At age 11, Britney Spears performed on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, and with the publication of her first song, “Baby One More Time,” she launched a hugely successful career as a pop singer and performer. There was a song called “Baby, One More Time” that was popular in 1998. How old is Britney Spears? Now, she is 41 years old and one of pop music’s most successful solo performers.
The success of Spears’s albums like Oops!, I Did It Again and Britney before going through a rough patch in her life and career With the release of the number-one single Femme Fatale in 2011 and a successful residency at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, the six-time Grammy winner once again found success. Spears’ conservatorship under her father, Jamie Spears, which had been the subject of much controversy, terminated in November 2021.
Britney Spears reveals shocking details about her pregnancy and subsequent abortion in an extract from her new book, The Woman in Me, due out on October 24. Spears reveals that she conceived Justin Timberlake’s child while dating the ex-NSYNC member. The 41-year-old singer reportedly says, “It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy,” in a story by People. Justin meant the world to me. In my mind, we were always destined to start a family together. To put it simply, this is far earlier than I had hoped.
However, Justin’s news of his pregnancy did not make him particularly happy. We were too young, he argued, and he wasn’t ready for a family. Spears did not disclose the timing of either the pregnancy or the abortion, but she did consent to having one. For her, “it was one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life,” she writes. The 42-year-old has not commented publicly on Spears’ accusations, and neither have representatives for Timberlake. She was 17 when they first started dating in the late 1990s, and he was 18 when they finally broke up in 2002.
Background as a Child Star and Family History
Britney Jean Spears, the daughter of James “Jamie” Spears and Lynne Spears, was born on December 2, 1981, in McComb, Mississippi. She was reared in Kentwood, Louisiana. Britney is the middle kid, sandwiched between her big brother Bryan and her little sister Jamie Lynn. Britney Spears’ mother was very supportive of her career as a youngster, driving her to shows and auditions all over the country and the state of Louisiana.
In the meantime, she never really got along with her dad. Lynne and Jamie Lynn have both written about Jamie’s battles with alcoholism. In her autobiography published in 2008, Lynne said that her ex-husband had been “barely present, never mind supportive or loving” in the final years of their marriage, which had begun in 1975. Jamie’s inability to maintain gainful employment was a further source of stress for the family’s budget. Lynne and Jamie finally separated in 2002, which Britney has called “the best thing that’s ever happened to my family.” He and Lynne declared bankruptcy in 1998, only months before the release of Britney’s breakthrough song, “Baby One More Time.”
Spears’s fascination with show business began at an early age. “Ever since I was 7 or 8 years old, my mom would have company over, and I was always performing for everybody in front of the TV,” Spears said to the Hollywood Reporter. “Even in school, I was always the oddball; when I went outside, I wanted to have Star Search competitions instead of playing.” Her enthusiasm for the stage was not limited to the performing arts. At age 8, Spears began training in gymnastics with Béla Károlyi, the former head coach of the U.S. national team.
Spears tried out for a role on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club on the Disney Channel the same year she began gymnastics. While she may not have gotten the role, Spears did fulfill a childhood ambition by performing on the hit TV program Star Search in 1992. At the age of 11, Spears made another application to the All-New Mickey Mouse Club. This time she was included in the cast among other rising stars, including Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and actress Keri Russell.
Spears made two seasons of appearances on the kids’ variety program. “We had an amazing, amazing time; we got to sing and dance and do everything,” she told the Hollywood Reporter afterward. Spears went back to Florida when the Mickey Mouse Club was canceled in 1994. She graduated from Parklane Academy in McComb, Mississippi, a short distance from the state line. Spears was an avid student-athlete.
Marriage to Kevin Federline
In January of 2004, it looked like Spears was once again rebelling, this time against her demanding work schedule. She tied the knot with longtime friend Jason Alexander in Sin City, but only two days later they called it quits. She later began dating Kevin Federline, a backup dancer. Federline’s then-girlfriend was expecting the couple’s second child. The media’s scrutiny of Spears’ private life only strengthened her connection with Federline. Spears and Federline’s wedding was still planned for September 18, 2004, and they went through with it anyhow.
Greatest Hits: My Prerogative was published not long after her wedding. Spears’ interpretation of “My Prerogative,” a Bobby Brown song, appeared to be her method of firing back at her detractors and striking out at the constant attention she received from the media. Even though it wasn’t as popular as In the Zone, the album nevertheless managed to sell over 5 million copies.
