The first excerpts from Britney Spears' long-awaited memoir The Woman In Me have been released, documenting the alleged abuse she endured during an unusual conservatorship arrangement between 2008 and 2021, and her alleged miscarriage while dating Justin Timberlake.
In an excerpt published by People magazine ahead of the book's release on Oct. 24, Spears wrote of the miscarriage: “For me [the pregnancy] was not a tragedy. I love Justin so much. I always hoped that someday we would be able to start a family. It happened much earlier than I expected. But Justin is definitely not happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren't ready to have kids, we were too young...I didn't know if that was the right decision. If it was up to me, I would never do it. But Justin was pretty sure he wasn't going to be a father. ” The couple dated from 1999 to 2002, when they were both in their teens and early 20s. Timberlake has yet to comment on Spears' account.
Spears writes: "Thirteen years went by with me feeling like a shadow of myself during the conservatorship. I feel sick when I recall how long my father and his friends were in charge of my body and my finances; I basically turned into a robot. A sort of child-robot, though, not just a simple robot. I was losing parts of what made me feel like myself because I had been so infantilized. For a long time, I had repressed the woman inside of me. Onstage, they wanted me to act however they instructed; the rest of the time, they wanted me to act like a robot. ".
Spears' father, Jamie Spears, did not comment on the excerpts, but has previously defended the conservatorship agreement, which has restrictions that include reduced custody of the children and that Spears can only receive a stipend and cannot spend the money on herself. “Without this kind of regulation, where would Britney be now? … I don't know if she'll be alive, he said in December 2022. “To protect her and the children, supervision is a great tool. Without it, I don't think she could have gotten the kids back. "
In 2021, Spears made a series of shocking claims about the conservatorship in court hearings that eventually led to her being removed from the conservatorship in November of that year, including being forced to use birth control and medication against her will. Jamie Spears was suspended before the Conservatoire was finally abolished. In her memoir, Spears repeated some of the statements from the hearings, as well as an August 2022 voice memo she posted online but later deleted, including one in which her father criticized her weight. She wrote: “A child has a heartbreaking condition that feels like he is never good enough. He instilled this message in me when I was a girl, and he continued to do it with me even after I had achieved so much.
Spears said the infamous incident in which she shaved her head was a reaction to the scrutiny she had faced since first hitting the charts as a teenager. "Ever since I was a teenager, I've been stared at and told what they think of my body," she wrote. “Shaving my head and showing off, I can fight. But in surveillance, I realize that those days are over. "
Other clips recall her childhood foray into show business, her serpentine performance at the 2001 MTV VMAs and her brief acting career in "Crossroads," which was recently re-released in theaters. "This experience was not easy for me," she said of filming. "I think I got caught up in method acting — I just didn't know how to break out of my roles... It was the beginning and the end of my acting career, and I was relieved."
After leaving conservatory, Spears returned to recording, collaborating with Elton John on "Hold Me Closer" and vil.i.am on "Mind Your Business". She was also married to her longtime boyfriend, Sam Asgari, but the couple divorced after 14 months.
Post a Comment