The media created Jade, now it charts her decline

Home News | International | Letters | Editorial & Opinion

Big Brother star's terminal illness is an horrific end to a public soap opera, says Una Mullally

Jade Goody outside her home in Essex, England. The reality TV star is due to marry her boyfriend Jack Tweed today

Jade outside the Big Brother house in 2002

Jade in the Celebrity Big Brother house

Jade Goody in the Big Brother house in 2002

Jade with her fiancé Jack Tweed

Jade with Shilpa Shetty on the Indian version of Celebrity Big Brother

"I have lived my whole adult life talking about my life. The only difference is I am talking about my death now." Many would never consider that Jade Goody, the reality television star with terminal cancer, is capable of profundity, but this simple insight sums up the end of the road for a young woman obsessed over, vilified, celebrated, condemned and sympathised with.

Goody's terminal illness is a horrific ending to a very public soap opera, with all of the plot twists one could imagine. After initially coming to public prominence in 2002 through Channel 4's Big Brother, Goody was in another Big Brother house when it was revealed to her that she had cancer. She was taking part in the Indian version alongside the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, whom Goody had previously been accused of bullying in the British Celebrity Big Brother house.

Of course, it was the original Big Brother – neither celebrity nor Indian – where Goody first came to public attention. Her boisterous, loud-mouthed, immature and exhibitionist persona made her a national laughing stock, a dartboard for tabloid jokes and talk-show-host quips. But while many scoffed and ridiculed her lack of education and grasp of simple things (not to mention the endless 'Jade-isms', like "They were trying to use me as an escape goat"), Goody eventually endeared herself to the British public, forging a career that spanned having a perfume branded in her name, books, television programmes, magazine columns, and generally, just being Jade Goody.

It appears that her biggest publicity stunt yet will be death itself. Today, she plans to wed her boyfriend Jack Tweed, who was recently released from prison and has had his curfew adjusted by the British government so he can spend his wedding night with his new wife. She will sell the photos to OK magazine for £700,000.

Goody's decision to market her death in order to create a bright financial future for her two young sons has divided public opinion. In Britain, commentators are divided between condemning her for cashing in on her death, and applauding her for providing for her children in her final weeks of life. In Ireland, it's a similar story. The Daily Mail's Fiona Looney slammed Goody for not forgetting about the cameras and publicists for a while and focussing instead on spending her dying days with her children.

On Wednesday, Ryan Tubridy interviewed Goody's publicist Max Clifford saying, "I see her picture in the papers and I don't read the articles because I find it all a bit off." His listeners responded with texts of support for Goody.

A documentary series airing on Living TV has followed the process of Goody's cancer treatment and other dramas. It's hard not to feel sympathy for the young woman when she sits crying on a toilet as her mother tries to convince her that a wrap for her balding head isn't all bad. The British public has responded too; the number of women seeking cervical screening since Goody was diagnosed has increased by 21%.

Here, doctors believe that the public nature of her diagnosis will have some effect on women seeking screenings. But Professor Walter Prenderville, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Dublin's Coombe hospital says he has noticed an increase in worry amongst women over cervical cancer. "Women have been more anxious when they're coming because of the Jade Goody publicity," he told the Sunday Tribune. "Even though Jade Goody has had cancer, she is very, very unusual. Getting cancer her age is very uncommon. If you have a vaccination before you're sexually active or are screened routinely after, the chances of getting it are tiny... The important message to get across is that screening works."

Author Ferdia MacAnna, who wrote Bald Head, A Cancer Story after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in the 1980s, thinks Goody is right to make money for her children in her dying days, "She's doing exactly what has brought her fame and brought her joy. If, for her kids, the only thing she feels she can do is exploit the very media that created her, then go for it... I think it's really sad, but do we see her as a real person? It's a very strange situation. She is the first media-created personality to go through life and death like this."

david kenny, page 22

February 22, 2009