Alpha Mummy: Jenny Colgan - "Who, exactly, is objecting to Jade Goody?"

An extraordinary personal intervention from Jack Straw has ensured that Jade Goody will not have to spend her wedding night alone.

The reality television star has terminal cancer and has been told she may have only months to live. Her fiancé, Jack Tweed, who was released early last month from an 18-month prison sentence for assault, yesterday had his appeal rejected for an easing of his bail conditions to allow him to stay with his bride after Sunday's ceremony.

But the Ministry of Justice reviewed that decision this morning and announced that Tweed would be allowed to stay at the reception venue until 3pm on Monday, instead of having to return to his mother's home by 7pm, immediately after tying the knot.

Mr Straw, the Justice Secretary, said: "It is crucial that offenders are treated equally within the rules regardless of the publicity surrounding their case but I was satisfied that it was reasonable to allow this."

A spokesman added: "Jack has enormous sympathy for Jade Goody and her family at this time. She is showing extraordinary courage and his thoughts are with her and her family."

Miss Goody's publicist, Max Clifford, said that she was "absolutely thrilled" at the decision, which will mean the "dream finish to her dream day".

The decision was also backed by Gordon Brown, who said during a constituency visit in Fife: "I think everybody is sad at the tragedy that’s befallen Jade Goody. Everyone who suffers cancer has the thoughts of me and I think the whole country over what they’ve got to go through."

Tweed was jailed for 18 months last September after assaulting a teenager with a golf club, but was released early on the Home Detention Curfew Scheme, which means that he has to wear an electronic tag and return to his mother's home in Essex every evening.

Changes to the terms and times of the curfew can be made for hospital visits or other emergencies by the former inmate's prison governor - in Tweed's case the head of HMP Wayland in Norfolk, who refused his request to have the curfew lifted on Sunday

Miss Goody won fame as a loudmouthed contestant on the voyeuristic reality show Big Brother in 2002, during which she was much derided for her lack of knowledge of basic British geography. She went on to host her own TV show and launch a fragrance, Shh... Jade Goody.

But her brand was seriously damaged - and her perfume pulled from the shelves - when she was accused of making racist comments about the Indian actress Shilpa Shetty during Celebrity Big Brother in January 2007

Last August, Miss Goody appeared briefly on the Indian version of Big Brother, only to be told live on air that she had received a diagnosis of cervical cancer. She learnt this month that the cancer had spread and was now terminal.

She has been criticised for the decision to live out her last days firmly in the public eye, especially after she had sold media rights to Sunday's wedding for around £1 million.

Mr Clifford defended his client on a BBC Radio Five Live phone-in today in which callers said Miss Goody should be trying to make money for charity, not for her family.

He said: "What she said when the cervical cancer was first announced and it was first said that she had a 40/60 chance of living, that she was going to do everything she could to make as much money as possible so her sons could have the education that she never had."

Tweed was jailed for 18 months last September after assaulting a teenager with a golf club but was released early on the Home Detention Curfew Scheme, which means that he has to wear an electronic tag and return to his mother's home in Essex every evening.

Changes to the terms and times of the curfew can be made for hospital visits or other emergencies by the former inmate's prison governor - in Tweed's case the head of HMP Wayland in Norfolk, who refused his request to have the curfew lifted on Sunday.

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