From her childhood in the US South to the constant infantilization she endured, including her split from Justin Timberlake, here are some highlights from Britney Spears’ memoir, which AFP was able to read ahead of its release on Tuesday.
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“I was afraid at home,” the singer writes in the first pages of her book “The Woman in Me” (published by Simon & Schuster in the USA and JCLattès in France, under the title “La femme en moi”). ).
The reason ? His father, Jamie Spears, who controlled every aspect of his personal and professional life for thirteen years. He has been described as an alcoholic and violent person and has repeatedly “belittled” her over the years. In this context, she says that she started drinking at the age of 13 with her mother.
The singer follows the family thread to explain the origin of this violence. For example, when she returns to her paternal grandmother, Jean. Interned by her grandfather, she committed suicide at the age of 31 on her child’s grave.
AFP
To forever remain 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”: the singer fought for this for years. At the same time, she admits to having suffered from “Benjamin Knopf” syndrome.
Reference to the film of the same name starring Brad Pitt, inspired by the short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which is about a man who is born old and gets younger as the years go by. This is exactly what the star says she experienced at several points in her life.
First during her breakup with Justin Timberlake, where she secluded herself at home and didn’t leave her bed for days like a child. Then at the birth of her children, where, as she says, she felt like she was “becoming a baby again.” In general, the fact that she was under guardianship infantilized her so much that she no longer knew how to be a “grown woman.”
He was her great love. However, the pop star never publicly revealed the details of their breakup. This now happens in the book, where she explains that she was “devastated” when Justin Timberlake broke up with her “via text message.”
AFP
When he stages their breakup in his “Cry Me a River” music video, even choosing an actress who resembles Britney Spears, she stays quiet and takes it in silence while being blamed on the media. The cause ? She is said to have cheated on her partner. If she admits that she only cheated on the singer once, in her opinion it was a common occurrence for him.
Described as a “bitch” by the media, she was forced by her father to give an interview to American journalist Diane Sawyer, who asked her what she had done to Timberlake to cause him “so much pain.”
“I felt like I was being exploited,” she wrote. Trapped in front of the whole world.
“Britney Spears, it’s me,” her father will tell her when she tries to challenge the conservatorship that has robbed her of thirteen years of her life. “If I wasn’t capable of making decisions, why was I considered capable of performing in public?” she writes, referring to the 200 shows she performed under supervision during her stay in Las Vegas.
“For two years I ate almost nothing other than chicken and canned vegetables. (..) I begged for a hamburger or ice cream,” she says.
In the book she talks in detail about her internment in 2019. About antidepressants and lithium, “I was half dead,” she writes: “I had the impression that someone wanted to kill me,” she says again. And to praise “a strength within her” that enabled her to persevere and rebel.