UK reality TV star Jade Goody dies

UK reality TV star Jade Goody dies
March 22, 2009, 8:16 pm
Controversial British reality TV star Jade Goody has died after a battle with cervical cancer.

Her agent Max Clifford confirmed the 27-year-old mother of two had died in her sleep early on Sunday morning - Mother's Day in Britain - at her home in Upshire, Essex.

Clifford said Goody's mother Jackiey Budden had telephoned him shortly after 3am (1400 AEDT) to tell him: "My beautiful girl has gone."

"It's just very sad," Clifford told Sky News, his voice shaking with emotion.

"We got very close and I've got a lot of respect and admiration for the girl. She was a 27-year-old girl facing up to cervical cancer."

Goody's distraught mother appeared briefly outside Goody's home with family friend Kevin Adams to tell reporters her daughter had died.

"Jade died at 3.55 this morning and family and friends would like this privacy, at last, for this morning. Thank you," Budden, who was still dressed in long, striped pyjama bottoms, said.

Budden, Adams and Goody's husband, 21-year-old model Jack Tweed, had been at the star's side when she died.

Her two sons Freddie, four, and Bobby, five, had been staying with their father, Jeff Brazier.

A funeral is expected to be held in about 10 days' time.

Goody was told by doctors in February her cancer had spread and was terminal.

She had returned to her home from hospital last week so she could spend her final days surrounded by family and friends.

It was just five weeks ago that Goody tied the knot with Tweed amid a blaze of publicity, describing the event as the happiest day of her life.

Goody sold the media rights to her wedding to a celebrity magazine and TV program in an attempt to raise as much money as possible to provide for her sons after her death.

There was also intense media interest when the star and her sons were christened on March 7 during a 20-minute ceremony at the Royal Marsden Hospital, where she was being treated.

"She died as she lived, in the public eye," Clifford said.

"This was her way of doing things for her children."

Goody has reportedly organised all the details for her funeral, requesting she be buried in her STG3500 ($A7,400) ivory silk wedding dress.