four moments from Britney Spears’ memoir, “The Woman in Me”

The confession book Lhas Woman in me (JC Lattès editions)by pop princess Britney Spears comes out Tuesday, October 24 in bookstores in around twenty countries, with new revelations on key moments in the artist’s career. Here are four.

Violent family life

“At home I was afraid“, writes the singer from the first pages of her book. The reason? Her father, Jamie Spears, who controlled all aspects of her personal and professional life for thirteen years. Described as an alcoholic and violent, he had no ceases, over the years, to “belittle“. It is in this context that she says she started drinking at the age of 13, with her mother.

The singer traces the family thread to try to explain the origin of this violence. Like when she returns to her paternal grandmother, Jean. Interned by her grandfather, she committed suicide at the age of 31 on her infant’s grave.

Woman child

To remain forever the 17-year-old girl who established herself in the hearts of millions of people at the time of her hit Baby One More Time : this is what the singer fought for for years. At the same time, she admits to having suffered from Benjamin Button syndrome. A reference to the eponymous film with Brad Pitt, inspired by the short story of the same name written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which features a man who is born old and who becomes younger over the years. This is precisely what the star says she experienced at several points in her life.

First during her breakup with Justin Timberlake, where she cloistered herself at home, never leaving her bed, like a child, for days. Then at the birth of her children, where she describes having the feeling of “become a baby again“More generally, the fact of having been under guardianship considerably infantilized her, to the point of not knowing how to be a “adult woman“.

Justin Timberlake: the star couple of the 2000s

He was her great love. However, the pop star has never released the details of their separation to the public. This is now done in the book where she explains having been “devastated“when Justin Timberlake broke up”by text” with her. When he stages their breakup in his music video Cry Me a River, going so far as to choose an actress resembling Britney Spears, she remains silent, accepting in silence while she is thrown out to the media. The cause ? She allegedly cheated on her partner. If she admits to having cheated on the singer only once, this was, according to her, commonplace with him.

Described by the media as a “streak“, she is forced, by her father, to give an interview to the American journalist Diane Sawyer who asks her what she did to Timberlake to cause him harm.”so much pain“.”I felt like I was taken advantage of“, she wrote. “Trapped in front of the whole world“.

Thirteen years of guardianship

“Britney Spears, it’s me“, her father will tell her when she tries to question the guardianship which confiscated thirteen years of her life. “If I was unable to make decisions, why was I considered capable of performing in public?“, she writes in reference to the 200 shows she gave, under supervision, during her residency in Las Vegas.

“For two years, I ate almost nothing but chicken and canned vegetables. (..) I was begging for a hamburger or an ice cream“, she says. She talks at length about her internment in 2019 in the book. On antidepressants and lithium, “I was half dead“, she wrote. “I felt like someone wanted to kill me“, she said again. And to praise “a strength in (her)” which allowed him to hold on and rebel.