Britney Spears recalls her harrowing childhood and teenage years in her new memoir, The Woman In Me.
In the book, the 41-year-old singer claimed her father Jamie would shame her during wild drinking binges as a child, drink cocktails with her mother Lynne when she was 13 and feel like a “kid robot” at the Mickey Mouse club.
Britney also made the heartbreaking revelation that she had an abortion at the age of 19 after becoming pregnant with Justin Timberlake.
Here we look at Britney’s account of her troubled childhood and teenage years and how it shaped her into becoming the Princess of Pop and selling 150 million records worldwide…
Father ‘targeted her weight during drinking binges’
hard read: Britney Spears has recalled her harrowing childhood and teenage years in her new memoir, The Woman In Me (pictured with her father Jamie in 2008)
Her story: In the bombshell book, the singer, 41, claimed her father Jamie would shame her during wild drinking binges as a child and feel like a ‘kid robot’ at the Mickey Mouse club
Britney slammed her dad Jamie, claiming he fat-shamed her and was verbally abusive during drinking binges when she was a child.
In the book, out Oct. 24, the Grammy-winning singer took aim at 71-year-old Jamie, who is best known for his controversial supervision of her conservatorship from 2008-2021, on multiple fronts.
According to excerpts viewed by The sunthe singer accused Jamie of bullying her about her weight and being “mean, apathetic and cold” after “drinking until he couldn’t think anymore.”
The singer was afraid to ride in the car with him without knowing how much he had drunk.
“Dad drank until he couldn’t think anymore,” Britney said in the book, according to The Sun. ‘He disappeared from home for several days in a row. And when he was drunk he became very mean.”
The singer claimed that Jamie’s battle with alcohol had a significant impact on his ability to provide for his family financially and emotionally.
Pop Princess: Britney has shared her story about her troubled childhood and teenage years and how it shaped her into becoming the Princess of Pop and selling 150 million records worldwide
“The stress of not having any money was compounded by the chaos caused by Dad’s extreme mood swings,” Britney said. ‘I was especially afraid to get in the car with him because he talked to himself while driving. I didn’t even understand what he said. He seemed to be in his own world.”
Britney said in retrospect she believes Jamie’s drinking and parenting problems were the result of a poor upbringing he received at the hands of his father June Spears.
“At the time, I had no idea why he was so hard on us, and why nothing we ever did seemed good enough in his eyes,” Britney said in the memoir. ‘For me, the saddest thing was that I always just wanted a dad who loved me for who I was – someone who said, ‘I love you, period. You can do anything. I would love you unconditionally forever. “
Britney said that after she became a pop superstar, her father repeatedly scrutinized her appearance.
He “repeatedly told me that I looked fat and that I should do something about it,” she said.
Using singing as comfort
Talent: Britney said she often isolated herself and sang to herself amid the confusing times of her upbringing. In 2003, the singer released the song Everytime, in which critics praised the lyrics
Britney said she often isolated herself and sang to herself amid the confusing times of her upbringing.
“Feeling like you are never good enough is a crushing state of being for a child,” she wrote in the book.
“He had instilled that message in me as a girl, and even after I had achieved so much, he continued to do that to me.”
Drinking cocktails with her mother at the age of thirteen
Teenage years: Britney claimed she was allowed to drink alcohol when she was as young as eighth grade (the singer pictured with father Jamie, brother Bryan and mother Lynne in 2006)
Britney claimed she was allowed to drink alcohol when she was only in eighth grade.
The singer said she drank daiquiris with her mother Lynne on short road trips after the All-New Mickey Mouse Club ended in 1995.
The star – who would have been 13 or 14 years old at the time – said she had just returned to her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana and was going to drive two hours to Biloxi, Mississippi with her mother to enjoy “toddies.”
In an excerpt published by People On Tuesday, she admitted that they did that occasionally compared to her father’s alleged drinking habits.
The Toxic hitmaker – who detailed the brutal control her father had over her in her explosive tell-all account – said she only longed for ‘normality’ as a teenager, but realized her family really wasn’t ‘normal’.
“For fun, starting when I was in eighth grade, my mother and I would make the two-hour drive from Kentwood to Biloxi, Mississippi, and while we were there we would drink daiquiris,” she wrote in her book.
“We called our cocktails ‘toddies,’” she recalls. “I loved having drinks with my mother every now and then.”
She noted that “the way we drank was nothing like the way my father did it.”
“When he drank, he became more depressed and shut down,” she recalls. ‘We have become happier, more vibrant and more adventurous.’
I became a child robot’
Stars: Britney, who appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club as a young teen, said she “became a robot” on the show (Justin Timberlake, Britney, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling in the 1990s)
Britney, who appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club as a young teen, said she “became a robot” as she dealt with the issues emotionally.
“But not just any robot, a kind of child robot,” she said. “I had become so infantilized that I lost pieces of what made me feel like myself.”
Britney said she eventually started missing the gig after enjoying her time at home – a period of her life she described as “such a beautiful normal” when she had to go to school dances.
She eventually scored a recording contract with Jive Records at the age of 15 and became one of the biggest stars in the world.
Abortion at age 19
Heartbreaking: Britney became pregnant by Justin Timberlake in 2000 while the singer had an abortion because the N*Sync star ‘didn’t want to be a father’ (pictured in 2002)
Britney became pregnant by Justin Timberlake in 2000, and the singer had an abortion because the N*Sync star ‘didn’t want to be a father’.
The singer, who was in a relationship with 42-year-old Timberlake from 1999 to 2002, became pregnant in late 2000 when the couple were both 19.
The star claimed that while she wanted the baby and “dreamed of a family” with Timberlake, he “wasn’t ready” for the responsibilities of parenthood and felt the couple was too young.
She writes this in an excerpt obtained by People: ‘It was a surprise, but for me it was not a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected that one day we would start a family together. This would just be a lot sooner than I expected.
“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 up to me alone, I would never have done it. And yet Justin was so sure he didn’t want to be a father.’
The star said the abortion was “one of the most painful things I have ever experienced in my life” in the memoir, which is released on October 24.
The book also claims that Spears reveals that she was raised “not to have an abortion” due to religious reasons and what she learned from her family, reports TMZ.
DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Timberlake, Spears and Simon & Schuster for comment.