would have turned 44 last Thursday.
‘Supposedly, he’s taking legal action to stop me from seeing my nana, but nothing will stop me doing that. She’s my family.
‘And my mum would be upset if she was here to see him doing that. He still tries to treat me like I’m 13. I’m 20 years old.
‘He doesn’t let me do anything for myself.
‘I did Race Across The World with my dad before we fell out, but only because he really wanted to do it – I didn’t,’ Freddy continues. It is, says privately educated Freddy, Jeff’s attitude to fame which has driven his sons away.
He claims Jeff has an ‘obsession with image and making money’ – which he feels might be the real reason behind his bid to stop Freddy from seeing Jackiey, who in the past has used heroin and cocaine. Freddy says: ‘It’s always all about image. It’s all about money. That’s why Bobby moved out of my dad’s place, too. He’s living in London now instead, doing his own thing.
‘Me and Bobby don’t speak much either. I sent him a message to wish him a happy birthday but that’s it.
‘I used to be the middleman between my dad and everyone. But now I can’t be bothered. I don’t care what happens. He’s the fiery one, I’m chilled out – I zone out and walk away when we argue.’
There are obviously two sides to every story and no doubt Jeff has his own views on this family fallout.
While Bobby is now living with friends in Soho, central London, Freddy has swapped Jeff’s house in Harlow, Essex, for his nan’s council flat in Bermondsey, south-east London, where his mother Jade grew up.
He says he wants to live a simpler life, close to his grandmother, his last link to his late mother – and away from his father’s rules.
He even sleeps in his mum’s childhood bedroom and it’s in this flat, he insists, where he can ‘live quietly, laugh, and be myself’.
Just last weekend, she and Freddy were seen smoking what appeared to be a joint – and Freddy thinks this doesn’t fit with the clean-cut image Jeff wants to portray.
Freddy adds: ‘With my nan, we do fun things. Like dancing videos. People think it’s just smoking because that’s what was in the papers, but I’ve got loads of videos of us laughing and messing about. We have proper fun.’
But his father, he says, disapproves of their bond.
‘He thinks me smoking weed is because she spends time with me,’ he explains. ‘But I didn’t start smoking with Nana. He seems to think I started smoking when I was 16 with her, but that’s not the case. It was years before that, with my mates. It’s just something we both like to do, so now we do it together sometimes.
‘I started smoking as a coping mechanism – because I just couldn’t handle what was going on in my life. It was stressful. Now I’m past that stage. It’s just something I enjoy. It gives me peace.’
But in a new effort to keep them apart, Jeff has sought legal advice and begun formal proceedings to attempt to block Jackiey and Freddy from seeing one another via the courts – claiming she is bad for his son’s mental health, despite him legally being an adult.
Freddy first learnt of his father’s efforts through newspaper reports, and says he has still not had an explanation or received any official notification of the proceedings – which he insists ‘are nonsense, it’s all just talk’.
He adds: ‘Even if there was a hearing or official letter or anything, I’m always going to see my nan. Injunction or not.
‘If I can’t see her here, we’ll go to another country. Amsterdam, Jamaica – doesn’t matter. She’s my family.’
Their family disagreements are longstanding, Freddy explains – detailing a string of complex incidents in which father and son have not seen eye-to-eye over the years which he admits have left long-lasting emotional scars.
He also says that there was an incident that took place some years ago which affected his life significantly, and he believes Jeff didn’t deal with it appropriately.
Further disagreements followed with his dad’s new wife, Kate Dwyer, who he has previously said he doesn’t like.
Freddy is unassuming, quiet and initially surprisingly shy as he chats over a hot chocolate at a restaurant close to his grandmother’s flat. And it’s immediately clear he wants to carve out his own path away from reality television – despite his famous parents – even turning down lucrative offers from one of ITV’s biggest shows.
He scoffs as he reveals how Love Island producers offered him a slot on the infamous dating show: ‘I’m on Instagram. I don’t need Love Island. I’ve got Love Island on my phone from my bed.
‘I need to do something without him [my dad]. I don’t want to be seen as “Freddy from Race with his dad.” I want to be known for something on my own.
‘I’m more interested in modelling. I’ve got some good opportunities coming up – but this stuff with my dad isn’t helping that.’
Still, it hasn’t been easy. Freddy has struggled with his mental health, even enduring periods under medical supervision and rehab in his teens. But he says those days are long behind him.
‘I’m not a risk any more,’ he says. ‘I had my sprees, my manic episodes… That’s past now.’
Instead of taking medication for his ADHD, Freddy self-manages his moods with cannabis, insisting it helps calm his brain and get him to sleep. He believes the media and public are too quick to judge a habit like his.
‘Other people on reality TV shows do far worse,’ he says. ‘But no one knows because it’s not in the papers. I’ve seen it myself.’
Jade Goody and her sons Bobby (left) and Freddie in 2006
Again and again, the conversation turns back to his grandmother: ‘She’s always been there. Always will be. And she’s the closest thing to my mum. Mum would be really upset if she knew he was trying to stop me seeing her.’
Asked whether he would welcome reconciliation with Father’s Day approaching, Freddy doesn’t hesitate. ‘I’m not bothered. I used to be, but I’ve been the middleman for so long. Now, I’ve picked a side. That’s the message. Just leave people alone to live their own lives.’
More than this, he plans to see his late mother’s former boyfriend, Jack Tweed, in what is likely to be seen as a brutal snub to his dad.
Earlier this week, Freddy was pictured with a glamorous love interest, TikTok and OnlyFans model Tasha Newcombe, with the pair planning a holiday together in Turkey later this month.
At the same time, his father was seen playing golf near his home – looking noticeably pensive as he took a phone call.
‘She’s really nice,’ Freddy says of Tasha – who has hundreds of thousands of social media followers. ‘She’s very supportive.
‘We’re having a good time at the moment – and she makes a fortune online doing her thing. She’s been good for me.
‘I’m in a good place. I just want to live my own life, quietly and happily, with the people who really matter. I have no plans to see my dad.’
