Bobby Brazier's bond with dad Jeff and how he raised sons after Jade Goody's tragic death

ok.co.uk:

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.