Britney Spears: snippets of star's 'bombshell' memoir released

Britney Spears has revealed that she had an abortion while dating fellow pop star and former Mouseketeer Justin Timberlake in an excerpt from her upcoming memoir shared with People magazine.

Spears said that her pregnancy was "a surprise", but she had "always" thought the pair would have a family together – "this was just much earlier than I'd anticipated". But, she writes, Justin "was so sure that he didn't want to be a father". She describes the pregnancy's termination as "one of the most agonising things I have ever experienced in my life".

After living under a 13-year conservatorship that ended in 2021, Spears told People: "I was finally free to tell my story without consequences from the people in charge of my life". Her "bombshell" book, "The Woman in Me", will be released next week.

Her background

Spears was "a born performer, a scene-stealer at dance recitals starting at age three", said The New Yorker. Her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, "worked hard together" to make Britney "happy and a success", ferrying her to dance competitions and auditions from her home in Kentwood, Louisiana.

She "snagged" a Broadway understudy role, then went on to join "The Mickey Mouse Club" at the age of 11. In her memoir, Spears described the show as a "bootcamp for the entertainment industry" and "exceptionally hard work", adding it was also "a kid's dream – unbelievably fun".

When the show finished, Spears went back to Kentwood. "For a minute, I had to let normalcy win," she writes in her memoir. But at 15, her star would once again rise as she signed a record deal with Jive Records.

"A precise and commanding dancer with an unmistakable vocal tone of sugary coyness, Spears emerged as a teen-pop singularity," said The New Yorker. The 1998 music video for "…Baby One More Time" "exploded across American pop culture like fireworks on the Fourth of July".

As she and Timberlake's "careers skyrocketed" the following year, the pair confirmed they were dating – but the relationship ended three years later. The break-up "destabilised" Spears, and "her sex life became a regular topic in the news", said The New Yorker. She started going out with Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, "a holy trinity for tabloid culture at its early-two-thousands peak".

In 2004, Spears married dancer Kevin Federline. Together, they have two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James. At the time, paparazzi "chased her down" regularly, said the magazine, "eager to monetize mistakes". She and Federline split in 2006, weeks after Jayden James was born, and Spears found herself "the target of tabloid blood sport".

In 2007, Spears shaved her hair and, days later, attacked a photographer's car with an umbrella, the magazine continued. The incidents "cemented her image as 'crazy'". There were reports that the singer was struggling with alcohol and drugs, and with her mental health, and a judge awarded Federline primary custody of their children.

Spears' father, Jamie, was appointed co-conservator over her personal and financial affairs alongside lawyer Andrew Wallet in February 2008 as a temporary measure. The arrangement was made permanent in October that year, and remained in place until November 2021, following a long legal battle.

The latest

"Sometimes it's difficult to tell how Britney Spears has really been doing" since her conservatorship ended, said E!. Now "left to her own devices", "it's not as if life all of a sudden became uncomplicated".

In June 2022 Spears married Sam Asghari, her partner since 2017. Asghari had "unflinchingly" stood by the singer's side during the "contentious" legal battle over her conservatorship, said Harper's Bazaar. The wedding was "a fairy tale come to life".

But 14 months later the pair announced they were separating. TMZ reported that a "nuclear argument" involving "allegations of cheating" had brought an end to their relationship. Spears' behaviour had been "erratic" at times, the news site said, and Asghari had been at his "wits' end".

Meanwhile, Spears' relationship with her family appears to still be healing. The singer "heatedly took issue" with her sister Jamie Lynn's "bombshell memoir 'Things I Should Have Said'", published last year, said E!. But Spears has "reconnected in person" with both her mum and her sister since.

Fans and followers continue to closely watch Spears' Instagram account. She recently posted "worrisome videos of herself dancing with knives", causing police to perform a "wellness check" due to concerns raised by "somebody close" to the star, said Page Six.

Spears confirmed in April last year that she had been working on a book. The writing process had been "healing and therapeutic", she wrote on an Instagram post that has since been deleted, and cited by The Hollywood Reporter. Asghari commented on the post, saying: "I'm buying the first copy."

"The Woman in Me" features "often-brutal truths" from her career and her conservatorship, said People. "Hopefully", the book "will be only the beginning of Spears feeling empowered to tell her own stories, on her terms", said Vogue's Emma Specter.