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Luckett, M (2010) ''Toxic The Implosion of Britney Spear's Star Image'', The Velvet Light Trap, no. 65, pp.39-41.

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Memoir, Release 24.10.23, 15million Book Deal

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Memoir, Release 24.10.23, 15million Book Deal

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Telling her own story, on her terms, at last

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In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice-her truth-was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey-and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears's groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love-and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

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The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

From 2004-'07, Britney Spears was having a serious nervous breakdown.

During that period, she shaved off all of her hair. She attacked a paparazzo with an umbrella. She drove unsafely with her baby in her lap. She broke down on air in a tearful interview with Matt Lauer. She got into public fights and was hospitalized multiple times.

This is why, in 2008, when she was 27, a court-ordered conservatorship put her father in charge of her financial and personal freedoms. Since then, she's been relegated to her home and to specific venues (particularly in Las Vegas, where she has been a longtime performer-in-residence), all while under close supervision.

You can't blame Britney Spears for her struggles. She was a young woman under an enormous amount pressure and stress. Hundreds of photographers and reporters stalked her. Millions of fans wanted a piece of her. Advisors and other people with financial interests wanted money from her.
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The good news is that it seems Ms. Spears is well on the way to recovery, if not already there. Take a quick scroll through her Instagram feed (yeah, I follow her, so please don't judge), and you can see a woman that's looking much happier, healthier and content with her life. As we all know by now, she made news this week by asking that her conservatorship be lifted. Now it's up to the courts to decide her fate, and I hope that the decision is in her favor.

But the Britney Spears story isn't about Britney Spears. It's really about something else that's much more important. It's about mental illness.

Mental health issues are not only significant on their own in this country, but are the underlying cause of many other healthcare problems. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 20.6% of adults (51.5 million) in the U.S. experienced mental illness in 2019, and the ripple effects are significant. According to the organization, people with depression have a 40% higher risk of developing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases than the general population, and 18.4% of adults with mental illness also reported contending with a substance use disorder that year. The rate of unemployment is higher among U.S. adults who have mental illness (5.8%) compared to those who do not (3.6%). And the problem has gotten worse thanks to the pandemic.

The good news is that employers are waking up. A study recently released by The Hartford found that 70% of employers now recognize employee mental health as a significant workplace issue, and 52% of employers said that employees with mental illnesses are experiencing significant or severe workplace issues due to substance misuse or addiction.

Unfortunately, 72% of those employers said the stigma associated with mental illness prevents U.S. workers from seeking help. When your employees are suffering from any form of mental illness - like depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, to name a few - your business suffers. When they don't feel comfortable sharing their situation with people that can help them, they suffer.

Are you the cause of this? Are you like the photographers, fans, media and advisors that were hounding young Britney Spears? Are you turning a blind eye to the demands you're making on your employees, the stress you're causing them and the lack of resources you're providing? You may be. Many of my clients are. It's not that they don't care. It's just that they're not aware.

Well, if Britney Spears' story has taught us anything, it's that now's the time to consult with your healthcare insurance provider and benefits consultants. Ask them about what more your company can be doing to aid employees who may be suffering from any form of mental illness, regardless of how severe. Take a look at your environment and reassess the demands you're making. Consider new benefits like flexible time off and the hiring of mental health professionals.

All of this will be good for your workforce. And what's good for your workforce is good for your company.
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So let's never forget the time Britney Spears shaved her head and attacked a photographer with an umbrella. Why? Because if anything positive has come from her decade-plus-old ordea, it's that she's made many more employers like me aware of how serious mental health issues can affect our organizations.

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Never Forget the Time Britney Spears Shaved Her Head and Attacked a Photographer With an Umbrella | Entrepreneur

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Her story is about mental health, not bad behavior.

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Recently released documentary 'Framing Britney Spears' is being discussed widely on the internet. The documentary throws light upon Britney Spears and all the incidents that led to her breakdown and eventual conservatorship. The popstar who rose to fame at an early age, has dominated headlines from the beginning- sometimes for her music but a lot of times due to various controversies. From shaving her head, to VMAs performance with a python to kissing Madonna on stage, here are the number of times Spears created a stir.

When she shaved her head

On February 16, 2007, Britney Spears had the most shocking moment of her career, when she headed to a Tarzana hair salon late at night and shaved her own head right in front of paparazzi cameras.

In the documentary 'Framing Britney Spears', Wesley Morris the former photography director for US Weekly said, "She's saying essentially with no hair, I quit. Whatever you guys are looking for in terms of me coming back and being that person again, that person is gone, and you have destroyed her."

Morris added, "The idea that you could look at [those images] and only see a 'crazy person' that just tells me what a vulturous society she was working with."

(Photograph:Twitter)

Kissing Madonna

Britney was the queen of VMAs, and each time managed to stand out with her act. In 2003, the pop star performed 'Like A Virgin' with Madonna and the two ended up kissing on stage. The moment grabbed so much attention from media and still counts as one of the most talked-about moments in the music industry.

(Photograph:Twitter)

Attacking a pap with a umbrella

Days after shaving her head, Britney again created headlines for attacking a pap with an umbrella. She was embroiled in a custody battle with ex Kevin Federline around this time.

That night, she and her cousin were driving through a Mobil gas station in Tarzana in a silver Mercedes and were being relentlessly pursued by photographers. Even though her cousin Alli Sims begged the paps to leave her alone, Britney snapped, leaving her car screaming 'f*** you!' and banged and umbrella-like an axe.

That particular day was bad for her, Britney had driven to Kevin's house hoping to see her sons, but he had not opened the gate for her.

(Photograph:Twitter)

The battles with her father

Britney's father Jamie Spears obtained custody of his daughter and has the power to make all her decisions, both personal and financial as her conservator soon after her very public meltdown 12 years ago. Over the years fans have demanded Britney to be freed and it has led to a movement called 'Free Britney'. In 2020, Britney tried to legal route to remove her father from his role but the court has ruled in his favour.

(Photograph:Twitter)

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When she married Kevin Federline

In 2004, Britney Spears started dating Kevin Federline a background dancer and after few days of dating, they got married. Their whirlwind relationship confused everyone. Later she referred to her relationship as the biggest mistake ever but thanked him for their babies.

(Photograph:Twitter)

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Just like that wedding

After breaking up with Justin Timberlake, Spears went on to have a string of quick romances and a 'just like that' wedding. She shocked everyone in January of 2004 when she went to Little White Wedding Chapel and married her childhood friend Jason Alexander. They annulled the marriage just 55 hours later and she later referred to it as just a "silly" thing.

(Photograph:Twitter)

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From shaving head to umbrella attack: 6 times Britney Spears made headlines for wrong reasons

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Recently released documentary 'Framing Britney Spears' is being discussed widely on the internet. The documentary throws light upon Britney Spears and all the incidents that led to her breakdown and eventual conservatorship. The popstar who rose to fame at an early age, has dominated headlines from the beginning- sometimes for her music but a lot of times due to various controversies.

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Britney Spears’s Conservatorship Is Officially Terminated

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The pop star is finally back in control of her life after nearly 14 years.

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Britney Spears Quietly Pushed for Years to End Her Conservatorship (Published 2021)

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Confidential court records obtained by The Times reveal that the singer has urged changes to the arrangement that controls her life, and her father’s role in leading it.

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The star will begin a new chapter of her life, including getting married to her fiancé Sam Asghari without needing the approval of her conservators.

The legal dispute with her father is likely to continue after the conservatorship ends, however.

In July, Spears said she was prepared to "press charges" against her father. "I have to get rid of my Dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse," she said.

Conservatorship abuse can involve financially exploiting or imposing excessive personal restrictions on someone in your care.

Court documents revealed by the New York Times in June showed the star was given an allowance of $2,000 per week, while her father's salary as conservator was about $16,000 per month, plus money for office space rental and a percentage of various deals signed for his daughter.

The singer's lawyer has accused her father of financial misconduct and "reaping millions of dollars from his daughter's estate".

In September, he told reporters he had "serious questions" about "potential misconduct, including conflicts of interest, conservatorship abuse and the evident dissipation of Ms Spears fortune", and vowed a "top-to-bottom" examination of documents relating to the case.

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Britney Spears: Singer's conservatorship case explained

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The US singer's bid to end her father's guardianship could reach its conclusion this week.

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He said he was proud that she had shone "a light on conservatorships from California to New York", and that as a result of her testimony, new legislation had been passed "to try to ensure that conservatorships like this... do not happen again".

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Britney Spears released from 13-year conservatorship

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An LA judge terminates a legal guardianship set up by the 39-year-old pop star's father in 2008.

