Terminally ill British television reality star Jade Goody died in her sleep in the wee hours on Sunday, her publicist Max Clifford announced.

Goody, 27, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in August last year, is survived by her two sons Freddy and Bobby and husband Jack Tweed.

The dental nurse died at home in Upshire, Essex, UK, after a very public battle with the disease. She shot into fame as a Big Brother contestant in 2002. She also participated in the Indian version of Big Brother, called Bigg Boss [Images]. It was here that she learnt that she had the dreaded disease.

From being brought up in a small house in southeast London [Images] to becoming one of the most hated-turned-loved persons in Britain, Shilpa Shetty's [Images] bete noire in Big Brother, Goody always lived her life for the cameras.

Born as Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody on June 5, 1981, her mother Jackiey Budden raised her as a single parent after her father left them when she was just two years old. Goody had openly spoken about her troubled childhood and her struggle to get an education saying that her poverty-ridden early days prompted her to secure a better future for her sons from a relationship with television presenter Jeff Brazier.