Britney Spears’ memoir revelations – from why she shaved her head to shock teen abortion

Pop sensation Britney Spears was once the staple of any 90s and 00s childhood, with a constant stream of undeniable ear worm tracks still popular on playlists today.

But while the princess of pop appeared to be living the high life, with everything from fashion deals to her very own perfume under her belt, behind the scenes of her glamorous life, things weren’t as rosy as they had initially appeared.

Now, as part of her upcoming memoir, The Woman In Me, Britney has set the record straight on a few common misconceptions about her life, while also opening up about some of her most raw and vulnerable experiences, which reportedly included having an abortion at 19, after her boyfriend at the time Justin Timberlake, didn’t feel ready for parenthood.

Ahead of the book’s highly anticipated release next week, we take a closer look at some of the revelations revealed in the book so far.

Struggle with fame

In the first preview of her new book, Britney admitted that life in the spotlight hadn’t been all that it was cracked up to be, as it constantly left her feeling as if she was “living on the edge of a cliff.”

Sharing the first extract on social media, Britney told her followers: “I envy people who know how to make fame work.

“My demeanour was innocent. It wasn’t an act. I didn’t know what I was doing. I felt like I was living on the edge of a cliff.”

The iconic singer first stepped into the limelight in 1989, when she became a part ofThe All-New Mickey Mouse Club alongside Ryan Gosling, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.

However, it wasn’t until her teenage years that she was catapulted to megastardom with her first two studio albums, …Baby One More Time in 1999 and Oops!… I Did It Again in 2000.

Although fame may been something many of us could only dream about, it came with several strings attached that Britney hadn’t been prepared for, including a conservatorship order to control her finances.

It was this conservatorship that Britney also made reference to in her preview post, as the singer expressed her deepest gratitude for her supporters over the years, in particular those that championed the #FreeBritney moment as she challenged her conservatorship.

The star wrote: “If you stood up for me when I couldn’t stand up for myself, thank you.”

Infamous head shaving

In 2007, Britney infamously made the decision to shave off all her hair while at a hair salon in Tarzana, Los Angeles, just one day after she had checked out of a rehab facility in Antigua.

The impulsive act was a result of being caught up in a very public and painful divorce with her husband Kevin Federline, with Britney confessing it had been a way of “pushing back” at things she didn’t have control over in her life.

In an excerpt from her memoir published in People, Britney wrote: “I’d been eyeballed so much growing up. I’d been looked up and down, had people telling me what they thought of my body, since I was a teenager.

“Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back.”

However, as cathartic a moment as it may have been, as a consequence of her impulsive actions, Britney’s father was granted a court-ordered conservatorship in 2008, which allowed him to take control of his daughter’s financial and personal affairs, as it was deemed she wasn’t able to make those choices herself.

Under her father’s rules, Britney was forced to “grow her hair out again and get back into shape” as a clear sign she could no longer rebel against the controlling forces in her life, which also included having to take “whatever medication” she was instructed to take, and go to bed early, despite being a grown woman.

Fighting her conservatorship

Another common theme throughout the book, is Britney’s critical opinion of her father Jamie, and the conservatorship that dominated her life for 13 years.

In excerpts obtained byPeople , Britney recalled the harrowing details of her father’s influence in her life, as he “controlled her body and her money” and “hurt” her with “fat” jibes.

Looking back on the experience, Britney said it made her “feel sick” as she recalled the intense scrutiny her father had shown her.

The singer wrote: “If I thought getting criticized about my body in the press was bad, it hurt even more from my own father. He repeatedly told me I looked fat and that I was going to have to do something about it.'

She continued:”'Feeling like you're never good enough is a soul-crushing state of being for a child. He'd drummed that message into me as a girl, and even after I'd accomplished so much, he was continuing to do that to me.

“I became a robot. But not just a robot — a sort of child-robot. I had been so infantilized that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself.”

During her 13 year conservatorship, Britney also explained how she had been left “feeling like a shadow” of herself, before concluding: “I didn’t deserve what my family did to me.”

Teen abortion

One unexpected revelation to come out of Britney’s memoir, is her candid admission that she had undergone an abortion at the age of 19, after falling pregnant with her then-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake’s baby.

Britney said she had always "expected" the couple would have a family together one day, but Justin felt the couple "were way too young” to embark on parenthood at such a young age.

The Hit Me Baby singer penned in an excerpt obtained byPeople: "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."

She continued: "But Justin definitely 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.”

"I’m sure people will hate me for this, but I agreed not to have the baby. I don’t know if that was the right decision. If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”

The abortion also carried with it an extra burden for Britney, as she had been born and raised in the Bible Belt, where there had been a long established opposition to abortion on religious grounds.

“To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life,” confessed the star.

Britney’s upcoming memoir: The Woman In Me will be released by Simon & Schuster on 24 October

Source: Read Full Article