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Britney Spears recalls auditioning to ‘rooms full of men’ looking her ‘up and down’ aged 15

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Britney Spears has recounted signing her first record deal at age 15 and her relentless drive to perfect her debut album ...Baby One More Time.

In her upcoming memoir The Woman In Me, Britney opened up about her post-Mickey Mouse Club life and how, at age 15, her longing to return to the stage led to her seriously pursuing a singing career, according to an excerpt obtained by People.

At the suggestion of the man who would end up becoming her long-time manager, Larry Rudolph, Britney, 41, recorded a demo of a Toni Braxton track before heading to auditions with her future colleague.

While auditioning, Britney recalled singing 'loud' as she performed in rooms full of music executives who would look 'me up and down in my small dress and high heels'.

Describing the whole experience, Spears began: 'My mom had been in touch with a lawyer she'd met on my audition circuit, a man named Larry Rudolph, who she would call sometimes for business advice.'

'He suggested I record a demo. He had a song that Toni Braxton had recorded for her second album that had ended up on the cutting room floor. This would become the demo that I would use to get in the door at record labels.'

During auditions, Britney sang the Whitney Houston track I Have Nothing.

'Larry took me around [New York City], and I went into rooms full of executives and sang Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing,"' she said.

'Gazing out at the rooms full of men in suits looking me up and down in my small dress and high heels, I sang loud.'

Eventually, Britney ended up signing with Jive Records - and the company was keen to get her working on her debut album, ...Baby One More Time.

'The label wanted me in a studio immediately,' Spears recalled of the album.

'I worked for hours straight. My work ethic was strong. If you knew me then, you wouldn't hear from me for days. I would stay in the studio as long as I could. If anyone wanted to leave, I'd say, "I wasn't perfect."'

'When all the songs were done, someone said, "What else can you do? Do you want to dance now?" I said, "Hell yeah, I do!"'

Britney's long-awaited memoir The Woman In Me is set for release on October 24, 2023.

In her memoir, Britney also revealed that had an abortion with Justin at the age of 19.

The star said she made the 'agonizing' decision to terminate the pregnancy, after conceiving in late 2000.

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 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.

The star said the abortion was 'one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.'

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.

Spears would later welcome sons Sean Preston, 18, and Jayden, 17 with Kevin Federline while Timberlake shares sons Silas, eight and Phineas, two, with wife Jessica Biel.

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Britney Spears recalls signing her first record deal

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In her memoir The Woman In Me, Britney opened up about her post-Mickey Mouse Club life and how, at age 15, her longing to return to the stage led to her wanting to make her own music.

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Britney Spears Cuts Ties with Longtime Record Label, JIVE Records

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Since her emergence onto the pop scene, JIVE Records has been coaching and molding Britney Spears into a megastar. However,

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Britney Spears and her third husband, Sam Asghari, have split after 14 months of marriage.

Asghari filed for divorce Wednesday, citing "irreconcilable differences," according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital. The couple's date of separation was listed as July 28.

Asghari asked for spousal support and attorneys' fees in his filing.

The 41-year-old pop star and the 29-year-old actor tied the knot June 9, 2022, after five years of dating.
BRITNEY SPEARS AND SAM ASGHARI SPLIT AFTER 14 MONTHS: REPORTS
Following the news of the couple's split, Spears took to Instagram to share a cryptic message alongside a photo of herself riding a horse on the beach. Spears wore a sun hat and a yellow bikini while sitting atop a brown horse.

"Buying a horse soon," she began the caption. "So many options it's kinda hard!!! A horse called Sophie and another called Roar??? I can't make up my mind!!! Should I join the camaraderie and put a pink cowboy hat on??? Either way I think I found my sweet spot with Roar!!!"
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The isn't the pop star's first short-lived marriage. Spears said, "I do" to her childhood friend Jason Alexander, a marriage that lasted only 55 hours. Her second marriage, to Kevin Federline, the father of her two sons, lasted three years before they split in 2007.

Below is a look at Spears' past relationships.

Justin Timberlake

Perhaps the most well-known relationship outside of her marriages, Spears dated Justin Timberlake at the height of their popularity, making them one of Hollywood's hottest couples.

After they split, Timberlake, now 40, famously wrote the song "Cry Me a River" about their split, seemingly alleging that Spears had cheated on him.

He has since apologized for tarnishing her reputation in the public eye. The couple dated from 1998 to 2002.

Jason Alexander

Spears' first marriage was to childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander. They wed in a Las Vegas chapel in 2004.

After just 55 hours, the marriage was annulled. Rumors have swirled that Spears' parents forced them to split despite their wishes to stay together, though the "Crossroads" star has stayed relatively mum on the subject.

The annulment papers stated, "Plaintiff Spears lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage," according to People magazine.

Fast-forward to June 2022, when the singer was granted a restraining order against her former husband after he broke into her property hours before she said, "I do" to Asghari.

PAccording to Rolling Stone, Alexander was found guilty of aggravated trespass and battery in August 2022, which led to a 128-day county jail sentence.

Kevin Federline

After annulling her marriage to Alexander, Britney wed the father of her children, Kevin Federline at just 22 years old.

They raised two sons together - Jayden, 16, and Sean, 17 - before splitting in 2007.
Spears and Federline have had a public, back-and-forth feud over the last several years.

Britney's two teenage sons chose not to attend her wedding to Asghari in June of last year.

Jason Trawick

Spears dated Jason Trawick from 2009-2013.

They became engaged in 2011 but never married, with rumors that their romance jade simply fizzled out. Other rumors suggested they secretly wed, but Trawick has denied that.

David Lucado

Not long after splitting from Trawick, Spears was seen out and about with lawyer David Lucado from 2013 to 2014.

They dated for a little over a year, and it seemed Spears was ready for the split, tweeting, "Ahhhh the single life!" at the time, according to Us Weekly.

Charlie Esbersol

Producer Charlie Ebersol dated Spears for a few months between 2014 and 2015.

A source told Us Weekly at the time that he was in the relationship for "the wrong reasons."

Sam Asghari

Spears married Asghari at her Southern California home in June 2022 in front of guests including Selena Gomez and Madonna. The wedding was seen as a milestone in her newly reclaimed life after she was freed from a court conservatorship that had controlled her for well over a decade.

The former couple first met on the set of the music video for her song "Slumber Party" in 2016. They began dating, and the pop star later cited a desire to marry Asghari as one of the reasons she fought to end the conservatorship - which had kept her from wedding the 29-year-old model.

The couple announced their engagement in 2021, just a month before Spears would be freed from her 13-year conservatorship.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER Fox News Digital's Lauryn Overhultz contributed to this report.

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Britney Spears, Sam Asghari split: pop star's rocky relationship history

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Britney Spears' third marriage is headed for divorce after 14 months of marriage. We look back at the pop star's relationship history.

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Only two months after Britney Spears and estranged husband Sam Asghari's marriage came to an end, the popstar has revealed she had an abortion with ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake in her new tell-all book.

Spears, 41 and Asghari, 29, broke off their union in August this year, following reported rumours that the popstar was unfaithful to her husband-of-14 months.

And, now, in exclusive details from her memoir A Woman In Me - set to release on October 24 - Spears admitted the 'agonising' decision to have an abortion after getting pregnant at 19.

The star claimed that while she wanted the baby and 'dreamed of having a family' with Timberlake, who was also 19 at the time, he 'wasn't ready' for the responsibilities of parenthood and thought the pair were too young.

Arguably her most famous relationship was with the former N*SYNC star - quickly becoming Hollywood's 'it' couple when they started dating back in 1998.

But when their relationship came crashing down four years later, it ended in an explosive and highly-publicized feud that saw Justin publicly bash his ex on numerous occasions.

Britney wed dancer Kevin Federline in 2004, but as was with Justin, the demise of their relationship played out in the public eye as millions watched on.

The two became embroiled in a nasty custody battle following their divorce in 2007, which ultimately resulted in Britney suffering from a mental breakdown that saw her locking herself in a bathroom with their two sons when it was time for her to return them to their father.

After years of heartbreak, many were hopeful that the star had finally found her soulmate when she walked down the aisle with Sam just over one year ago, but now that too has come to an end.

As news of her and Sam's breakup continue to make its way around the web, and while her fans anticipate previously-concealed details of the popstar's life in her upcoming book, we take a look back at the popstar's extremely messy dating history.

1995 to 1997: Britney was just 14 years old when she hooked up with her first official boyfriend Donald 'Reg' Jones

Britney paired up with her first official boyfriend, Reg Jones, when she was only 14 and he was 17.

