Freddy Brazier has revealed that he used part of the BBC budget to buy drugs while filming Race Across the World with his father, Jeff Brazier, in 2024.
The 22-year-old, the youngest son of the late Jade Goody, said he was not in the right mental state to take part in the BBC reality series at the time.
Contestants on Race Across the World are given a limited budget by the BBC, which they must use to support themselves as they race across the country.
Freddy has now admitted that he took money from the budget shared with his father to buy weed in Brazil, where he smoked on a beach after finding it difficult to cope with filming during Mother’s Day.
Speaking on The Terry Stone Connection podcast, Freddy said the experience had come at a particularly difficult moment in his life.
“It came at a bad time, to be honest,” he said. “The week before the master interviews, I’d had quite an extreme episode, although I had calmed down by the time the interviews took place.”
Freddy Brazier has admitted he raided the BBC show budget to buy drugs while filming Race Across The World with his father Jeff, after discussions about his late mother became overwhelming
Freddy explained that he had travelled from Birmingham after visiting a woman he was dating at the time and had smoked cannabis the previous night. He said he then attended the master interviews despite promising his father that he would not arrive while high.
“I lied, turned up there with no sleep and was knackered,” he said. “I must have had bags under my eyes because the amount of make-up they put on me was a joke.”
He said he had forced himself to continue, despite feeling mentally unprepared for the experience. Knowing that filming would take place over Mother’s Day made the situation even harder, he added, because he did not want to be surrounded by cameras while grieving.
Freddy went on to recall leaving the hotel on Mother’s Day and smoking weed on the beach with two local bracelet makers.
He said the day had also included more uplifting moments, including swimming in the sea, watching the sunset and attending a local Mother’s Day gathering where people applauded as the sun went down.
“That same night, Mother’s Day night, I climbed out of the hotel window,” Freddy recalled. “I remember the man in the hotel lobby saying, ‘This isn’t the safest area.’”
Freddy said he reassured the hotel employee before heading to the beach, where he recognised two people he had seen earlier. The pair made bracelets and offered him a beer.
He then admitted that he withdrew some of the money provided for the journey and used it to buy what he described as “a three five” of weed in Brazil on Mother’s Day.
Freddy said he smoked it with the two bracelet makers on the beach while they looked up at the stars.
Although he described the moment as beautiful, Freddy acknowledged that his decision was wrong and selfish because it could have jeopardised his and Jeff’s place on Race Across the World.
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Freddy, 22, has revealed that he took money from the budget shared with his father Jeff to buy weed and smoked it on a Brazilian beach after struggling to cope on Mother’s Day
He admitted that the experience was “beautiful” but “so wrong”, adding that his actions could have cost them their place on the show (pictured with his brother Bobby and Jade)
“I felt like I needed that joint, honest to God,” he said. “Otherwise, I think I would have been 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.”
The Daily Mail has contacted Freddy’s representatives and Race Across The World representatives for comment.
Since appearing on the show Freddy has opened up about how he was sectioned amid mental health struggles and claimed grandmother Jackiey Budden got him hooked on drugs aged just 12.
He told fans in 2025 that he has been addicted to smoking from a young age and would be heading to rehab.
Speaking on the A Load Of Old Cobblers podcast, Freddy said while he didn’t try drugs for the first time with his grandmother Jackiey, 68, she was ‘definitely the person’ who got him addicted.
‘No it wasn’t with my nan [the first time] although my nan is definitely the person who introduced me to reefer and got me hooked. It’s one of those things, I was 12.’
He continued: ‘I’ve been smoking since I was 12, I’ve been to rehab, I’ve been sectioned, I’ve had manic episodes, I’ve been sectioned. There’s been a real journey and it’s been a tough one.’
Freddy also claimed that he had spent years fearful that Jackiey would end her life if he didn’t ‘prioritise’ their relationship, amid her ongoing feud with his father Jeff.
Freddy later announced on Instagram that he was going to a rehabilitation centre in Spain and was keen to seek treatment.
He said: ‘I’ve been smoking from the age of 12 and it’s time to stop it was a bad coping mechanism that turned into an addiction something I relied on and something that made me feel sane and somewhat okay.’
But days after the admission, Freddy posted again online saying he had changed his mind, writing: ‘You know what I don’t need rehab. I just need a holiday with a good group of boys or a retreat.’
Freddy lost his mother, former Big Brother star Jade, to cervical cancer in 2009 when he was just four years old.
Jeff has long insisted Jackiey is a bad influence on the troubled youngster – with the pair enduring a series of very public disputes over the years.
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article contact Mind on 0300 123 3393 or if you need help with addiction call FRANK 24 hours a day, seven days a week 0300 123 6600.
