Britney Spears has recalled her harrowing childhood and teen years in her new memoir, The Woman In Me.
In the bombshell book, the singer, 41, claimed her father Jamie would fat shame her as a child during wild drinking binges, drank cocktails with her mother Lynne when she was 13 and felt like a ‘child robot’ in the Mickey Mouse club.
Britney also made the heartbreaking revelation she had an abortion when she was 19-years-old after falling pregnant by Justin Timberlake.
Here we take a look at Britney’s account of her tough childhood and teenage years and how it shaped her into becoming the Princess of Pop and selling 150 million records worldwide…
Father ‘would berate her weight during drinking binges’
tough read: Britney Spears has recalled her harrowing childhood and teen 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 fat shame her as a child during wild drinking binges and felt like a ‘child robot’ in the Mickey Mouse club
Britney slammed her father Jamie, claiming he fat-shamed her and was verbally abusive during drinking binges when she was a child.
In the book, set to be released on October 24, the Grammy-winning singer took aim on multiple fronts against Jamie, 71, who is most prominently known for his controversial overseeing of her conservatorship from 2008-2021.
According to excerpts viewed by The Sun, the singer accused Jamie of bullying her over her weight and of being ‘mean, apathetic and cold’ after ‘drinking until he couldn’t think’.
The singer was scared to drive in the car with him not knowing how much he had consumed.
‘Dad drank until he couldn’t think,’ Britney said in the book, according to The Sun. ‘He disappeared from home for several days at a time. And when he was drunk, he got really mean.’
The singer claimed Jamie’s battle with alcohol had a significant impact on his ability to provide for his family on financial and emotional levels.
Pop princess: Britney has shared her account of her tough childhood and teenage years and how it shaped her into becoming the Princess of Pop and selling 150 million records worldwid
‘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 used to talk to himself while driving. I didn’t even understand what he said. He seemed to be in his own world.’
Britney said in hindsight, she believes Jamie’s drinking and parenting problems were the result of an abusive upbringing he suffered 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. ‘To me, the saddest thing was that I had always just wanted a father who loved me just the way I was – someone who said, “I love you, period. You can do anything. I would love you forever unconditionally.”‘
Britney said after she hit pop superstardom, her father repeatedly scrutinized her appearance.
He ‘repeatedly told me I looked fat and that I was going to have to do something about it,’ she said.
Using singing as a comfort
Talent: Britney said she often isolate and would sing 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 isolate and would sing to herself amid the confusing times of her upbringing.
‘Feeling like you’re never good enough is a soul-crushing state of being for a child,’ she wrote in the book.
‘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.’
Drinking cocktails with her mum
Teenage years: Britney claimed she was allowed to drink alcohol when she was only in 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 during short road trips after The All-New Mickey Mouse Club ended in 1995.
The star – who would have been 13 or 14 at the time – said she had just returned to her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana and would go for two-hour drives with her mother to Biloxi, Mississippi to indulge in ‘toddies’.
In an excerpt published by People on Tuesday, she admitted they did that occasionally as compared to her father’s alleged, more concerning drinking habits.
The Toxic hitmaker — who detailed the unrelenting control her father had over her in her explosive tell-all — said she only yearned for ‘normalcy’ as a teenager but realized that her family really was not ‘normal’.
‘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,’ she wrote in her book.
‘We called our cocktails “toddies”,’ she recalled. ‘I loved that I was about to drink with my mom every now and then.’
She made a point to note that ‘the way we drank was nothing like how my father did it’.
‘When he drank, he grew more depressed and shut down,’ she recalled. ‘We became happier, more alive and adventurous.’
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 1990s)
Britney, who appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club as a young teen, said she ‘became a robot’ as she emotionally coped with the issues.
‘But not just a robot – a sort of child-robot,’ she said. ‘I had been so infantilized that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself.’
Britney said eventually she started to miss performing after enjoying time at home – a period of her life she described as ‘something so beautifully normal’ when she got to go to school dances.
She ended up scoring a record deal with Jive Records at the age of 15 and became one of the biggest stars in the world.
Abortion at 19
Heartbreaking: Britney got pregnant by Justin Timberlake in 2000 with the singer undergoing an abortion because the N*Sync star ‘didn’t want to be a father’ (pictured in 2002)
Britney got pregnant by Justin Timberlake in 2000 with the singer undergoing an abortion because the N*Sync star ‘didn’t want to be a father’.
The singer, who dated Timberlake, 42, from 1999-2002, conceived in late 2000 when the pair were both 19.
The star claimed while she wanted the baby and ‘dreamed of having a family’ with Timberlake, he ‘wasn’t ready’ for the responsibilities of parenthood and thought the pair were too young.
She writes in an excerpt obtained by People: ‘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.
‘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 star said the abortion was ‘one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life’ in the memoir – set for release on October 24.
It was also claimed in the book Spears reveals she was raised ‘not to get an abortion’ due to religious reasons and what she had learned from her family, reports TMZ.
DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Timberlake, Spears and Simon & Schuster for comment.