In Lynne Spears' 2008 memoir Through The Storm, Britney's mother claimed that it was actually Jones whom her daughter lost her virginity to, not her future boyfriend Justin Timberlake.

In 2021, Jones put two letters up for sale that the singer had written him while she was a teen, including one in which she broke up with him, which had an estimated price tag of $4,000 to $6,000 each.

Speaking to the New York Post at the time of the sale, he candidly revealed: 'She was the love of my life.

'I don't go around wishing we were back together... I wish her the best in all that she does.'

He also said that the former couple had not spoken in 15 to 20 years, adding: 'I would like to talk to her, whether it's this year or 20 years from now, in order to close that chapter of our lives.

'It felt like we were so in love, so in love, and it was an abrupt ending. Not because of me, not because of her, but because of the industry.'

1998 to 2002: She later paired off with fellow singer Justin Timberlake, who the star had an abortion with in 2000, before he used their split to promote his 'heartbreak' music

Britney's first serious relationship was with her former Mickey Mouse Club costar Justin Timberlake, who was then part of the all-male pop group N*SYNC.

In a 2001 interview, she told The Guardian: 'I'm not ashamed at all to say that I love him from the bottom of my heart. As far as love is concerned, with him, too much is not enough. He's everything.

'We've gone through so much together and we've known each other since we were 12 years old. We know each other inside and out.'

Years after their split, Timberlake told KLTV: 'I was infatuated with her from the moment I saw her.'

But the fairytale wasn't meant to be - and, in 2002, the duo told the press separately that they were no longer together.

In the aftermath, Timberlake publicly blamed Spears for their break up and used his 'heartbreak' to promote his music.

A lookalike actress was also used to represent Spears in his video for Cry Me A River, which fans took to be a breakup song about their relationship.

Timberlake later wrote in an open apology that he was 'deeply sorry' and would 'take accountability' admitting that he had 'failed' her, after their relationship came under fresh scrutiny following the release of documentaries looking into Spears' conservatorship.

This week, however, in an exclusive excerpt obtained by PEOPLE Magazine from Britney's upcoming memoir, A Women In Me, the star revealed how she became pregnant with Timberlake's child when they were 19.

In the tell-out book, set to hit the shelves on October 24, the singer detailed the 'agonising' decision to terminate the pregnancy, revealing that the N*SYNC star 'didn't want to be a father.'

The star claimed that 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.

In light of the heartbreaking revelation, Britney's fans have been speculating that her song Everytime is about her abortion with with her ex.

The track was initially widely believed to be about her split from Timberlake and a response to his 2002 diss track, Cry Me A River, but fans now believe that there has been a deeper meaning to the sombre music video and its suggestive lyrics.

With lyrics including 'I guess I need you, baby,' 'seeing a face in my dreams,' and a music video showing Spears watching on as a baby is born, fans quickly claimed the song and video were reflecting on her tragic abortion.

2002: Britney's relationship with choreographer Wade Robson was short lived

The Toxic singer reportedly moved on in the wake of her split from Timberlake with choreographer Wade Robson, who worked for both her and Justin's group NSYNC.

In 2001, Wade choreographed her iconic Oops... I Did It Again and I'm A Slave 4 U music videos as well as her Live from Las Vegas concert special.

Although it was never been confirmed by any of the trio, at the time it was rumored that he was the real reason for the Justin and Britney split.

Britney said of the choreographer on Good Morning America in 2000: 'He's just like a child prodigy, seriously... He's a genius. He's amazing.'

Yet their relationship was short lived and Britney and Wade had split within the year.

Wade largely stayed out of the limelight in the aftermath but resurfaced in the 2019 Leaving Neverland documentary in which he detailed the alleged abuse he suffered as a child by Michael Jackson.

2003: Fred Durst claimed he dated Britney - but she has denied any kind of relationship

After the breakup with Robson, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst claimed that he dated Britney, though she denied that they ever had a relationship.

The couple spent time together when working on songs for Britney's new album but she was quick to shut down the rumors.

The singer told Carson Daly: 'The thing is we worked together for like three days and he's a really cool guy but there's no relationship.'

Addressing the back and forth, Durst told MTV: 'It just became a fiasco of madness.

'[But] I always stay true to my heart and true to everything I did and my intentions, and I am in no way a liar.'

2003: Neither Britney nor Jared Leto confirmed their alleged romance despite being engulfed in rumors

Britney was also rumored around this time to have dated Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto.

He never confirmed the alleged romance and she denied also that they were ever an item despite being engulfed in rumors.

After the pair were spotted out and about together, she eventually came out and said they were just 'really good friends.'

The dating rumors started after fans theorized that Spears had gone after Leto because he was Cameron Diaz's ex and Diaz, at the time, was dating Spears' ex Timberlake.

2003: Sparks clearly flew between the singer and Colin Farrell but it turned out to be just a fling

There was clearly something going on between Britney and actor Colin Farrell in 2003.

Sparks flew when they were seen kissing at the premiere of his film The Recruit, where they also walked the red carpet.

However, he shrugged the affectionate display off and said he was 'just a 26-year-old guy who's single and having a good time.'

While their fling may only have lasted a week, Farrell memorialized their relationship by sending Spears a shirt that read: 'I slept with Colin Farrell and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.'

2003: Britney and her backup dancer Columbus Short hooked up before he made claims she used a racist slur

Britney dated within her own organization when she hooked up with her backup dance Columbus Short in 2003.

Short, who subsequently starred on Scandal, later claimed that he overheard Spears' parents Lynne and Jamie Spears refer to him by the N-word when she was on speaker phone with them.

The dancer did not specify who made the remark but both vehemently denied using the word.

Columbus said to have only had sex with her once, and he claimed he was fired after he failed to reciprocate her affections.

2004: Britney first tied the knot to childhood friend Jason Alexander

Britney's first (brief) marriage was to Jason Alexander, who had been her friend since childhood.

The couple tied the knot on a whim in the early morning hours on January 3, 2004 during a ceremony at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

They were both 22 years old at the time.

But their marriage was annulled 55 hours later, which Alexander later claimed was forced by Britney's mother, Lynne, and Britney's management.

Following the annulment, Spears said in an interview: 'It was me being silly, being rebellious.'

Yet 18 years after their union it seems Alexander hasn't lost his feelings for Spears, as just hours before she was was due to marry her long-term partner Sam Asghari, 28, at her home Alexander broke onto the premises to crash the wedding.

2004 to 2007: Britney ended up welcoming two sons with dancer Kevin Federline

The songstress' next relationship also resulted in a marriage.

Britney met former backup dancer Kevin Federline at a club in Hollywood called Joseph's in the summer of 2004.

He told People in 2008, after their divorce: 'Our eyes met and that was it. We just hit it off right away. I learned real fast how much of a whirlwind the press and everything was.'

The pair married at a private home in Studio City, California, just three months later and went on to welcome two sons: Sean, 16, and Jayden, 15.

The couple divorced in 2007, and it was her struggles with custody that factored into the creation of her conservatorship.

In January 2008, she locked herself in a bathroom with the children when it was time to return them to their father.

The police were subsequently called, and Spears was put on a 5150 psychiatric hold.

2007: J. R. Rotem gave graphic details about his physical relationship with Britney before claiming it was a 'stupid phase'

Spears hit the dating scene quickly following her divorce when she got together with the music producer J. R. Rotem, who produced her song Everybody.

Following their fling, Rotem shocked with a graphic kiss and tell interview, crudely announcing 'I f**ked Britney wheelbarrow style - it was tractor style.'

Reflecting on their union, Rotem later said: 'It was kind of a stupid phase I was going through, where I wouldn't say that I was being a bad person but I would say that I was being not very genuine to who I am and what it is that I'm supposed to do.'

In the aftermath, he told Complex magazine: 'Now it's kind of rocky between us. We're working together still, but I'm not sure if I want to be tied down, period.'

Rotem then boasted of his other celebrity pairings - but did not state if they were personal or professional.

'Britney, Mya, Bai Ling, Hayden Panettiere, Meagan Good - it's a pretty big list, and it's growing. Britney got me the furthest. She had something special,' he said.

2007: Britney began dating model Isaac Cohen before the pair went through an 'amicable' break up

In the same year as her fling with Rotem, Spears began dating male model Isaac Cohen.

At the time, her fans noted that Cohen noted only looked like her ex-husband Kevin, but he even favored similar clothing to the dancer.

Their breakup was described as 'amicable,' and Cohen later said of their relationship: 'By the time I met Britney she was burnt out.

