Jade Goody quickly became the most famous of the 14 Big Brother contestants.

On her first night in the house, the 21-year-old dental nurse from Bermondsey, south London got drunk and began talking very loudly indeed - and started asking what asparagus was.

Criticised for being bitchy and two-faced, Jade became a hate figure for the press.

I'm not going to be an escape goat for anyone

Jade Goody

Her shaky grasp of general knowledge - she thought Rio de Janeiro was a footballer and Sherlock Holmes invented the toilet - was mercilessly ridiculed by the tabloids and baying crowds chanted hostile slogans about her on several eviction nights.

In recent weeks press enmity has subsided somewhat, as the tabloids turned their attentions to the failings of newer contestant Tim.

Her frequent emotional scenes prevented her from forming close alliances with other housemates, and even her much-publicised bedroom liaison with PJ ended in tears when the trainee solicitor refused to acknowledge her afterwards.

Life in the house has been a balancing act for Jade

Her one friendship, a brief spell of being close to Adele, ended with Adele's eviction.

Jade was brought up on a rundown part of Bermondsey by her mother Jackiey, 44.

Her father Andrew, 39, left her mother when Jade was two and is currently serving a four-year sentence for robbery in Wandsworth Prison.

While her verbal gaffes have made Jade a national celebrity, it may be her treatment by the press - of which she so far knows nothing - that leaves more of an imprint on the public memory.