Jade Goody's fortune 'wiped out by tax debt'

Jade Goody's fortune 'wiped out by tax debt'
Jade Goody's fortune 'wiped out by tax debt' (Image credit: UK Press/PA Photos)

The sons of late Big Brother star Jade Goody have reportedly been left with less than £400,000 of their mother's money after tax debts wiped out much of her £2.2m fortune. The 27-year-old, who died of cancer in 2009, vowed before her death to leave sons Bobby and Freddie enough money to set them up for life. But according to The Sun the reality star owed around £1.8m in debts - including a sum of £585,000 to the Inland Revenue as she had reportedly paid no income tax in the four years before her death. Other debts included mortgage arrears on her properties in Essex plus unpaid bills to lawyers, agents and accountants and money owed in assorted outstanding loans. And The Sun reports that there is not enough money left over to set up trust funds for her sons as she had previously hoped. "This is the final tragedy," a source told the paper. "When Jade died, the lawyers and accountants took a quick view of her wealth but they didn't realise that she had no accounts done "Sadly, because she lived her life in such an erratic, chaotic way, she never thought about her accounts, like a lot of celebrities." The insider added that the idea of putting away a trust fund for Freddie and Bobby was "a fairytale". "We think there is enough there to pay their school fees," the source said. "But there is no trust fund left for them." Jade had said before she died that she wanted to give her boys the opportunities she had never had. "I want to make as much money as possible to look after my boys," she said. "I know I'm ignorant but I'm going to make sure my boys get the best education."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.