'She knew she had been drinking and partying as a way to try to banish the bad stuff from her life.

'Far from the trashy drunk, I saw a very shy, sweet girl who was just desperately sad about what had happened with her marriage.'

2007: Britney's mom was concerned about the singer's relationship with Howie Day - but it did not last long

Britney reportedly met the singer-songwriter Howie Day while both were at the Promises rehab center in Malibu in 2007.

Life & Style reported at the time that Britney's mother Lynne was concerned about the relationship after learning about Day's previous arrest.

But the romance did not last long.

Spears' second husband K Fed also didn't approve of the relationship, branding Day 'trash.'

He also added that Britney had to 'head to the dump' to meet Day while in rehab.

2007 to 2008: The star shocked fans when she began dating the paparazzo Adnan Ghalib

The pop star shocked her fans and family when she began dating the paparazzo Adnan Ghalib in 2007, despite the fact that he had long been on her tail hunting for the perfect photo.

Ghalib claimed in 2008 that he had a sex tape featuring Spears in an apparent bid to shop it around.

But he later claimed his statements were fabricated, according to The Daily Beast.

Britney's father Jamie successful won a restraining order to keep Ghalib away from his daughter by claiming that the photographer alerted paparazzi to Britney's whereabouts and then got a fee from them.

2009 to 2013: Britney enjoyed a lengthy relationship with former agent Jason Trawick but the pair never married

One of Spears' longest relationship was with her former agent, Jason Trawick.

In 2021, rumors spread claiming the two had secretly married and then divorced in 2012 after records showing her conservatorship put a lawyer on retainer shortly before their 2013 breakup.

However, Trawick denied that they were ever married, and no marriage license - or divorce - was ever filed.

It is thought that their relationship simply fizzled out.

2013 to 2014: Britney dumped David Lucado after she reportedly caught him cheating

Britney and David Lucado began dating shortly after her split from Trawick, though the relationship only lasted about a year.

According to TMZ, Britney dumped Lucado after she discovered a video showing Lucado 'making out with a woman and dancing with her.'

Lucado didn't take the split well, with a representative telling TMZ: 'David is very, very in love with Britney.

'This is unfortunate and he hopes that it all works out.'

But following their separation it seemed Spears was ready for to return to dating, tweeting at the time: 'Ahhhh the single life!'

2014 to 2015: The performer fell for the calming presence of producer Charlie Ebsersol - before her father intervened

Spears continued to date within the entertainment industry, though her new boyfriend Charlie Ebersol was a film and television producer.

Speaking about their romance Spears said at the time: 'I thought he was really adorable and she said he was good to people, so I went for it...

'There was something about him that made me feel really peaceful and at ease.'

Sources claimed to Hollywood Life after their breakup that the two separated after Britney's father Jamie suggested he wasn't a good match for her.

A source told Us Weekly at the time that he was in the relationship for 'the wrong reasons.'

2016 to 2023: Britney has been with Sam Asghari for years but the pair split after being engulfed in break-up speculation

The news of Britney and Sam Asghari's split rocked the internet in August as it broke online that they were going their separate ways - another devastating blow to the singer's already very-turbulent love life.

When Britney and Sam tied the knot at her California mansion last June - it seemed as though she had finally found her happy ending after a rollercoaster ride quest to find love - which was filled with failed romances, ugly breakups, and bitter divorces.

Sam, an aspiring actor, had been by the pop star's side since 2016, making their relationship her longest to date.

She met Sam in 2016 when he appeared in her Slumber Party music video, and the two quickly hit it off after that.

They went Instagram official in January 2017, and Sam was by her side amid the battle to end her long-running conservatorship.

Spears announced their engagement on September 12, 2021, and she followed the good news up by having her conservatorship terminated in November of that year.

In April 2022, the couple announced they were expecting their first child together, but Britney revealed just a month later that she had suffered a miscarriage.

'Perhaps we should have waited to announce until we were further along however we were overly excited to share the good news,' she wrote on Instagram.

In March 2023, speculation started to swirl that they had gone their separate ways after they were seen without their wedding rings.

However, at the time, an insider close to the pair insisted to DailyMail.com that they were still going strong.

'All is good,' the source said. 'Sam is working on a project and she is on a vacation with [her friend and manager] Cade [Hudson].'

But, in August this year, TMZ reported that they're over after they got into a 'huge fight' surrounding allegations that she had been unfaithful. It is unconfirmed whether Britney cheated on Sam.

A source told the publication that Sam has moved out of their house and is now living in a place of his own.

They added: 'It's only a matter of time before Sam files for divorce.'

DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Spears for comment.

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Britney Spears' relationship history as Timberlake abortion revealed

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Britney Spears' new memoir, A Woman In Me - set to release on October 24, reveals how the singer had an abortion with ex Justin Timberlake in 2000 - only adding to the star's fair share of heartbreak

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Inside Britney Spears' toxic love life, from Timberlake to Federline & more

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Britney Spears' rocky road to love is paved with men who have used her for her fame and fortune. Those who know the pop princess well hope that her marriage to long-time boyfriend, Sam Asghar...

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The Cruel Media Coverage of Britney Spears

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The Cruel Media Coverage of Britney Spears

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‘Sorry, Britney’: Media Is Criticized for Past Coverage, and Some Own Up (Published 2021)

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Conversations about the relentless focus on the pop star’s mental health, mothering and sexuality have begun anew following The New York Times documentary “Framing Britney Spears.”

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Sam Asghari, 7 Year Relationship, Most Recent Relationship

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Pop Power Couple

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Vegas Wedding, 55 Hour Marriage and Divorce, 2004

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Vegas Wedding, 55 Hour Marriage and Divorce, 2004

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news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site

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Truth about Britney’s infamous 55-hour marriage

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Britney Spears’ mother, Lynne, forced the singer to annul her 55-hour marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander, claims divorce lawyer Mark Goldberg.

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Britney's Backup Dancer

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The troubled pop star, 41, has a history of heartbreaking family feuds in her 30-year career

She was said to have suffered a mental health episode during dinner last week

Britney is now a 'free woman' after her 13-year conservatorship ended in 2021

After successfully breaking free of her conservatorship in 2021, Britney Spears has been living her life as a free woman.

Yet fans have voiced their concern for the star in recent months amid her very public family feuds and continuous slew of social media posts.

Most recently, Britney caused concern when she was accused of suffering a 'manic meltdown' in a Los Angeles restaurant which she has since addressed.

The 41-year-old singer was seen 'talking gibberish' when fans tried to take photos of her dining with her 28-year-old husband Sam Ashgari at the JOEY restaurant in Woodland Hills on Friday, before he appeared to storm out, TMZ reported.

As one of the world's most famous pop stars, Britney has lived her life in the spotlight, with the public watching on during the highs and lows in her three-decade career.

Now we take a look back at the troubled singer's history of heartbreaking family feuds and the demons she was forced to battle behind close doors.

MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH STRUGGLES

Last year, Britney detailed the 'serious mental trauma' she endured from her conservatorship, which she claims has left her unable to breathe normally when 'looking at people's faces.'

She went on to reveal she had sustained nerve damage to the right side of her body as a result of not breathing properly.

The Toxic hitmaker said she refuses to see a doctor about her pain due to being 'terrified' after her conservatorship - but that the pain goes away when she dances.

The star went on to say that she 'talks to horses' because she can 'no longer stand looking at people's faces anymore'.

Prior to Britney's conservatorship ending, Jamie claimed that his daughter's struggles with 'addiction and mental health issues' are far more serious than the public knows.

In a 15-page filing to Los Angeles County Court, he said: 'If the public knew all the facts of Ms. Spears' personal life, not only her highs but also her lows, all of the addiction and mental health issues that she has struggled with, and all of the challenges of the Conservatorship, they would praise Mr. Spears for the job he has done, not vilify him.'

In 2019, Britney completed a 30-day stint at a mental health facilit y, but Britney later claimed that she was forced into going because she objected to a dance move during one of her rehearsals.

She has also claimed she was forced to do '840 hours of unwanted therapy' during her conservatorship.

February 2007 marked a period of troubling behavior, during which she shaved her head, got two new tattoos and hit the L.A. club scene.

Shortly before she checked into a rehab facility, she attacked a paparazzo's car with an umbrella.

She then endured another setback after a disastrous performance at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards.

In January 2008, she was put under lockdown at a mental institution after she held her son hostage at her home and refused to hand him over to Kevin.

The court then placed her under temporary - and later permanent - conservatorship of her father Jamie and attorney Andrew Wallet, giving them complete control over her assets.

