Freddy Brazier used BBC budget to buy drugs while filming Race Across The World

Jade Goody and Jeff Brazier’s son Freddy said he used the show’s daily budget to buy cannabis on Race Across the World (Picture: Katelyn Mensah/BBC One) Freddy Brazier has revealed he spent some of the budget given to him and dad Jeff Brazier while filming Celebrity Race Across the World on cannabis.

The pair appeared together on series two of the hit BBC show, produced by Studio Lambert, which was released in August 2024 and involved them travelling over 7,800 miles from Belém, in Brazil to Frutillar, Chile, with a strict budget of £1,100 per person.

But the 22-year-old has now admitted that he ‘wasn’t in the place mentally’ to take part, especially as it involved being filmed on Mother’s Day as he grieved for his late mum, Jade Goody.

The late Big Brother star died from cervical cancer in 2009 at the age of 27.

He also described himself as ‘selfish’ for undertaking interviews for the show ahead of their travels after smoking cannabis the night before, despite promising his dad that he wouldn’t turn up high.

‘It come at a f**king bad time, to be honest. Like the week before the master interviews, I’d had quite an extreme episode and I’d calmed down by the time of the interviews,’ Freddy shared on The Terry Stone Connection podcast.

The TV personality, who became a first-time dad earlier this year to daughter Isla Jade with ex-girlfriend Holly Swinburn, recalled that he’d been dating a girl in Birmingham at the time.

‘I had smoked up there the night before the master interviews like a d**khead after promising my dad I wasn’t going to come there being high.

‘But I lied, turned up there, no f**king sleep. Knackered. And I think I must have had bags under my eyes, because the amount of f**king make-up they put on me was a joke.’

Freddy said that he ‘almost forced myself to do it’.

He continued: ‘I weren’t [sic.] in the place mentally, and when I knew that we were going to be filming over Mother’s Day as well, I was like, “Oh f*ck sh*t, I’m going to have cameras in my face on f**king Mother’s Day. I want to be alone.”’

He then explained how he’d climbed out the hotel window despite being warned by an employee that it ‘wasn’t the safest area’.

‘I was like, “I’m okay, I’m okay”, and I’ve gone to the beach and we’d seen these people before, they were couples and they make bracelets with countries on. And they bought me a beer and I’ve taken some money out of the budget we were given, and I’ve went and bought myself a three five [of weed] in Brazil on Mother’s Day.

‘And smoked it with these two bracelet makers on the beach while looking at the stars.’

Freddy described the experience as ‘beautiful’, but also said that it was ‘so wrong’.

‘And I was very selfish. Looking back, and reflecting as I’m speaking, I was very selfish to do so because that could have cost us the show.”

His series of Celebrity Race Across the World was won by former BBC Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills and his husband Sam, and also saw actor Kola Bokinni and his cousin Mary Ellen take part, as well as Kelly Brook and her husband, Jeremy Parasi.

He added: ‘But I feel like I needed that joint, honest to God. I felt like I needed that joint, otherwise I was getting kicked off the show anyway because I wasn’t in the greatest headspace and I didn’t want to be filmed on Mother’s Day.’

On the podcast, Freddy also confirmed that he’d first tried weed at ‘12 or 13’.

Last month Jeff admitted to making mistakes while raising Freddy and his older brother, Strictly star Bobby, now 23, as a single dad.

Jeff previously took legal action against Goody’s mother, Jackiey Budden, to prevent her from seeing Freddy.

The model had moved in with his maternal grandmother but checked into rehab after being spotted smoking a joint with Jackiey. Freddy was later ‘asked to leave’ rehab without completing his course of treatment, he confirmed to host Terry Stone.

Reflecting on his parenting, Jeff has now said: ‘You always look back with hindsight and feel like, “If only I was the version of myself I am today 20 years ago, how much of a better experience of me they would have had”.’

He added to The Sun on Sunday: ‘Maybe that might have eliminated some of the bumps in the road we’ve had . . . you look at the things you could have done better.’

Metro has contacted the BBC and Studio Lambert for comment.

Cold mornings are coming and this is the dressing gown I want to live in

Most of us aren’t getting enough fibre – this easy supplement could change that

My honest review of the new UKLash Lash Lift Gel

Kurt Geiger’s new Notting Hill collection is a love letter to London’s chaotic weather

Dyson fans are swapping to this Hoover vacuum-mop that washes floors as it cleans

Arrow MORE: Race Across the World winner comes out as bisexual in heartwarming post: ‘Surprise!’

Arrow MORE: Who’s in the cast of BBC’s Celebrity Race Across The World 2026? Line-up confirmed

Sign up and tell us which TV shows you love to watch to get personalised updates every morning.

Select your shows for TV news tailored to you Close