Celebrity Race Across the World's Freddy Brazier enrages TV licence payers after revealing he spent BBC budget on drugs
Freddy competed in the show with his TV star dad JeffFreddy Brazier has claimed he spent part of his Celebrity Race Across the World budget on cannabis in Brazil.
Speaking on a new podcast, he reflected on the decision and the emotional difficulties he faced during filming.
The 22-year-old competed alongside his dad, Jeff Brazier, on the BBC show in 2024.
They were each given a £1,100 budget for their journey across central America.
Contestants must stretch their budget across travel, food and accommodation, without their phones or bank cards.
But Freddy claims he threw some of his away on drugs – and the admission has left BBC license fee payers furious.
Freddy Brazier makes Celebrity Race Across the World drugs claim
Freddy and his TV star dad Jeff competed in the second series of Celebrity Race Across the World. It aired in August 2024 on BBC One.
The competition took the father and son more than 7,800 miles from Belém in Brazil, to Frutillar in Chile. But filming for the series coincided with Mother’s Day, which Freddy said he felt mentally unprepared for.
Freddy’s mum, Big Brother star Jade Goody, died from cervical cancer on Mother’s Day in March 2009. She was 27 and Freddy was just four years old.
Speaking on the Terry Stone Connection podcast, Freddy said he had wanted privacy on Mother’s Day.
Describing his decision to take part, he said: “I almost forced myself to do it.”
He continued: “I weren’t [sic] in the place mentally, and when I knew that we were going to be filming over Mother’s Day as well, I was like, ‘Oh [bleep], I’m going to have cameras in my face on [bleep-ing] Mother’s Day. I want to be alone’.”
That evening, Freddy recalled leaving his hotel through a window. He remembered an employee warning that it “wasn’t the safest area”.
‘I’ve taken some money out of the budget’
Freddy said he headed to the beach, where he encountered bracelet makers he had previously met.
He explained: “I was like, ‘I’m okay, I’m okay’, and I’ve gone to the beach and we’d seen these people before, they were couples and they make bracelets with countries on.
“And they bought me a beer and I’ve taken some money out of the budget we were given, and I’ve went and bought myself a three five [of cannabis] in Brazil on Mother’s Day.
“And smoked it with these two bracelet makers on the beach while looking at the stars.”
He described the experience as “beautiful”, while acknowledging that spending the money had been “so wrong”.
Reflecting on the consequences, Freddy said: “And I was very selfish. Looking back, and reflecting as I’m speaking, I was very selfish to do so because that could have cost us the show.”
He also spoke about how distressed he had felt at the prospect of being filmed that day.
“But I feel like I needed that joint, honest to God. I felt like I needed that joint, otherwise I was getting kicked off the show anyway because I wasn’t in the greatest headspace and I didn’t want to be filmed on Mother’s Day.”
Freddy acknowledged that his actions could have jeopardised his and his father’s participation in the BBC show.
Freddy Brazier admits breaking his promise to dad Jeff
Freddy and Jeff ended up finishing third, with Scott Mills and his husband, Sam Vaughan, winning the race. The other pairs included Kola Bokinni and his cousin Mary Ellen, plus Kelly Brook and her husband, Jeremy Parisi.
Freddy’s account also covered the interviews recorded before he and Jeff began travelling for the show.
He also said: “It came at a [blep-ing] bad time, to be honest. Like the week before the master interviews, I’d had quite an extreme episode and I’d calmed down by the time of the interviews.”
Freddy recalled visiting a girlfriend in Birmingham before attending those BBC interviews. He admitted smoking cannabis despite assuring Jeff that he would not arrive high.
“I had smoked up there the night before the master interviews like a [bleep-head] after promising my dad I wasn’t going to come there being high.
“But I lied, turned up there, no [bleep-ing]sleep. Knackered. And I think I must have had bags under my eyes, because the amount of [bleep-ing] make-up they put on me was a joke.”
BBC taxpayers fume at Freddy Brazier’s admission
BBC licence fee payers have now reacted to Freddy’s admission. And many are furious with Jeff Brazier’s son, who became a dad last year.
A standard colour licence costs Brits £180 per year.
Writing online, one furious BBC licence fee payer complained: “So this is what the license payers money goes on?”
Another added: “The public money, licence fees money???”
A third penned: “Why are the taxpayers, sorry, licence fees, paying for this ridiculous family?”
And someone else quipped: “Glad I don’t pay for a TV licence if that’s what they waste money on.”
TVGuide has contacted the BBC for comment.
Celebrity Race Across the World 2026 starts on BBC One later this year.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI technology to synthesise source reporting and structured data. It has been reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by our human editorial team before publication.
