Bobby Brazier left his doting dad Jeff in tears last night when he accepted the award for Rising Star at the National Television Awards.
As he took to the stage to accept his award at the glitzy event on 5 September, the EastEnders actor thanked his dad for all of his support of the past two decades.
“This actually has very, very, very little to do with me and everything to do with my dad,” 20 year old Bobby explained. “Over the course of the last 20 years I've consistently heard him say, 'Because I can', it was a mantra or a motto of his, and him just saying that, 'Because I can!' you know, why not?”
Bobby’s mum Jade Goody tragically died from cervical cancer in 2009 when she was just 27 years old and Bobby and his brother Freddie have since been raised by their dad Jeff. At the time of her death, Bobby was only five years old and his brother was four.
Throughout the years, 44 year old Jeff has opened up about the experience of losing his ex-partner and has praised Jade for the “strength” and “selflessness” she had to tell her sons what was happening.
“That's strength. To tell the truth and to actually be able to say, not just for her benefit, but for theirs as well,” he told Giovanna Fletcher on her Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast in 2019.
“She needed to say that for them. It was the most selfless thing that I think I have ever seen anyone do.”
In the wake of Jade’s death, Jeff qualified as a grief counsellor and later wrote the book The Grief Survival Guide: How To Navigate Loss And All That Comes With It to help others going through bereavement - something he says has affected how he parents.
“It gives you a bit of a toolbox you can apply in certain situations. It doesn’t change who you are but it changes your approach to conflict, to difficult situations with your children or your partner,” he told Metro in 2021 when asked about becoming a life coach and counsellor.
Jeff has also opened up about the realities of parenting his two sons and in 2020 he shared his pain that his sons wouldn’t be able to know their mum “in the same way” other people did.
“Of course they were so young when she died and it pains me to think they never knew Jade in the same way we all did,” he said. “When Bobby landed his first fashion magazine cover he said he hoped his mum was looking down on him and smiling. And I’m sure she was.”
As the dad to Bobby and Freddie, Jeff has spoken about the “responsibility” to keep Jade’s memory alive, and the former Shipwrecked star often takes to social media to mark the anniversary of her passing.
“For me I will go so far as I feel there is a responsibility for me to keep her memory alive, for everyone, not just necessarily of the boys,” he once told the Daily Star.
Even as his sons approach young adulthood, Jeff is ever the doting dad and recently gushed over Bobby after it was announced that he’d be joining this year’s Strictly Come Dancing line-up. After the news was announced, the dad-of-two reshared a the video to his Instagram account alongside the caption: “Go on the boy [red heart emoji]”.