Spears seems satisfied despite her dwindling record sales. In April 2005, she and her husband shared the news that they were expecting their first child. “I find being pregnant empowering,” Spears said in an interview with People magazine. As one observer put it, “I think it brings out a pure side of you.”
Marriage to Sam Asghari and Divorce
Spears started dating Sam Asghari, an Iranian-American trainer and model, shortly after the two met on the set of the music video for her 2016 single “Slumber Party.” In June 2022, the pair tied the knot. Notably, Spears’ kids stayed behind and hadn’t seen their mom in over a year, as revealed in a TMZ exposé from May 2023.
After a trip to Hawaii with Asghari in April 2022, Spears revealed she was pregnant. A month later, however, the couple shared the news that they had indeed miscarried. Our commitment to one another is unwavering. They said, “We will continue trying to expand our beautiful family.”
Their time spent together could not last forever. In July of 2023, the two of them broke up. On August 16, alleging irreconcilable differences and demanding spousal support, Asghari filed for divorce in Los Angeles County court. In an Instagram post shortly after the split, Spears revealed the reason for the end of her relationship: “I couldn’t take the pain anymore, honestly.” I’ve been putting on an act for far too long; the perfection of my Instagram is, of course, an illusion.
Controversy Over Child Custody
Both of Spears and Federline’s boys were born in September: 2005’s Sean Preston Federline and 2006’s Jayden James Federline. When she was spotted driving with her newborn son, Sean Preston, on her lap in February 2006, the new mother found herself in quite a bit of trouble. Her parenting abilities were called into question on a national scale, and she received criticism from Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta.
Spears said she was sorry and that she had only been trying to escape the photographers. Spears took a shocking step by filing for divorce two months after the birth of Jayden, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason. Spears spent some time after her divorce in the club scene, where she was often seen with Paris Hilton and other socialites. In February of 2007, she allegedly went in and out of treatment and subsequently shaved her head in a California salon as the paparazzi watched.
During the following month, Spears checked into a California rehabilitation facility after telling the salon owner, “My mom is going to freak.” Spears and Federline were engaged in a contentious custody dispute for their two boys by the summer of 2007, at which time Spears had also become distant from her mother. A court awarded their children to Federline and Britney’s visiting rights were terminated in January 2008.
Starting a Music Career
Spears’s musical career flourished after her time in the Mickey Mouse Club. Jive Records signed her up in the end. Spears’ first song, titled “…,” was released in September 1998. A music video in which the singer danced in a skimpy replica of a Catholic schoolgirl uniform helped drive “Baby One More Time” to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart at the end of January 1999. Spears, then 17 years old, said she was a “sweet, innocent Southern girl” despite the harsh criticism from the parents of her teenage followers over her sexy costume.
Her … The album Baby One More Time debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 the same year and has since gone on to sell over 25 million copies across the globe. Spears won four honors, including Female Artist of the Year and Best New Artist, at the 1999 Billboard Music Awards. Her phenomenal success propelled her to the forefront of the adolescent pop music wave, along with other Mickey Mouse Club alums like Christina Aguilera and Jessica Simpson.
Spears’s career has skyrocketed, and her latest album, Oops!… In 2000, I Performed Once Again, with almost a million copies sold in its first week, shot straight to the top of the Billboard 200. The singer’s private life was also under the microscope since she was said to be dating Justin Timberlake, a member of the successful boy band *NSYNC.
Spears’ first step away from her wholesome persona and into a new musical direction came with the release of Britney in 2001. Her new hit “I’m a Slave 4 U” is more reminiscent of Prince than her previous bubblegum pop. Spears grabbed attention when she danced with a seven-foot albino python around her neck while performing the song at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards.
Spears’ breakout part in the 2002 film Crossroads occurred around this period. Over $60 million was made in ticket sales for the international release of this coming-of-age drama. In the spring of that year, Spears and Timberlake revealed they had split.
Spears’ performance at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards made news once again the following year. She and Aguilera kissed Madonna on stage as she sang with them. Some people believed that Spears was promoting her new, sexier public image during this intense on-stage encounter. It was during this time that Spears said that Madonna had been a major artistic influence on her.
In the Zone, Spears’ subsequent studio effort included guest vocals from Madonna on the song “Me Against the Music,” which was released to the public in the fall of that year. One of the most popular tracks from the album, “Toxic,” won Spears a Grammy in the Best Dance Recording category.
