Britney Spears unpacked a lot of her personal life in her new memoir, The Woman in Me. The book — which hits bookstands on October 24 — takes readers through her conservatorship, infamous relationship with Justin Timberlake and rise to stardom. For all of Britney’s most shocking bombshells from her memoir, keep reading.
All of Britney’s Claims About Justin Timberlake
Britney and Justin’s first kiss was during a game of “Truth or Dare” with their All-New Mickey Mouse Club castmates, she recalled in the book. Once they began dating, Britney and Justin’s passionate relationship took a turn for the worse.
The “Toxic” artist confirmed that cheating rumors surrounding her past romance with the NSYNC band member were true — they both allegedly stepped out on their relationship. In one portion of the book, Britney claimed that Justin hooked up with “another celebrity,” whose name was not included because she “now has a family” and Britney didn’t want to “embarrass” her.
The Princess of Pop also admitted to cheating on her ex-boyfriend with dancer and choreographer Wade Robson. However, she and Justin allegedly “agreed to move past” the infidelity.
Cheating wasn’t the only problem Britney and Justin had, though. According to the “Everytime” singer, she got pregnant while dating Justin and got an abortion because he “wasn’t happy about the pregnancy.”
“He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young,” Britney wrote. “It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated.”
After undergoing the procedure, Britney reportedly cried, and Justin attempted to comfort her by playing music.
As for who ended their tumultuous relationship — which lasted from 1999 to 2002 — Britney revealed how “devastated” she was when Justin broke up with her through a text.
“I was comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood,” she wrote. However, this wasn’t news to many of Britney’s fans. In 2022, music video director Chris Applebaum reflected on how he motivated Britney to film the video for “Overprotected (Darkchild Remix).”
“I told her she should get out there [and] show Justin he made the biggest mistake of his life,” Chris wrote via Instagram at the time, adding, “Let me recommend to any who reads this: don’t break up via text!”
Justin’s 2002 track “Cry Me a River” was inspired by his relationship with Britney, and the singer shared her reaction to the music video in her memoir. When breaking down the video’s plot, Britney wrote that it was about “a woman who looks like me cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain,” per People. The “Gimme More” singer explained how she felt that the response to the video had painted her unfairly. She said that she was portrayed as a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.”
Justin has not publicly responded to any of Britney’s claims in her memoir.
How Britney’s Conservatorship ‘Infantilized’ Her
The multi-award-winning pop star recalled felling like a “robot” when she was placed under her conservatorship in 2008.
“But not just a robot — a sort of child-robot,” Britney wrote. “I had been so infantilized that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself. The conservatorship stripped me of my womanhood, made me into a child. I became more of an entity than a person onstage. I had always felt music in my bones and my blood; they stole that from me.”
Britney later reflected on how “thirteen years went by with [her] feeling like a shadow of [herself].”
“I think back now on my father [Jamie Spears] and his associates having control over my body and my money for that long, and it makes me feel sick,” she pointed out.
In another section of the book, Britney recalled how her father’s security team would run invasive background checks on any man who tried to date her.
“When someone wanted to date me, the security team who answered to my father would run a background check on him, make him sign an NDA and even have him submit to a blood test,” she wrote. “Before a date, [Lou Taylor’s employee Robin Greenhill] would tell the man my medical and sexual history. To be clear: this was before the first date. … The whole thing was humiliating.”
Drinking ‘Toddies’ With Mom Lynne Spears
While she bluntly delved into her father’s “control” over her, Britney also opened up about her mother, Lynne Spears. In one chapter of the memoir, Britney alleged that Lynne gave her alcohol when she was barely a teenager.
“For fun, starting when I was in eighth grade, my mom and I would make the two-hour drive from Kentwood to Biloxi, Mississippi, and while we were there, we would drink daiquiris,” Britney explained. “We called our cocktails ‘toddies.’ I loved that I was able to drink with my mom every now and then. The way we drank was nothing like how my father did it. When he drank, he grew more depressed and shut down. We became happier, more alive and adventurous.”
Britney Spears' 2001 VMAs Performance pic.twitter.com/7Ln4QWbYk1
— Love, Danny 🍂 (@DannyWxo) August 28, 2023
Her ‘Terrifying’ 2001 VMAs Snake Performance
After she signed with Jive Records at 15 years old, Britney embarked on her music career. While looking back on her record-breaking 2001 MTV Video Music Awards performance, she confessed to feeling afraid of the large snake that she had to carry around on stage.
“The plan was for me to sing ‘I’m a Slave 4 U,’ and we decided I would use a snake as a prop. It’s become an iconic moment in VMAs history, but it was even more terrifying than it appeared,” she admitted. “All I knew was to look down because I felt if I looked up and caught its eye, it would kill me.”
She continued, “In my head I was saying, ‘Just perform, just use your legs and perform.’ But what nobody knows is that as I was singing, the snake brought its head right around to my face, right up to me, and started hissing. I was thinking, ‘Are you f**king serious right now? The f**king goddamn snake’s tongue is flicking out at me. Right. Now.’ Finally, I got to the part where I handed it back, thank God.”
What the ‘Drug of Choice’ Was
Another excerpt obtained by PEOPLE revealed that Britney insisted she “never had a drinking problem” despite how the media presented her and friends Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan through the 2000s. Though she didn’t prefer hard drugs, the pop star used Adderall, a medication used for ADHD.
Adderall, Britney wrote, “made me high, yes, but what I found far more appealing was that it gave me a few hours of feeling less depressed.”
Her Head-Shaving Incident
In 2007, Britney chose to shave her head while paparazzi swarmed her to take her picture. As a result from the constant chaos she faced from photographers, Britney was seen hitting one of their cars with an umbrella, which she recalled in her book.
“With my head shaved, everyone was scared of me, even my mom,” she revealed. “Flailing those weeks without my children, I lost it, over and over again. I didn’t even really know how to take care of myself.”
Britney delved deeper into the ordeal, adding that she was “willing to admit that in the throes of severe postpartum depression, abandonment by my husband, the torture of being separated from my two babies, the death of my adored aunt Sandra, and the constant drumbeat of pressure from paparazzi, I’d begin to think in some ways like a child.”
Why Britney and Kevin Federline Divorced
Britney felt that the reason behind her and ex-husband Kevin Federline’s divorce was because he became “enthralled” by “fame and power.”
“One time, he came home late and told me he’d been at a party,” she recalled. “‘Justin Timberlake was there!’ he said. ‘Lindsay Lohan was, too!’ Kevin was so enthralled with the fame and power. Again and again in my life I’ve seen fame and money ruin people, and I saw it happen with Kevin in slow motion.”
