Jeff Brazier underwent psychotherapy to cope with "childhood rejection and abandonment".
Jeff Brazier
The 41-year-old TV star has been in therapy for more than two years as he tries to overcome the lingering impact of spending time in foster care as a child.
He explained: "I've been in psychotherapy for a process called re-parenting which is to do with the childhood rejection and abandonment, you know, of being in foster care for however long I was in there.
"The last two and a half years has been absolutely vital for me becoming the best version of myself, if you like, the version of myself that I may have been if the circumstances were different when I was younger.
"I appreciate that not everybody can afford the different types of therapy that are available to you but if you are brave enough to do it, it is nothing short of life-changing."
Jeff - who has Bobby, 17, and Freddie, 16, with the late Jade Goody - also revealed how learning about his biological father has changed his own approach to parenting.
He said on 'Dave Berry’s Dadpod': "I became aware of his existence and the fact that I had a real dad that I hadn't yet to meet, probably four years after the event (of his passing), because my mum and stepdad had split up, we'd had to run away to a Women's Institute and we'd been re-housed in a little village called Tiptree, which is where I finished the last couple of years of my senior school education.
"My mum sat me down and asked if I'd like to meet my real nan and granddad … I didn't mind hearing all the stories. I didn't feel like, it wasn't a real sense of rejection and abandonment.
"To be honest, I'd sort of experienced a little bit of that by being in foster care for a couple of years when I was really young. I suppose I wasn't interested in holding negativity."
Jeff also thinks the situation has made him more appreciative of his own kids.
The TV star - whose mum was just 15 when he was born - said: "All parents love their kids, you know, but I really, really appreciate them because I appreciate that I can have a relationship with them that I guess I would have really loved to have had with my biological father."
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