Meditating up an Austrian mountain as a gentle stream trickles by, Jeff Brazier is doing a good job of appearing at peace with the world. The idyllic scenes form part of the BBC’s hit Pilgrimage programme in which seven celebrities are handpicked to take part on a “spiritual journey”.
But Jeff has been on his own path long before the cameras started rolling in the beautiful foothills of the Alps.
“I’ve meditated ever since the boys were really young….it’s something that’s helped me to heal things from childhood,” he says. “But also, I guess, to give myself the tools to cope with what was looming and all of the responsibility.”
It’s fair to say that Jeff has endured more than most 45-year olds, and certainly ones in the glare of the public eye. Placed in foster care at five years old when his teenage mum struggled to raise him alone after his biological dad walked out, he later suffered the heartache of Jade Goody, the mum of his two sons, dying in 2009.
Such experiences can easily break people. But Jeff says he has come to terms with what he calls the “trauma” embedded within his past.
“I didn’t want to ever feel like I left something on the table when it comes to being a parent,” Jeff explains. “So the responsible thing to do was to confront how being fostered, for example or never meeting my biological dad, affected me.” He even went to a trauma retreat to try and unpick all these issues.
“I thought well I can either just sort of try and hide this and hope that nobody notices, or I can actually kind of confront it and talk about it, unravel it and make sense of it all,” he says.
By doing so, Jeff is convinced he has become a better parent to his two boys, Bobby, 21, and Freddy, 20. Not only that but he believes his own learnings could rub off on them.
“I mean coping with life is difficult, and if they have the tools to be able to do that…i think we’ve done a reasonable job,” he says. Under Jeff’s wing, the boys are certainly doing just that. Bobby’s acting career is going from strength to strength after his high-profile stint on Strictly Come Dancing. And the public fell in love with Fred on Race Across the World which saw him and his dad bond over a trip of a lifetime.
However in recent weeks the family have found themselves at the centre of claims Jeff has launched legal action over Freddy’s welfare to stop him seeing his maternal grandmother.
Jeff doesn’t comment on the reports. But asked if the last month has been difficult with the renewed spotlight on the family, he says simply: “All we really know how to do is to pull together and be there for one another…and I think that’s what we do best, and that’s what all good families do.” However he does say that Freddy is in a “really good place right now.” In fact they even teamed up for a presenting stint together on This Morning in Malta, which left Jeff brimming with pride.
“I was really proud of him, and it’s wonderful to just watch him grow in experience,” he says. Fred also shares his dad’s passion for exploring the spiritual side of life, and has been to retreats with his dad.
“I think Fred is open minded to the point where he’ll come to anything with me, and he’s been to lots of things,” he explains. “We went on a retreat recently and he’ll do a sound bath meditation, and there were oils that he took away to help him to sleep a little bit better. I’ve always been amazed with how adaptive is and how open he is to these things.”
Bobby, too, is “incredibly spiritual”, Jeff says. Perhaps even more so than him. “To be honest, I felt like there was anyone that was cut out for Pilgrimage, it would be him,” he says. The three-part show sees Jeff join The Wanted star Jay McGuiness, comedian Helen Lederer, The Traitors winner Harry Clark, comedian Daliso Chaponda, Paralympic athlete Stefanie Reid and journalist Nelufar Hedayat.
Together, they walked nearly 300 kilometres from Austria to the sacred abbey of Einsiedeln in Switzerland over 12 days. Viewers will watch a particularly special bond develop between Jeff and Harry in particular.
“He was my TV son basically,” Jeff smiles. “In case, I was missing my children. He was just the tonic, He was just the right person at the right time.”
The two men were even forced to share the same bed at one point such were the limited sleeping arrangements. “I think I even read him to sleep at one point,” Jeff laughs. “I ended up as Harry’s adoptive father.” As well as uncomfortable bed quarters, Jeff also had to contend with some atrocious weather conditions. The celebs are at one point seen precariously traversing a snow-capped mountain. But he says he took it all in his stride.
“You wouldn’t want a pilgrimage to be easy, would you? If we’re going to be pilgrims and kind of reenact what 1000s of people have done over the ages ahead of us, then we want to face a little bit of adversity, and you can always guarantee on the weather to provide you with a little bit of that.”
It’s little surprise that the shared purpose saw the celebs really open up with one another. “Inevitably we got to know each other really well… as you can’t talk about religion and spirituality without talking about life itself and the experiences that you’ve had,” he says.
PILGRIMAGE: THE ROAD THROUGH THE ALPS airs over three episodes: Sunday 20, Monday 21 Tuesday 22 April, 9pm on BBC Two BBC iPlayer. Catch all three episodes on BBC iPlayer from Sunday 20 April
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