‘Scandal’ Star Columbus Short Claims He Hooked Up With Britney Spears After ‘A Wild Party’ In The Early ’00s

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Columbus Short — who worked as a backup dancer, choreographer and producer with Britney Spears — claimed that he once got “intimate” with the pop princess in 2003. The 38-year-old Scandal star made the claim in his 2020 autobiography Short Stories, alleging that a “wild party” led up to the hookup. “[Britney] sent us a jet, and just like that, we were in New York having a wild party for my 21st birthday,” Columbus wrote to begin his hookup story.

Columbus recalled that the party crowd was “going crazy”  at “Keith Richards‘ apartment uptown.” He further wrote, “[Britney] was on me like white on rice, and would not leave me alone the entire night. Britney had her eyes on the prize and wasn’t about to stop until she got what she wanted.”

“I really tried my best, but this girl put on the full-court press,” the Stomp The Yard actor continued in his autobiography, adding, “We ended up being intimate that one time. I never slept with her again after that, though. This was a dangerous sexual alliance for every reason under sun, and I think that the worst part of it was that I was making the rumors an actual reality.” Britney, however, has not confirmed Columbus’s claims about their alleged hookup.

At the time, Columbus and Britney were traveling to film the 2003 music video for “Me Against the Music,” according to Columbus. He also claimed that Britney’s manager “was growing more upset with the continued press,” and the brief flirtation ended soon after a game of truth or dare in which Britney allegedly said she’d marry Columbus. Meanwhile, Columbus instead chose the woman he was dating at the time as his hypothetical bride.

“I was fired not too long after that, and Britney changed her number so I couldn’t contact her,” Columbus claimed, and offered advice for his readers: “Don’t s–t where you eat, even if you really have to go.” Regardless, Columbus only remembered Britney with fondness and revealed his opinion on the 39-year-old singer’s controversial conservatorship.

“After that I felt like maybe [Britney] was using me to piss them off for some reason. I think she is a really sweet person that was tormented in a position on a high level that I can’t imagine. I liken it to Princess Diana. She was the pop princess,” Columbus wrote. “Britney couldn’t go nowhere — her world [was] completely controlled in this bubble. There would be times that she would act out, and I don’t blame her. She was trying to find her way. I love Britney to this day…I feel bad for her. I wish the world knew the Britney I knew.”

The professional dancer and choreographer released his autobiography in Sept. 2020, amid Britney’s legal fight to kick her dad, Jamie Spears, off her conservatorship. Except for a break he took for medical reasons in Sept. 2019, Jamie has been his daughter’s conservator since 2008. This means that Jamie has long held control over his daughter’s finances and major life decisions.

This wasn’t Columbus’s first time detailing his alleged fling with Britney. In 2004, Columbus claimed that he and the “Toxic” songstress slept together — just not sexually. “It’s true I slept with Britney, [but] we never had sex because another person was in the room at the time,” he told Star at the time. “We shared a bed and were really close, kissing and hugging. The chemistry was magical…our feelings were so strong.”