FEROCIOUS FAMILY FEUDS

Britney was born to school teacher mom Lynn and alcoholic building contractor Jamie who raised the future pop princess in the small town of Kentwood, Louisiana.

Jamie and Lynn Spears spent much of Britney's childhood fighting, with the singer revealing she often retreated to her aunt's trailer nearby to drown out the noise.

Britney used her role as a star to escape her troubled home life in hopes of making a better life for herself, but that soon changed when she split from husband Kevin and was placed under conservatorship by her parents.

Despite having divorced in 2002, both Lynne and Jamie seemed to be in agreement on having the last say in their daughter's life.

But Lynne was soon ostracized when Britney blamed her mother for losing her kids, and Lynne was forced to move back to Louisiana, declining the hundreds of calls from her daughter who suffered in silence.

After Britney learned Jamie he would finally be abandoning his role as a conservator, she blasted the conservatorship as a 'family business' and thanked Jamie for 'exiting out of my life and finally allowing me to live mine.'

She slammed her situation as 'abusive', and called for her father and those involved with her conservatorship to be 'jailed'.

Meanwhile, Britney and her younger sister Jamie Lynn, 31, have developed a highly argumentative relationship throughout the years.

Jamie Lynn broke her silence on the matter in an emotional Instagram video published in June 2021, where she stated that she wanted nothing but 'happiness' for her sister and that she always has and 'always will' support her.

The Zoey 101 star insisted that she'd made a 'very conscious choice' to 'only participate' in the singer's life as her sister - and that she was not on Britney's payroll as fans had previously accused her of being.

The video appeared to make Britney angry as she launched countless attacks on her sister through Instagram.

Jamie Lynn publicly begged for 'peace' amid her sister releasing the bombshell social media claims, which later resulted in Britney unfollowing her 'mean a** sister' on Instagram

In late 2021, Jamie Lynn announced she'd be releasing own memoir, titled Things I Should Have Said.

And although the Zoey 101 star claimed she wanted peace, she aired out a series of head-turning allegations about her older sister during her publicity run for her memoir.

Jamie Lynn claimed her older sister once locked them both in a room with knife in hand, and described her behavior at one point as 'erratic, paranoid and, spiraling.'

Britney categorically denied the knife story and retaliated by calling her sister a 'scum person' for telling 'crazy lies' about her.

As the bad blood between the two sisters boiled, Britney also expressed regret that she had not 'slapped you and Mamma right across your f***ing faces!!!!!'

During the week of the book's release, Britney's counsel sent Jamie Lynn a cease and desist over the 'misleading or outrageous claims' in the memoir.

COMPLICATED LOVE LIFE

Britney finally tied the knot with her longtime partner Sam Asghari in June 2022 after six years of dating and the couple are keen to have children.

However, their love followed a string of short-lived romances for the pop superstar.

One of her most high-profile relationships was with her former Mickey Mouse Club co-star Justin Timberlake, who she split from in 2002 after four years together.

The break up was acrimonious, with Justin publicly blaming Britney for their split, using his 'heartbreak' to promote his music and denying claims the singer had cheated on him.

Justin later wrote in an open apology that he was 'deeply sorry' and would 'take accountability' admitting that he had 'failed' her, after their relationship came under fresh scrutiny following the release of documentaries looking into Britney's conservatorship.

After a slew of short-lived romances she then went on to wed Jason Alexander, who had been her friend since childhood.

The couple tied the knot on a whim in the early morning hours on January 3, 2004 during a ceremony at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, Nevada. They were both 22 years old at the time.

Their marriage was annulled 55 hours later, which Alexander later claimed was forced by Britney's mother, Lynne, and Britney's management.

Following the annulment, Britney said in an interview: 'It was me being silly, being rebellious.'

Britney's next relationship also resulted in a marriage.

The songstress and Kevin Federline, a backup dancer, would go on to share her two sons: Sean, 17, and Jayden, 16.

The couple divorced in 2007 after three years of marriage and it was her struggles with custody that factored into the creation of her conservatorship.

In January 2008, she locked herself in a bathroom with the children when it was time to return them to their father.

The police were subsequently called, and Britney was put on a 5150 psychiatric hold.

Britney hit the dating scene quickly following her divorce when she got together with the music producer J. R. Rotem, who produced her song Everybody.

Following their fling, Rotem shocked with a graphic kiss and tell interview, crudely announcing 'I f**ked Britney wheelbarrow style - It was tractor style.'

Reflecting on their union, Rotem later said: 'It was kind of a stupid phase I was going through, where I wouldn't say that I was being a bad person but I would say that I was being not very genuine to who I am and what it is that I'm supposed to do.'

ESTRANGEMENT FROM HER SONS

Britney has had a rocky relationship with her estranged sons, Sean Preston, 17, and Jayden, 16, with the Mail on Sunday revealing last August that the pop star hadn't seen her sons for 'months.'

Their father Kevin said the boys' desire to avoid the circus surrounding their mother's private life was so great they didn't even attend her wedding to American-Iranian model Sam Asghari.

In response, Britney accused her sons of 'abandoning her' and 'being hateful' in a now deleted Instagram post, after which Kevin posted videos allegedly showing the singer 'screaming' at her sons when they were younger. Also now removed.

During a special interview on ITV news in September, the pair said that they wanted to fix their relationship with their mother, with Jayden adding, 'When she gets better I really want to see her again.'

Preston and Jayden currently live with their father, Kevin, and his family. He was awarded sole legal and physical custody of the pair in January 2008, a month before Britney's conservatorship began.

Preston expressed, 'We've both been through so much pressure in the past that this is our safe place now, to process all the emotional trauma we've been through to heal, heal our mental state.'

CONTROVERSIAL CONSERVATORSHIP

For 13 years, Britney had her personal and financial affairs controlled by her father Jamie, who claims he saved her life by acting as her court appointed guardian

Britney was not in agreement, accusing her father of abusing the system, and stating the only thing similar to her experience was sex trafficking due to the fact she was made to 'work against her will' and had her belongings 'taken away' from her.

In 2008, Jamie filed for conservatorship of Britney, claiming she was not legally well enough to make her own decisions.

The court then extended the temporary agreement on a yearly basis and was not called into question by many until 2019.

Eyebrows were raised when in January 2019, Britney cancelled a second planned Vegas residency and, announcing an 'indefinite work hiatus', was admitted to a psychiatric facility, claiming she was 'taking a little me time'.

Word began to spread that Jamie had made the arrangements against his daughter's will.

Accusations against Jamie began to trend on social media, purporting to shine a spotlight on the conditions under which Britney's life was being controlled.

The #FreeBritney campaign claimed that the conservatorship restricted the singer's ability to use a mobile phone unmonitored, go for a walk or see her children.

It accused Jamie of using sedatives to keep her 'under control', and even claimed Britney was using secret symbols to communicate her distress to fans on social media.

The worldwide movement to end her conservatorship was heightened further by the release of the 2021 documentary Framing Britney Spears, which alleged the singer's phone and bedroom were bugged by security staff working for Jamie.

Months after that documentary, Britney told the story in her own words at a legal hearing.

She claimed she was afraid of her father, that she was forced to go on tour and into rehab, and to take powerful drugs.

One of her most heart-wrenching revelations came during a tearful phone appearance at Judge Penny's court last June when she said that she wanted to have a baby with her fiancé, but the conservatorship wouldn't allow her to remove her IUD birth control.

'I feel ganged up on and bullied and alone,' Britney told the court during that emotional statement. 'I just want my life back.'

She also told the judge that she felt 'enslaved' by her dad, whom she, added, 'should be in jail.'

In November 2021 a Los Angeles judge ordered an end to the conservatorship that had controlled Britney's life - and $60 million fortune - for 13 years.

The singer tweeted after the decision was announced: 'Good God I love my fans so much it's crazy!!!

'I think I'm gonna cry the rest of the day !!!! Best day ever ... praise the Lord ... can I get an Amen.'

A 'MANIC MELTDOWN' AT DINNER

Britney was seen 'talking gibberish' when fans tried to take photos of her dining with her 28-year-old husband Sam Ashgari at the JOEY restaurant in Woodland Hills on Friday.

The Piece of Me singer was apparently triggered when restaurant patrons whipped out their cell phones and began snapping unwarranted photos and videos of her.

Footage obtained by TMZ showed Britney trying to cover her face with a menu to keep prying eyes at bay.

Eyewitnesses alleged the Grammy winner became increasingly upset and began 'yelling' and speaking in gibberish, which prompted her spouse to storm out.

She followed up the concerning episode by posting a video of her flipping off the camera in a video set to Divinyls' I Touch Myself.

