Dying British star weds

Jade Goody, a young British woman who won fame on a reality television show, has married her sweetheart in a private ceremony.

Security was tight at the wedding of terminally-ill reality television star Jade Goody.

The 27-year-old married sweetheart Jack Tweed at a country hotel near London.

Cameras were kept away from the service after Goody signed an exclusive rights deal for a reported 1.4 million (USD) dollars.

The deal was struck by publicist Max Clifford.

SOUNDBITE (English) MAX CLIFFORD, PUBLICIST, SAYING:

"This is one night together. It might be their only night together. So they will be spending the night together here compliments of Jack Straw, and they are very grateful to him for that."

There were fears the couple wouldn't be allowed to spend their wedding night together.

Tweed was released early from a prison sentence for assault and is subject to a curfew.

But the British government intervened to relax these conditions for one night.

The groom was in playful mood when he left home with friends for the service.

Goody has cervical cancer and has been given weeks to live.

She rose to fame on the TV programme "Big Brother".

A further appearance on a celebrity edition of the show two years ago ignited a media firestorm.

Her racist comments about Indian actress Shilpa Shetty led to death threats.

The rights money earned from her wedding is being set aside for her two young sons.

Goody is living out her last days in the public glare, with media commentators analysing her role in modern British culture.

Jim Drury, Reuters

Last year she announced on television she had cervical cancer. This month she said she was terminally ill and would marry her 21-year-old fiance before it was too late.

Bald from chemotherapy, she is living out her last days in the public glare, with media commentators praising her dignity and analysing her role in modern British culture.

Tweed

Jack Tweed has to wear an electronic tag and be home at his mother's house by 7pm every night as part of his early release from an 18-month prison sentence.

He was given the sentence for assaulting a teenager with a golf club.

Britain's Justice Secretary Jack Straw intervened on Friday to extend Tweed's bail conditions so the couple could stay together for their wedding night.

Terminally ill British television star

and the only cameras were

Her pain from cancer dulled by medication, Goody wed Jack Tweed away from the public gaze at a country hotel northeast of London. Photo and film rights were sold for a reported 1 million pounds ($1.4 million).

"It was a very beautiful, very moving service," her publicist Max Clifford said of the 45-minute ceremony in front of around 200 guests.

"They are obviously very much in love, they are just very happy to be there and get married.".

The 27-year-old Goody was unknown before she appeared on the TV programme "Big Brother" in 2002 and has since ridden the rollercoaster of instant fame to become the show's best-known participant.

She wrote her autobiography and sold her own perfume before igniting a media firestorm by making racist comments about Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty when they appeared on a celebrity edition of Big Brother in 2007.

Last year she announced on television she had cervical cancer. This month she said she was terminally ill and would marry her 21-year-old fiance before it was too late.

Bald from chemotherapy, she is living out her last days in the public glare, with media commentators praising her dignity and analysing her role in modern British culture.

Married wearing a wedding dress donated by Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed, Goody was due to be serenaded later by girl group the Sugababes.

The rights money earned from the wedding will be set aside for her two young boys from a previous relationship.

Britain's Justice Secretary Jack Straw intervened on Friday to extend Tweed's bail conditions so the couple could stay together for their wedding night.

"It might be their only night together," said Clifford, adding Goody now wanted to arrange a christening for her sons.

"Her words to me were: 'I want them to try and get to know Jesus, because if they get to know Jesus hopefully we will be able to keep in touch in future'." (Editing by Robert Woodward) ((tim.castlereuters

SHOWS: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FEBRUARY 21, 2009)(ITN - NO ACCESS UK/ABC (Aust)/TVNZ/.co.uk SITES (Internet))

1. BRITISH REALITY TV PERSONALITY JADE GOODY LEAVES HER DENTIST'S SURGERY BUILDING

2. PHOTOGRAPHER TAKING PHOTO

3. GOODY GETTING INTO CAR AND BEING DRIVEN AWAY

ESSEX, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FEBRUARY 21, 2009)(ITN - NO ACCESS UK/ABC (Aust)/TVNZ/.co.uk SITES (Internet))

4. EXTERIOR OF GOODY'S HOME

5. HOUSE NAME PLATE READING 'BARN COURT'

6. GOODY'S FIANCEE JACK TWEED ARRIVING AT GOODY'S HOME

7. GOODY ARRIVING HOME

8. GOODY GETTING OUT OF CAR AND WALKING INTO HOME

9. PHOTOGRAPHERS STANDING

10. VARIOUS OF GOODY AND TWEED WALKING OUTSIDE AND KISSING FOR THE MEDIA

MUMBAI, INDIA (FILE - AUGUST 15, 2008)(ANI - ACCESS ALL)

11. VARIOUS OF GOODY SURROUNDED BY MEDIA

NEW DELHI, INDIA (FILE - FEBRUARY 26, 2007)(ANI - ACCESS ALL)

12. GOODY LEAVING A RESTAURANT SURROUNDED BY MEDIA

13. (SOUNDBITE)(English) BRITISH REALITY TV PERSONALITY JADE GOODY, SAYING:

"I wish I could tell you more information, but I can't because I am here on private visit. I have actually only just got here today so (unclear) at the moment."

NEW DELHI, INDIA (FILE - 2007) (ANI - ACCESS ALL)

14. BOLLYWOOD ACTRESS, SHILPA SHETTY, ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE

STORY: Jade Goody, a young British woman who won fame on a reality television show, is playing out her final days in the glare of a celebrity-obsessed nation before she dies of cancer.

Foul-mouthed, little educated and forthright in her views, Goody was unknown when she appeared on the programme Big Brother in 2002 but her antics and outbursts quickly made her a fixture in tabloid newspapers and celebrity magazines.

She sold her autobiography, marketed a perfume and has been in the public eye ever since, even though her popularity sank when she made racist comments about the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty when they appeared together in a celebrity version of Big Brother in 2007.

Now 27, she is living out her last days on television and in newspapers, watched by a nation fixated by celebrities. And questions are being asked about her dignity and modern British culture.

In August 2008 she quit the Indian Big Brother show "Bigg Boss" after two days after medical tests indicated she may have cervical cancer. The show was being hosted by Shetty, her TV adversary on the previous year's Celebrity Big Brother show.

Last week Goody finally announced she was terminally ill and is now bald after undergoing chemotherapy.

On Sunday (February 22), with just months to live, she plans to marry her boyfriend, a former convict, in a televised ceremony. Britain's justice minister intervened on Friday (February 20) to extend his bail conditions so that they can spend their wedding night together.

Goody has sold the rights to a television channel, for a sum which British media put at 700,000 pounds (1 million USD). Some media say magazines are paying 15,000 USD for each picture of her.

Commentators, politicians and ordinary people are caught between disgust and admiration.

Goody has come a long way since Big Brother, in which a group of people live together in a house, isolated from the outside world, continually watched by television cameras.

High-brow newspapers praise her honesty on screen and her determination to provide for her two children -- she says she sold her story to the media to give them a better life.

Newspaper reports say her personal tragedy has led to an increase in young women being screened for cervical cancer.

"The truth is that reality television, which gave us the worst of her, is now giving us the best," columnist Liz Hunt wrote in the conservative Daily Telegraph.

Matthew Norman wrote in the Independent: "In her final days, she has gone a long way to exploding the repellent stereotype of the feckless, feral, self-obsessed underclass with which she was once made synonymous."

Max Clifford, her publicist, told Reuters described her as a product of her time, and says her openness is appealing to a lot of British people.