Albums like Circus, Femme Fatale, and Others
Spears had a successful guest spot on the hit comedy How I Met Your Mother just a few weeks after her personal turmoil. She returned to the MTV Video Music Awards that summer and won three trophies for her song “Piece of Me.” Spears’s next album, Circus, was released in late 2008 and quickly climbed to the top of the charts, thanks in large part to the success of her No. 1 single, “Womanizer.”
Rolling Stone critic Caryn Ganz praised the album, calling it “clubby, adventurous pop,” and Spears’s fans agreed, sending the singles “Circus” and “If You Seek Amy” into the Billboard Top 10 and Top 20. In 2011, with the release of Femme Fatale, which contained the top ten singles “I Wanna Go” and “Till the World Ends,” Spears demonstrated that she was still capable of producing potent pop music. Spears’ personal life seemed to be improving with her professional success.
She was engaged to her then-boyfriend Trawick in December 2011; however, the couple broke up in early 2013. Spears accepted a new challenge in 2012 when she became a judge on the hit singing competition program The X Factor. One season into the program, Spears decided to leave. Spears’ “most personal album ever” grabbed news after its late 2013 release, and the pop singer herself branded it her “most personal album ever” in a tweet. The album’s debut single, “Work Bitch,” was released in advance of the album itself; additional songs were “Alien,” “Perfume,” and “Passenger.” Critics were divided on Britney Jean. After three years, she released another album called Glory, which peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200.
Beginning of Conservatorship
After Jamie Spears applied for conservatorship while Britney Spears was in a mental facility in 2008, he was given legal authority over his daughter’s property and finances on February 1 of that year. There are conservatorship orders in place meant to safeguard our daughter, who is being brazenly disobeyed,” Spears’ parents said in a statement issued after their daughter was discharged from the hospital. Our only request is that the court’s directions be carried out in an effort to prevent catastrophe. Multiple times during the year, but especially on October 28th, the conservatorship was prolonged. Then, a judicial authority put Jamie in charge of her own life indefinitely.
Britney’s fiance, Jason Trawick, was named a co-conservator in 2012 and given authority over her diet, wardrobe, and medical care but not her financial resources. Fans claimed Jamie took advantage of Britney financially and utilized the conservatorship to keep her under his control over the many years the arrangement lasted. Social media users who want to see the singer reinstated into her former freedom started using the hashtag #FreeBritney.
Mental Health Issues
She overcame her own problems to release a successful album, Blackout. Spears’s “Gimme More” performance at that year’s MTV Video Music Awards, however, was a total flop. She seemed tense and uncomfortable on stage, moving slowly and hardly lip-syncing. A parking lot hit-and-run resulted in Spears’ arrest a few days later. Despite these obstacles, following its release in November, Blackout debuted at number two on the Billboard charts.
Spears looked to suffer another breakdown in January of 2008, suggesting that her return was just temporary. After she refused to give her children back to their father at the end of a court-ordered visit, she was hauled in for a mental examination. Spears had another checkup at the end of the month. There was talk that she was bipolar, but no one could confirm it. Her mother, Lynne, subsequently reflected on her daughter’s possible postpartum depression in her novel Through the Storm. Spears’ parents and manager, Sam Lutfi, fought over her when she was in the hospital. The parents felt that Lutfi was exerting too much influence on their daughter.
Residency in Las Vegas
Spears’s residency, titled Britney: Piece of Me, started the same year (2013) at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The residency was supposed to continue for two years, but the singer secured an extension that would keep her there until December 2017.
In 2015, Spears collaborated with female rap sensation Iggy Azalea for the track “Pretty Girls.” They played it together at the Billboard Music Awards in May, although the song only reached No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The pop queen donated $1 million from her ticket sales to the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation, which allowed her to oversee the launch of the Britney Spears Campus in November 2017. The fact that TV personality Robin Leach spent $10,000 on a painting she donated to an auction benefiting victims of the October 2017 gun atrocity demonstrates that she has a strong connection to the Las Vegas area.
The pop queen revealed her next tour only a few short months after her Vegas residency ended at the end of 2017. “I’m ecstatic to share the news that we’ll be bringing the #PieceOfMe tour to a few towns around the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe! late in January of 2018, she tweeted. This summer, I’ll be back in touch.
Recurring personal problems
Spears was reportedly ordered to pay Kevin Federline $100,000 in child support in August of 2018. Federline sought more money from the singer as his two sons entered adolescence than the $20,000 he was already spending each month.
