Jeff Brazier broke down on Loose Women in a heartbreaking interview about coping with grief.
The former Shipwrecked contestant opened up about how he is now a grief counsellor after losing ex-girlfriend Jade Goody to cervical cancer in 2009.
Jeff has 13-year-old son Bobby, and Freddy, 12, who struggled immensely after their mother’s death.
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He was joined by host Ruth Lansgford, Coleen Nolan, Jane More and Saira Khan he said his boys wished their dad had died instead of their mum.
Jeff understood why they said it, and said it was never intended to be hurtful.
He also said wasn’t sure how to grieve as he wasn’t in a relationship with Jade at the time of her death.
Talking about dealing with his own mourning process, he said: “It was unclear to me what my grief should be. She wasn’t my partner at the time, although she brought those children into the world with me so it was very important.
Tearing up, he adds: “It’s weird today because I can discuss this in length in the book but today was different – I’m surrounded by women.”
There was a montage of photos and videos of Jade prior to his interview, which made him more emotional.
“That’s done me today, seeing the video and the pictures is just so desperately unfair on her and the children.”
Their boys were just four and five years old when Jade passed away.
Jade had to tell them that she was dying.
Jeff said: “Obviously it was Jade that had to tell them she wasn’t going to be around any longer.
“Can you imagine anything harder or more unfair than that? She did a very courageous job of saying she was being sent for by God and doing a job for him and would be seen as a star in the sky.”
The dad has also written a book called The Grief Survival Guide: How To Navigate Loss and All That Comes With It.
Viewers praised how well he has handled himself over the past 13 years and that he had brought his children up so well.
Jeff also posted a photo on Twitter with the message: “Celebrated what would have been Jade’s 36th Birthday yesterday. How different out lives would be if she were still here. Bless my brave boys”.
One user replied saying: “You have done a great job with the boys and jade will be looking down on all of you’s [sic] super proud”.
He then shared a video explaining that he had no idea he was going to get so emotional and said thank you for letting himself be exposed.
Had to fight back the tears on @loosewomen today. Am I embarrassed? Not a chance. Thank you to the team (genuinely) for exposing my denial ❤ pic.twitter.com/4Ty8zCWN25
— Jeff Brazier (@JeffBrazier) June 6, 2017
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Well done for being so brave Jeff!