The first excerpts from Britney Spears’ forthcoming memoir, The Woman in Me, have been released, revealing that she allegedly had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake and describing the cruelty she allegedly endured while under the conservatorship arrangement.
Datewithhistory in the United States released excerpts from the book before its October 24 release, and in them, Spears says, “For me, [the pregnancy] wasn’t a tragedy. 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. He stated that we were too young to have children and that we weren’t prepared for the responsibility. Maybe it wasn’t the wisest choice. I would have never done it if it were up to me alone. Yet Justin was certain that he never wanted to become a parent. Between 1999 and 2002, while they were both in their early 20s, the pair dated. Timberlake has been silent in response to Spears’ story.
Spears states, “Thirteen years went by with me feeling like a shadow of myself,” in reference to her time under conservatorship. It makes me sick to my stomach to remember how long my father and his accomplices had power over my body and my finances. Actually, you might say I got my robot on. A robot, indeed, but also a robot hybrid in the form of a kid. I was losing bits of who I was because I was being infantilized to such an extent. For a very long period, I repressed the female side of myself. They demanded that I act crazily on stage and robotically off of it.
Jamie Spears, Britney’s father, has not commented on the excerpts but has previously supported the conservatorship arrangement, which includes limiting Jamie’s access to his daughter and requiring that he pay her instead of her. Without the conservatorship, where would Britney be at this point? … In December of 2022, he added, “I don’t know if she’d be alive.” Conservatorship was a fantastic tool for shielding her and the kids from harm. I really doubt she would have gotten the kids back without that.
Spears testified in court in 2021 that she was coerced into using birth control and taking drugs against her will, among other shocking accusations about the conservatorship that led to her release in November of that year. Prior to the conservatorship’s breakdown, Jamie Spears was removed from the arrangement.
In her book, Spears reiterates accusations that were made against her father in court and in a voice recording that she posted online in August 2022 and then erased. A child’s belief that he or she would never measure up is described as “a soul-crushing state of being” in her writing. Even after everything I had done, he was still telling me that I was nothing special because I was a woman.
She continues, “Onstage, I was more of a thing than a person.” They robbed me of the melody that was constantly in my veins and marrow. What happened to me at home was not fair… It put an end to whatever artistic inspiration I could have had.
Spears claims that the historic event in which she got her head shorn was a response to the criticism she has endured since her late teenage chart successes. Since she was a teenager, “I’d been looked up and down and had people telling me what they thought of my body,” she writes. I retaliated by cutting off my hair and acting out. However, the conservator informed me that “those days were over.”
She also briefly acted in the newly re-released film Crossroads, and some of the excerpts reference her early days in the entertainment world, her snake-draped performance at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, and her short acting career. “It wasn’t a picnic,” she adds of filming. I may have dabbled in method acting, except that I never learned to “break character.” My acting career began and ended with it, and I couldn’t have been happier about it.
Spears has recorded again, most notably with Elton John on “Hold Me Closer” and Will. I am on “Mind Your Business,” both released after her conservatorship ended.i.am. She tied the knot with her longtime beau, Sam Asghari, but the marriage didn’t last.