Britney later shared a bizarre Instagram post comparing herself to 'Shrek' and saying she was 'a little drunk'.

She penned: 'I watched 'NATURAL BORN KILLERS' this morning and damn I got ENLIGHTENED ... and HOLY SMOKES S**T BALLS.

'I'm sure I brought a billion SMILES to me LOOKING LIKE SHREK at a restaurant. Even my best friend couldn't WAIT TO SEND IT TO ME, THEY DON'T THINK TWICE because we are all natural born killers.

'I know the news is all hyped about me being a little drunk at a restaurant ... it's like they'll be WATCHING MY EVERY MOVE !!!'

'I'm so flattered they talk about me like a maniac THEN have the balls to talk about all the negative things that happened in my past !!!' she said.

'Honestly it would be safer for me to compliment this world and f**k up because if I become a prophet and don't create history, we might have something y'all... I'm just KIDDING, but it's a good thought,' Spears added.

'I know y'all are rooting for me and all and make sure you check out the shocking Shrek picture of me,' she added.

'I was like damn that's horrific yet there were two pics where I was normal ... either way honestly I know nobody gives a flying f**k what I do !!! I'm just bored writing this paragraph like a damn idiot,' Spears concluded.

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A look back at Britney Spears' history of public scandals

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After successfully breaking free of her conservatorship in 2021, Britney Spears has been living her life as a free woman.

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''It was the top selling fragrance of 2004, netting over $100 million in sales''

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$52million Elizabeth Arden, Perfume Endorsement, 2004

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$52million Elizabeth Arden, Perfume Endorsement, 2004

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https://www.instyle.com/celebrity/britney-spears-perfume-billion-dollar-business

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Britney Spears - Toyota Soluna Vios Commercial (Main Version)

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$500,000, Sony Product Placement in ''Hold It Against Me'' Music Video, 2011

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$500,000, Sony Product Placement in ''Hold It Against Me'' Music Video, 2011

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Also, Make Up For Ever and PlentyofFish

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Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me (Official Video)

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Several public episodes – including shaving her head and attacking a paparazzo’s car

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Britney Spears - Twister Dance Commercial [AI UHD 4K]

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NEW YORK, June 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Iconix Brand Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ICON) announced today that international icon, Britney Spears, has designed her first ever collection of apparel and accessories for its Candie's® brand. The limited edition collection, "Britney for Candie's," will be exclusively available at Kohl's Department Stores (NYSE: KSS) and kohls.com/candies starting in July to kick off the back-to-school season.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100629/NY28042 )

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100629/NY28042 )

The "Britney for Candie's" limited edition collection will be supported with a national marketing campaign including a television commercial, print ad, outdoor, online as well as being integrated into Kohl's back-to-school marketing initiatives.

Britney Spears said, "I was so excited when Candie's asked me to design my very own clothing collection. Designing was a really fun, new way for me to express my creativity and I really wanted to create something by me for my fans. I hope you guys love it."

This marks the pop star's first foray into fashion designing. Spears is best known for her chart-topping multi-platinum albums and is now moving into the fashion realm. "Britney for Candie's" is a mixture of day and evening looks, from the best jean to the must have LBD (Little Black Dress). The collection was inspired by Spears' favorite music and movies and personally designed by the star.

The marketing campaign shows Spears wearing her limited edition collection along with her personal handwritten notes such as, "You'll love these jeans!" and "Love this skirt for dancing...fun & flirty." The campaign features the tagline, "Designed by me for you!" The collection of apparel, handbags and jewelry will range from $14.00-$78.00.

Dari Marder, chief marketing officer, Iconix Brand Group, stated, "This was a great opportunity to offer Britney fans a 'piece of her', through this limited edition collection that has been designed by Britney for them. It was a natural extension of Britney's long-standing partnership with Candie's and we were excited to offer her this new creative outlet, as she has always been extremely involved in the fashion process on set. Our Candie's customer will be thrilled to own exclusive clothing and accessories created by Britney."

Spears hosted a fashion presentation in Los Angeles for friends and family to launch her exclusive collection. She hand-selected her biggest fans to be a part of the show and model her favorite looks from the line. A video of the presentation is available exclusively on www.candies.com and www.kohls.com.

The print campaign was created by the Iconix in-house marketing team and shot by fashion photographer Cliff Watts, and the television commercial was produced by famed music video director, Chris Applebaum. The campaign was shot in Hollywood, CA.

Julie Gardner, Kohl's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, stated, "We are incredibly excited to launch the highly-anticipated Britney for Candie's collection exclusively at Kohl's stores nationwide and Kohls.com for the back-to-school season. The partnership between Iconix and Britney for the Candie's Only at Kohl's campaign continues to evolve in fun and innovative ways, and we are confident this new limited-edition collection will resonate with our young customers."

During her 10 year career, BritneySpearshas had 5 albums debut at the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart, as well as 23 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. Worldwide, Britney Spearsis one of the top-selling artists of the last decade, constantly topping charts with her albums...Baby One More Time (1999); Oops!... I Did It Again (2000); Britney (2001); In The Zone (2003); Blackout (2007) and Circus (2008).Worldwideshe has sold over 63 million albums. Spears recently became the first artist in over three years to debut No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart with her latest song, "3."

About Iconix Brand Group, Inc: Iconix Brand Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ICON) owns, licenses and markets a growing portfolio of consumer brands including CANDIE'S (R), BONGO (R), BADGLEY MISCHKA (R), JOE BOXER (R) RAMPAGE (R) MUDD (R), LONDON FOG (R), MOSSIMO (R) OCEAN PACIFIC(R), DANSKIN (R) ROCA WEAR(R), CANNON (R), ROYAL VELVET (R), FIELDCREST (R), CHARISMA (R), STARTER (R) and WAVERLY (R). In addition, Iconix owns an interest in the ARTFUL DODGER (R), ED HARDY (R), ECKO (R), MARC ECKO (R), ZOO YORK (R), MATERIAL GIRL™, and PEANUTS (R) brands. The Company licenses its brands to a network of leading retailers and manufacturers that touch every major segment of retail distribution from the luxury market to the mass market in both the U.S. and around the world. Iconix, through its in-house advertising, promotion and public relations agency, markets its brands to continually drive greater consumer awareness and equity.
About Kohl's:
Based in Menomonee Falls, Wis., Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) is a family-focused, value-oriented specialty department store offering moderately priced, exclusive and national brand apparel, shoes, accessories, beauty and home products in an exciting shopping environment. Kohl's operates its 1,067 stores in 49 states with a commitment to environmental leadership. In support of the communities it serves, Kohl's has raised more than $150 million for children's initiatives nationwide through its Kohl's Cares for Kids® philanthropic program, which operates under Kohl's Cares, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kohl's Department Stores, Inc. For a list of store locations and information, or for the added convenience of shopping online, visit www.kohls.com.

Contact:

Iconix Brand Group, Inc.

Maria Dolgetta

VP of Public Relations

212.730.0030

Kohl's Department Stores

Vicki Shamion

Vice President of Public and Community Relations

262-703-1464

SOURCE Iconix Brand Group, Inc.

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Britney Spears Designs Exclusive Limited Edition Collection For Candie's

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PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Iconix Brand Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ICON) announced today that international icon, Britney Spears, has designed her first ever...

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Suffering from postnatal depression, grief after the death of her aunt, and a custody battle with her ex husband Kevin Federline

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Britney Spears - Gimme More | MTV Video Music Awards 2007 (4K)

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Britney Spears has recently caused concern among her fans after posting two new videos of herself dancing erratically in a skimpy outfit on her Instagram page. The videos, which feature Spears, 41, wearing a snakeskin thong, have raised alarm bells among fans who are worried about her mental health.

This isn't the first time her devotees have been "concerned" over her behavior, as she has posted several cryptic videos and images for her 41.9 million followers that have prompted worry for her well-being. With that said, let's take a closer look at the two videos she uploaded this week (note: she turned her IG comments off) and what fans think they might mean:

READ MORE: Britney Spears' Family Are Reportedly 'Deeply Concerned' About Her Health Status After Failed Intervention

Britney Spears' Sultry And 'Strange' Instagram Dancing Videos: What Do They Mean?

On April 19th, the Grammy winner posted a video of herself dancing alluringly to a remixed song playing in the background. Her video was taken in her house, presumably, and she smiled while moving her body to the beat. She wore a fiery red, long-sleeved crop top with a low-cut neckline. The "...Baby One More Time" hitmaker showed off her sculpted abs in a snakeskin thong piece. To top off her outfit, she chose knee-high black pointed-toe boots.

