Jade Goody to wed and die 'in the public eye'

Hyderabad Feb 15 :Jade Goody, the reality TV star, is to marry her boyfriend and have her two sons christened as soon as possible after being told by doctors that her cancer is terminal. Goody's boyfriend Jack Tweed, 21, proposed to her in hospital after learning that she has just months to live. The couple are expected to sell the media rights to the wedding and christening to raise money for Goody's children, Bobby, five, and four-year-old Freddie.

"They need to get married as soon as possible," her spokesman, the publicist Max Clifford, said last night. "She's a young girl who's petrified, who's been told she's dying, and she's coping with it brilliantly."

The 27-year-old, who rose to fame through Channel 4's Big Brother, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in August. Last week she was told the disease had spread to her bowel, liver and groin. She is being treated at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, London.

It has been reported that Goody plans to hold a "traditional" wedding ceremony unless she becomes too weak to leave hospital. Asked if she would sell the picture rights, Clifford said: "I assume so. I'm going to try to make as much money for her as I possibly can in the coming weeks for the sake of the children."

One industry insider told the Daily Star: "Jade's wedding is going to be a real tear-jerker. Every magazine editor will want to buy the rights. The fact that she is doing it to raise money for her children makes it even more heartbreaking."

Earlier, Clifford defended Goody's decision to "die in the public eye". He told Sky News: "What she said to me was simply this - 'I'm doing this for three reasons, one: because I want to make as much money as possible for my children, two: because it keeps me busy, it gives me something to think about other than cancer, and what's going to happen to me,' and three: since last August when she announced she had cancer, the amount of women having cervical smears has gone up over 20% right across Britain and that's something she's very happy about.

"She said to me 'Look Max, I'm hoping what happened to me won't happen to them. They didn't spot the cancer that was growing in me, these women will have the proper tests and it won't happen to them.' So those are the three main reasons, and what it comes down to is when you're in a situation like that, God forbid, you know what's the best way for you to handle it and this is her way, and I respect her for that."

Goody found fame on the 2002 series of Big Brother, where her anarchic appearance made her familiar to millions. Her popularity plummeted in 2007 after she was accused of racism and bullying towards Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother

Clifford said that she would have to explain to her children the severity of her condition. "She's going to tell the boys that the tadpoles in her tummy have got bigger and then in the coming weeks she's going to have to explain to them what's going to happen to her - it's going to be extremely difficult for her."