Spears stated in early 2019 that she would be taking an extended leave of absence from her career to care for her sick father, Jamie, just before she was set to begin another Las Vegas residency. As the strain of caring for her ailing father became too much to bear, the news broke in April that the singer had checked into an “all-encompassing wellness treatment” facility.
Even when Spears checked out of the facility that month, fans continued to worry about her health. The singer’s mother, Lynne, was said to be seeking involvement in her daughter’s conservatorship back in May. Spears’ manager at the time, Larry Rudolph, reportedly said that she wasn’t ready to perform again.
Spears was awarded partial custody of her two kids in 2019. After an argument at Spears’ father’s house in August, Federline got a restraining order against the two boys. The attorney for Federline claims that a “disagreement” ensued when the singer brought the children to see their grandpa, leading to a “physical altercation.”
Britney Spears’s Net Worth
As of July 2023, Spears is estimated to have a net worth of $70 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. However, her financial situation has been somewhat unstable throughout the years. Forbes reported that in 2002, she made $40 million before taxes. A lawyer for her father stated in 2008, when the conservatorship began, that the total worth of his daughter’s assets was just $2.8 million. She probably got her financial footing back when she put out additional albums and went on tour.
According to Caesars Entertainment, she made $137.7 million during her five-year Las Vegas residency. As of 2021, Spears had a $60 million fortune, according to The New York Times. She claimed at the time that her conservatorship provided her with a weekly payment of $2,000, while her father earned $16,000 per month in his role as conservator.
End of Conservatorship and Related Documentaries
Spears allegedly sought for the conservatorship to be terminated during a hearing she and her mother attended in May 2019. After just four months, Britney’s father temporarily granted conservatorship to her guardian, Jodi Montgomery, citing health concerns. In August 2020, the conservatorship was extended for another year, and later that year, Spears declared she would no longer perform with her father as conservator since she preferred having Montgomery handle her money.
The publication of two films about conservatorship in 2021 sparked widespread interest in the topic. Episode one of The New York Times Presents on FX, titled “Framing Britney Spears,” premiered first. A number of the singer’s friends and family members were interviewed for an episode shown in February 2021. Britney Spears’ conservatorship and charges that it was used as a means of control were the subject of the second episode, Controlling Britney Spears, which aired in September.
Netflix also released a documentary on Spears’ conservatorship and the ensuing controversy in September called Britney Vs. Spears. The singer’s friends and former colleagues were interviewed for a CNN documentary called Toxic: Britney Spears’ Battle for Freedom. There were demonstrations in favor of the #FreeBritney hashtag as adoring fans surrounded the actress.
In June 2021, after being under conservatorship for 13 years, Spears presented a 24-minute statement to the court. She added that she felt abused by the arrangement and said, “I just want my life back.” “I am frustrated and sad. Every day, I weep.
A month after filing to terminate the conservatorship, Spears and her attorney did so. The situation gained so much attention that in August 2021, her father decided to resign as conservator and promptly filed a petition to terminate the arrangement. The conservatorship was officially terminated in November of that year. Spears regained authority over her estate and was released from the need to pay a conservator.
After her conservatorship was lifted, Fox broadcast TMZ Investigates: Britney Spears: The Price of Freedom in May 2023. In an Instagram post, Spears was quite critical of the show, calling TMZ the “trashiest news channel” and claiming that the media has “always been cruel to me.”
Some Memoirs and Other Books
Spears and her mother Lynne have co-authored two books: the 2000 memoir Brittney Spears’ Heart to Heart, which provided an insider’s look at Britney’s career, and the 2001 young adult novel A Mother’s Gift.
In 2008, after their very public spat, Lynne released Through the Storm. The book describes how the family coped with Britney’s success and stardom.
Based on interviews with the singer’s friends, bandmates, and other members of her inner circle, writer Steve Dennis published an unauthorized biography the following year titled Britney: Inside the Dream.
On October 24, 2023, Spears will release The Woman in Me, her first autobiography. Page Six reports that Britney’s divorce from Sam Asghari will not be included in the book, which instead will concentrate on her professional life and conservatorship and which claims to present Britney’s “own story, on her own terms, at last.”
A week before the book’s publication, People released a passage in which Spears revealed she was pregnant while dating ex-NSYNC member Justin Timberlake and later had an abortion. I would have never done it if it were up to me alone. She claimed that despite Justin’s certainty that he didn’t want to be a parent, she consented to the surgery. Timberlake and his reps have remained silent on Spears’ allegations.