The video featured several jarring jump cuts, proving that there were multiple takes put together. Spears almost never didn't make eye contact with the camera, another action that fans have called out as "scary" or "strange" in the past. She used three red rose emojis to caption her upload. One day earlier, she more a near-identical get-up, just with a yellow version of the same shirt.

READ MORE: Britney Spears Is Facing Divorce Rumors After Ditching Her Wedding Ring-And Husband!-On Vacation

Fans Have Mixed (But Mostly Negative) Reactions To Spears' New Videos

Since Spears took away the option to leave IG comments, some fans headed to Twitter to share their thoughts on her recent dance videos. "Okay, [Britney] genuinely needs help," one tweeted as another added, "I'm genuinely concerned about [Britney]." Someone else chimed in, agreeing and referencing one of the "Gimme More" singer's aforementioned video posts: "Something doesn't seem right with her".

One other fan added that they thought "[Britney] in her Instagram videos is an extreme parody of the need to be approved of your physique and the obsession to be liked on social media. I am very sorry." The user also added that they wanted "someone to help her" and stressed that they weren't trying to "make fun of anyone." On Reddit, as The Mirror reports, someone else commented, "There is definitely something not right. Poor Britney."

READ MORE: 10 Memorable Young Britney Spears Moments

Others instead defended the "Toxic" singer, and stressed that she could just be dancing in the videos for "simple fun," and that there's "nothing to worry about." One tweeted in response to other fan reactions to the videos: "Let my girl Britney dance." Someone else agreed, adding, "Britney motivates me to dance. Great way to destress and work out!" Another replied, "I just love [Britney's] dancing vids."

One other fan wanted to point out that "everybody dances in their house like nobody's watching," and that it's "just that Britney has the balls to post it." On Reddit, as The Mirror reports, someone commented, "Leave Britney alone," recalling a popular phrase from the #FreeBritney movement.

Apart from dancing clips, Spears has also used her social media accounts to open up about the enduring pain caused by her 13-year conservatorship. Since being freed from the conservatorship (and pleasing the #FreeBritney movement in the process), Spears married her longtime boyfriend, actor Sam Asghari, 29, and returned to the music world in August 2022. Her latest release, "Hold Me Closer," is a collaborative reworking of Elton John's 1972 classic "Tiny Dancer," and features verses from both musicians. As always, we hope she's doing much better!

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Britney Spears' Fans Are Once Again 'Concerned' Over Her Mental Health After New Dancing Videos In A Snakeskin Thong: 'She Genuinely Needs Help'

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Britney Spears caused concern among fans after posting 2 videos of herself dancing erratically in a skimpy outfit on IG. Read more at SheFinds.com

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Troubled pop star taken to hospital by ambulance for the second time in a month, according to Associated Press

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Britney Spears Hospitalized for 'An Evaluation'

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Police are called after the pop star locked herself in a room with her son

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Britney Spears 2007 — A Timeline of Her Infamous Breakdown!

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This week marks the 10 year anniversary of Britney Spears head-shaving incident in 2007 — kick-starting a very rough couple of years for the pop stars. Just a few months before Britney, then…

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Insider reached out to paparazzi who pursued Britney Spears at the height of her fame.

A New York Times documentary has forced a reckoning over the pop icon's treatment by the media.

They insist they were just documenting what they saw, even if history sees it differently.

No, the paparazzi who pursued Britney Spears are not sorry.

"I'm in it for the money and the history," Los Angeles paparazzo Rick Mendoza said in a phone interview. "You think I give a f--k about somebody getting up on the wrong side of the bed, and they don't want their photograph taken? I don't give a s--t."

Paparazzi literally translates as buzzing mosquitoes. None one has ever looked upon a gaggle of them and thought an empathy convention had broken out. But a widely discussed New York Times documentary about Spears, "Framing Britney Spears," has reactivated interest in her iconically bad - some would say triggering - interactions with the paparazzi. It seemed plausible that some of them might be having regrets.

But when Insider reached out to several of the photographers who paid their bills selling images of Britney Spears, the question of whether they were culpable in breaking the young star's poise all but failed to register as a reasonable question.

"Hollywood used to control the market. The paparazzi took that away," Mendoza insisted. "We made them people, too. I'll show you when they're taking out their garbage. I'll show you when they're picking their nose. Do people want to see that? Obviously yes.

"If someone's entertained, then the system is working," said Mendoza. (The two have a long history. Mendoza sued Spears for a 2007 incident where he alleged the pop star had intentionally driven over his foot as she was leaving a parking garage after a judge suspended her rights to see her two young sons. The case was settled two years later, People reported.)

In the Hollywood paparazzo's perspective, he and Spears - and Christina Aguilera and Paris Hilton - were scrimmaging in a fluid, ongoing public relations tournament that fields publicists, magazine editors, and entertainment show producers, too.

According to this narrative, the Princess of Pop wanted cameras trained on her, until she didn't. And how were photographers to know the difference.

"Britney was just as involved in when and how she was seen," insisted Meg Handler, who started seeing Britney pics while editing photos at the late-nineties Village Voice and couldn't stop seeing them by the time she did a stint on The Star magazine picture desk. "Those photographers were called. Most of the time, her people called. 'Britney's going to be here.' 'Britney's going to be there.' That's how it worked."

"I think with Britney it just got out of control," she said.

A representative for Spears did not respond to a request for comment.

The days of peak paparazzi

The cat-and-mouse game between celebrities and photographers dates back to 1955, when the hypeman Harry Brand alerted the media as Marilyn Monroe just so happened to be standing above an up-blowing grated in a white dress. By the time Britney shaved that head, the paparazzi game had grown unsustainably filthy and rich.

It's arguable that Opening Day of Peak Paparazzi was Aug. 28, 2003, at Radio City Music Hall. The VMAs. "Celebutants" such as Hilary Duff were getting record deals - their media queries outpacing those for actual artists - and Paris Hilton's first album had debuted days earlier. Paparazzi crawled to fill every available space. They lined every exit as the shooters sought to capitalize on this content motherlode. Snoop Dogg was photographed leading two women on leashes into Radio City; it was not a photo op Harry Brand would have seen coming.

The 2003 VMAs are, however, best known for Britney, Christina Aguilera, and Madonna performing "Like a Virgin." You need not have had cable to remember the pictures from when those three kissed.

"That's when it stopped being contained," said Julie Farman, an Epic publicist who handled Michael Jackson. "That to me was a huge inflection point."

Not much more than a year prior, the game was smaller. Mendoza began his career photographing, printing, and mailing pictures of '80s metal bands on the Sunset Strip. He moved on to shooting baseball players in Japan by 2000. When he returned, to focused on "all these little girls out here that were playing the game." Paris Hilton, whom he knew, for starters.

While Mendoza was away the price of a professional-level digital camera had fallen to under $3000, down from around $20,000 when he was starting out. One shot of Jessica Simpson could pay for the investment 10 times over. Paparazzi work was now open to any hustler with an index finger and a dream.

"Photo agency owners would go around to hot spots, mainly places where they got their information," paparazzo Giles Harrison said. "You'd find someone who was parking cars last week at Spago restaurant."

This drop in the barrier to entry coincided with an explosion of outlets for celebrity photography content, such as OK! And Hello! And US had just gone weekly. Just as significantly, fees for utilizing informer-style tip lines - the basis of "we caught so-and-so" stories - were going, up up, up. The-opportunist-to- Weegee ratio grew lopsided as point-and-click and email washed away the holdout craftspersons and waved in the grifters.

"Some photographers are good and some are bad. And some of us were not good people," Harrison said. "You might as well have thrown red meat to a shark," Harrison said.

As her career exploded, Spears had a lot of competition for media attention, a wave she had learned to ride back when few believed in her. The lenses were her road companions while she was playing the malls of America. Their attention mattered no less once she had made it. And by then so many saw in her the opportunity for livelihood.

"That's where you got that pandemonium, that fever," said Randy Bauer, whose agency captured and sold the moment Britney Spears shaved her head, "because there was six figures, potentially, at the end of all that."

He adds: "Those things she'll forever be known for, that was her own doing. We were just there documenting that."

Some of the most difficult to watch moments in "Framing Britney Spears" are from the run-up to the meltdown that would define her and lead to the conservatorship controlled by her father that's now at the heart of the "Free Britney" movement. Vulnerability has been rarely more tangible, the celebrity machine so out of control. By then, Diane Sawyer had asked her on national television "what did you do" to bring her ex Justin Timberlake "so much pain," and she had been dragged for her choices as a mom.

