Note: This article has been edited from a previously published version to correct details about the terms of Jack Tweed's prison release.
Reality TV and the gutter press made Jade Goody an oft-reviled object of fascination in the U.K. They made her rich. Now they are raising her up again just in time to watch her die.
Last weekend, Goody, a 27-year-old single mother of two, married her 21-year-old boyfriend. He was released from prison in January and his curfew conditions were relaxed to allow the couple to spend their wedding night together. Since she is succumbing to terminal cervical cancer, she sat through much of the ceremony. Photo rights for the event fetched a reported $1.25 million.
Since Survivor brought voyeurism into the mainstream, we've watched several of the reality genre's instant stars stumble. Arrests, breakdowns, tax problems, jail sentences – they've all greased the tabloid wheel. But Goody breaks new ground. She's the first to be hounded right into her grave.
An aggressively foul-mouthed product of council estate housing, Goody first came to public notice in 2002 on the British edition of the reality show Big Brother. Her colossal ignorance of English geography (she thought the city of Cambridge was in London; told it was in East Anglia, she assumed that "East Angular" was a foreign country) and love of strong drink made her a laughingstock. The papers took one look at her wide, pretty face and dubbed her "Miss Piggy." She was cast off the show, presumably back to her day job as a dental assistant.
But Goody also showed an instinctive ability to turn notoriety into a business opportunity. Few reality stars in any corner of the world have made so much with so little.
Pitching herself at a fame-obsessed young underclass, Goody created a hugely successful personal brand. She released a perfume, a series of fitness DVDs and an autobiography. Her earnings have been estimated as high as $20 million. She clung doggedly to the spotlight by appearing on a half-dozen other reality shows.
The secret to her hold on the public imagination seems to have been her penchant for behaving badly. Goody brawled in pubs and posed topless. She had screaming public rows with the father of her two children (another reality TV star) and jumped in bed with castmates. After each misstep, she would relive the event for the gossip columns.
Whenever public interest seemed in danger of waning, Goody went to greater and greater lengths to reingratiate herself. She ran the London marathon in 2006, collapsing after 33 km of the 42.2-km race. The would-be fitness instructor later admitted that she'd only taken four training runs. She drafted her handicapped mother to co-star with her in another reality show.
In 2007, her reputation as a hedonistic buffoon took a darker twist. She was involved in a racially tinged altercation with Indian actor Shilpa Shetty while appearing on Celebrity Big Brother. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was visiting India when the footage aired, was forced to issue an apology to the Indian people. The same Britons who'd made Goody a tabloid star gleefully turned on her.
In an attempt to salvage her image, Goody agreed to star on Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother. Last August, only two days into filming, she was informed that she had cervical cancer.
Four million Indian viewers watched her face fall as she was given the news onscreen.
Though she had only a 40 per cent chance of recovery, Goody agreed to star in a television serial documenting her cancer battle. On Thursday, she learned that the disease has spread to her liver, bowel and groin.
Doctors have reportedly given up trying to cure her.
The tragic turn to Goody's story has provoked hand-wringing in the mainstream British media, who'd adopted her as an all-purpose punchline. "I am devastated. I am angry," Goody told The Sun, hours after learning that her chances of recovery are virtually nil.
"I don't want to die because I have so much to live for."
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