Jade Goody- Once A Bright Star But Now A Lost One

A misinterpreted and a victimised soul.

Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody, a British reality TV celebrity. She came from a broken home. Her mother raised her and her brother, all by herself when her father became unable to be the breadwinner of their family. Her father was a drug addict and a habitual criminal who served prison sentences including a four-year term robbery. And, suddenly her parents separated when she was just a toddler. One day, Goody’s father died of a drug overdose at 42.

Jade’s mother, Jackiey Budden, made efforts and strived to raise her kids but had to give away her son as an adopted child to another couple. So, Jade and her brother never grew together.
During her childhood, she was always recognized as a bully amongst her classmates. Her childhood was tough and concocted. High school classmates accused of her being an insolent and was expelled from college after biting part of the ear off of one of her fellow classmates. Due to a disturbed past, her failure to behave in a much healthier way was not so evident and no surprise either. She had harsh times in her life while growing up which even reflected on her life too.

As a dental nurse she was serving at a local hospital that she appeared on Big Brother 3 in 2002, letting her come under public spotlight. The British tabloids made her a target of criticism and ridicule when she displayed a severe lack of general knowledge for a British native. Goody also believed that Saddam Hussein was a boxer, and that Sherlock Holmes was the inventor of the toilet. Goody made many public displays by fronting her own reality TV shows and magazines. She also prepared for the London Marathon but could not finish the course and collapsed after 34 km of the whole track. She had to be rushed to the emergency after that.

Tabloid newspapers made that every bit to make her the centre of the furor by naming her ‘Miss Piggy’ and branded her a ‘big mouth’. The hate campaign launched against gained so much momentum that at the end she was targeted as ‘Enemy No. 1’.

As a participant in Big Brother 5, she had received 50,000 complaints from all over the world as she was accused of bullying and being racist towards fellow housemate Shilpa Shetty, the Indian actress. Being herself from a mixed race since her grandfather was a black from West Indies denied all the allegations. She tried to pacify the British and the Indian media specially, who had furiously accused of making derogatory remarks leading to the Celebrity Big Brother racism controversy. She also referred to Shetty as ‘Shilpa Fuckawalla’ and ‘Shilpa Poppadom’.
Goody said afterwards: “She is Indian, thinking of an Indian name and only thing I could think of was Indian food. Wasn’t racial at all. It was not to offend any Indian out there. Cleo Rocos to Shetty: “I don’t think there’s anything racist in it.” Shetty: “It is, I’m telling you. However Shetty later changed her opinion stating “I don’t feel there was any racial discrimination happening from Jade’s end... I think that there are a lot of insecurities from her end but it’s definitely not racial,” Shetty said in the show’s diary room. The incident created an international outcry, gaining heavy coverage in the Indian media. Gordon Brown, then British Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was visiting India at the time, condemned the programme on the grounds that he is against anything which might damage the perception that Britain is a country of tolerance. In a statement on 17 January Channel 4 defended the programme against charges “of overt racism or racial abuse”. Goody was evicted from the Big Brother house. She finished 2002 being voted 4th worst person in Britain in the poll 100 Worst Britons

She was a broken toy which had become a thing or a headline to ridicule about. On May 2nd 2006, Goody released her autobiography titled Jade: My Autobiography and after that she let her own line of perfumes too. They were later taken of the shelves when she created a negative impression of herself to the world.

After the whole international racist uproar against her, Goody confessed to the media that the alleged racial overtones were a mere result of stupidity out of her. She even proposed to come over to India and pay a visit to Shilpa in a much friendlier hint. It was regarded as a joke until Jade Goody decided to apply for an Indian visa immediately after being evicted from the show. On the show itself, which was the Indian version of BB, Big Boss, she came to know that that she had cervical cancer and it looked like a one at its early stage. Goody was so despised of the Internet rumors instantly started circulating about how this was a publicity stunt.

Jade’s doctors called her back and asked her to undergo chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a radical hysterectomy to which her publicist Max Clifford confirmed. He said that the cancer has become terminal and has spread to her liver, groin and bowel. The celebrity who had become an example of a survivor to the common man that any man can become famous and rich irrespective of her intelligence, opportunity, class, race or background. But now, the survivor had become a victim. She was in constant pain, going bald and waiting for her death but with tranquility with her family around. She withdrew from the hospital and chose to die at her place. She died in her sleep at her Upshire, Essex House.

She had become like an entertaining toy to the general mass that was all in the newspapers, tabloids and telly for all her nuisance and criticisms. But now she is making us all feel bad because she is dead. So, we want her to go away. Like a broken toy, she is of no fun now but an issue to lament on.