TV presenter Jeff Brazier talks about raising his two sons on his own, life without Jade Goody and his new career as a life coach
I ALWAYS have breakfast with my kids.
I don’t want to be one of those parents who has a really stressful morning running around late, so I get Bobby, 14, and Freddie, 13, up at 7am. I’ll make them something like scrambled eggs or lots of vegetables in a wrap, which takes longer than whacking on some toast, but I’m trying to watch what I eat and it’s good for the boys, too.
I love doing the school run.
I’ll drop the boys off for 9am, then head straight for a workout. I’m into boxing and CrossFit at the moment, which really make me sweat! After that, if I’m not presenting on ITV’s This Morning, I’ll go home to do some research as I present live Saturday afternoon football on BT Sport, so I need to be up on players’ names, positions and interesting facts. Thankfully, I’m a huge football fan, so it doesn’t feel like work.
I’ve recently gone pescatarian.
I feel a lot more energised since giving up meat and will whip up something like a fish salad when I break for lunch at noon. In the afternoon, I’ll spend time on Facebook because I’m a member of an online bereavement support group. I want to help other people and have recently trained as a life coach. I learned a lot from losing a loved one [Jeff’s ex-girlfriend and the boys’ mum Jade Goody died aged 27 from cervical cancer in 2009], and it’s nice to be able to channel what I know to support others going through a similar experience.
Every afternoon I play cards with my kids.
They go to different schools, so I’ll pick Freddie up at 3.30pm, then we’ll sit in a coffee shop and do homework together before getting Bobby at 5pm. Once home, we’ll get the cards or a board game out for half an hour. I find that if they’re a bit frazzled from school, it changes their state of mind from being irritable to having a laugh.
We talk about Jade at dinner.
Spending time together during our evening meal is especially important for us as a bereaved family. We’ll talk about our day and then we’ll always chat about Jade. It’s healthy for the boys to be constantly remembering her. I’m strict about not having the TV or mobiles on at the table, so there are no distractions, and it’s one of my favourite parts of the day.
The evenings are my time.
My fiancée [PR Kate Dwyer, 28] hasn’t lived with me since we relocated from Brighton to Essex, but she’ll move in soon I’m sure. We just got engaged so we’re on cloud nine! The boys will be asleep by 10pm, then if Kate’s visiting we’ll watch TV before going to bed for 11pm. If we’re having a date night we’ll go for drinks or to the cinema. We do live a little sometimes!