Grief affects everybody in different ways, but Jeff Brazier has revealed that his sons Bobby, now 14, and Freddie, 13, would attack him after their mother Jade Goody died.
The TV presenter told Femail that it has been difficult to know when the boys were grieving, saying how sometimes it just ‘looks like bad behaviour’.
He said: “I had to get my head around it all along the way that that would be coming at my direction – that’s the uglier side of parenting bereaved children.”
It’s nine years since Jade died at the age of 27 from cervical cancer.
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She was told that her disease was terminal while appearing on the Indian version of Big Brother.
Her cancer went on to spread to her bowel, liver and groin and the mum of the two boys died on Mother’s Day in March 2009.
As Jeff and his two sons approach the ninth anniversary of Jade’s death, Jeff has revealed it was a difficult time.
He said: “The big challenge for me was not taking it personally – I didn’t realise when she died that it would get so personal and they would literally tear me apart at times.”
“Not meaning to necessarily hurt me but in a way of showing me that that’s how they feel.”
Jeff wrote a book on grief after all his experience with the boys called The Grief Survival Guide.
He explained on This Morning why he had decided to write his book and train as a bereavement counsellor.
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He told Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby: “I’ve been a life coach for three, four years and most of my clients are bereaved because I think they have seen how I have dealt with things publicly and I guess they think ‘if anyone is going to understand me, it’s this guy’.
“It’s all invaluable to someone who is in that situation and it will just be the guide, the practical step by step for that time.”
He, Bobby and Freddie also make sure they do things together to remember Jade like visiting special places, sending balloons up to heaven and dedicating things to her to making sure that she’s an open topic of conversation.
He said: “These things are all important in ensuring that they’re in the best possible place they can be with it all.”
Although their mum will never be far from their thoughts, the boys have got something good to look forward to this year when dad Jeff marries his fiancée Kate Dywer.