"What can you say about misogyny?" New York Times critic-at-large Wesley Morris observes in the documentary. "There's a whole infrastructure to support it and when it's time for people to come, in a misogynistic culture, for a woman, there's a whole apparatus ready to do it."

Chaotic scenes from the 2000s of photographers crowding Britney would not happen today, those who were part of it insisted. There is better mental health awareness and more accountability for how the media behaves. Declining fees have an effect, too. Celebrity is too diffuse in 2021 to bring forth many $30,000 images, not when stars curate their own images on Instagram.

It's worth noting that Spears' peer Beyonce - both are 39 - managed to elude the worst of America's celebrity obsession. The R&B star toured and shopped with mother Tina Knowles and her father, R&B music executive Matthew Knowles.

A hip-hop flack recalled watching Britney making her way alone through the Beverly Hills Mondrian lobby - alone - while "Hit Me Baby" was a hot record."Britney had no protection," she said.

In footage of that 2003 "Like a Virgin" performance, Beyonce can be seen in the front-row, clapping and smiling. She's the one who got away.

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The paparazzi who stalked Britney Spears have no regrets

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Insider reached out to some of the photographers who photographed Britney Spears. There wasn't a lot of regret.

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Britney Spears' life has not been easy, and to pen down the difficulties of her journey is not at all easy. Early on, she was objectified by the media and her s*x appeal was made a huge deal. Her exes did her dirty, and her mental health deterioration was not handled well by the audience. The conservatorship was terminated in 2021, but the singer still has a long way to go. Before the course of legal guardianship began, she had several episodes of public mental breakdowns that are difficult to watch even today.

In 2006, the singer nearly dropped her 8-month-old son while having a glass in another hand. Hundreds of paparazzi followed her, and people were quick to doubt her parental skills. To know what really happened, scroll on.

Britney Spears was pregnant in 2006 and walked out of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, in Manhattan, with her son Sean Preston. She wore a white cut-out long top and jeans. Reportedly, she was surrounded by hundreds of paparazzi as soon as she appeared outside the hotel. While walking, her jeans got stuck with her open-toed sandals, and she tripped. Sean almost fell from her arms, but the mama was quick to handle him. Her bodyguards also came in to help, but the damage was done. Hundreds and hundreds of flashes were observed in a span of a few seconds, capturing Britney's vulnerable moment.

A YouTube page called Celebritiesprofile1158 shared glimpses of the event recently, and it's heartbreaking. Britney Spears went to a cafe nearby to spend some alone time with her child, where she wept and caressed her son, probably feeling guilty and awful. But the media did not give her any privacy and clicked on her throughout her breakdown.

Take A look:

It might have been okay then (doubtful) but it's so not okay now! The video has over 6 thousand comments, most of them slamming the paps for making a mockery out of Britney 's mental health. Here's what they wrote -

"She's been literally abused in different ways all these years...."

"That picture of her sitting there crying makes me feel so many emotions. Poor girl it absolutely breaks my heart"

"I'm convinced that Brittany had postpartum depression and having back to back babies is hard for any mother but imagine if you're struggling with that and the world is watching and chasing you"

"She was so young too, between wanting to protect her baby and feeling alone it would have been so overwhelming, that poor woman I'm so happy she's finally free."

"WTF is wrong with this world?"

Let us know what you think of this incident, and for more such stories, stay tuned to Koimoi.

Must Read: Timothee Chalamet Breaks Up With Kylie Jenner For Having 2 Kids & An Ex, Travis Scott? Reports State, "His Career Is On Fire!' & Netizens Dub Them As "F-Buddies "

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When Britney Spears Almost Dropped Her 8-Month-Old Baby & Was Left Crying While Being Chased By Hundreds Of Paparazzi, Here's What Happened

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Britney Spears once almost dropped her eight-month-old son and was clicked by paps and shamed by the media. Read!

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The consensus is clear: Britney Spears performed like she was sloshing blindfolded through mud at MTV's Video Music Awards. No one disputes that the troubled pop princess royally mangled her much-heralded comeback.

But what about the nastiest comments of all - those about her body? "Lard and Clear," read Monday's headline in the New York Post. "The bulging belly she was flaunting was SO not hot," wrote E! Online. And so on.

Was it fair? Did Spears, lest we forget a mother of two, deserve to be held up against the standard of her once fantastically toned abs, sculpted by sessions of 1,000 tummy crunches? Or was she asking for it by choosing that unforgiving black-sequined bikini?

More profoundly, in an age where skinny models and skeletal actresses are under scrutiny for the message they're sending young girls, what does it say that we're excoriating a young woman for a little thickness in her middle?

Certainly people were curious to see her. The show drew 7.1 million viewers Sunday, up 23 percent over last year's VMAs, and was the highest-rated cable program of the year among people aged 12 to 34, according to Nielsen Media Research.

On the morning after what the VH1 channel called Spears' "already historic" performance, the blogosphere was buzzing with opinions. For every "fat" comment there was an impassioned retort. "Give her a break," wrote one blogger on Aboutthink.com. "The girl's had two kids - I hope I'm a size 10 after having kids!"

"OK, she isn't fat," wrote another. "But she isn't fit enough to be wearing (or not wearing) what she is."

For many observers, the issue was not so much the body, but the body in THAT outfit.

"In that ensemble, you just can't have an ounce of anything extra," said Janice Min, editor of the celebrity magazine US Weekly. "Many women wouldn't eat for days if they were wearing that."

"Did she look better than 99 percent of women? Yes," added Min. "But compared to her earlier form, she probably didn't look as good."

Besides, said Min, "Britney Spears has always been about the whole package. It's never been 100 percent about the talent. Is it sexist? Probably, but she's built a career on an image of sexiness."

Women can't win: Too thin or called 'fat' Talk of Spears' physique comes amid an increasingly critical focus on overly skinny actresses in Hollywood, who've largely replaced supermodels as the world's fashion plates. It's hard to pick up a celebrity magazine without a critical photo of, say, Angelina Jolie's birdlike arms. And curvy actresses are getting positive attention, from Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson of "Dreamgirls" to Golden Globe-winner America Ferrara of TV's "Ugly Betty."

In the fashion industry, there's been an effort to promote healthier-looking models. "Girls aren't looking as skinny this season as they did," said Suze Yalof Scwhartz, executive editor-at-large for Glamour Magazine. "There's food backstage. They're looking sexier." At Glamour, she noted, a model won't be featured "if she shows too much clavicle."

The nastier headlines about Spears are uncalled for, Schwartz said, but at the same time, "when you walk around the stage in a black bikini in front of millions of viewers, people are going to notice." She added that though Spears doesn't have the perfect body she once did, "Most women would die for the body she has now."

An obvious question is whether a male performer would have been subjected to the same standards. Many would say no; Dave Zinczenko, editor of Men's Health magazine, says yes.

"Listen, any time you go on national television and dance in barely any clothing, you're going to be facing a lot of scrutiny," Zinczenko says. "Anybody would be asking for it." Not that many people weren't pulling for Spears, he notes: "If she had come back, she would have been the toast of the country."

And certainly she had a lot to come back from over the past few years: Well-documented parenting mishaps - remember the baby on her lap in the driver's seat? A messy divorce from husband Kevin Federline. The famous crotch photos. The bizarre head-shaving incident. Rehab.

And now this.

"I kind of feel bad for her," said Shelley Wade, a DJ at New York City pop station Z100. "She looked really nervous. And then now, I'm looking at all these blogs this morning about how everybody thinks she's fat and I'm like, 'What! Fat?' She wasn't fat."

How all this will impact Spears' career, and sales of her new album, has yet to be seen. "I just felt like that performance was make or break for her comeback," says Wade. "Now with last night's performance, she's just kind of put herself back in the same boat ... everybody thinks she's a train wreck."

But the single of "Gimme More," the song she destroyed onstage, is off to a great start in the Top 40, says Sean Ross of Edison Research, which tracks radio play. "A great VMA performance would have probably closed the deal for her, but she's still got until Thanksgiving to do other good performances and to release a strong album with other hits on it," he said.

In any case, it seems it would never be wise to write an obituary of Spears' career.

"With everything Britney, we think this is the last chance," says Min. "The fact is, it never is.

"At least this puts attention back on her as a performer. My sense is she'd rather be judged on that than on the rehab, the drinking and the partying."

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Was media unfair to call Britney Spears fat?

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'Lard and Clear' is cruel headline in New York Post

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Britney Spears has elected not to do any television interviews to promote her forthcoming memoir.

The 41-year-old pop icon - whose book The Woman In Me is full of bombshell claims - has already elicited buzz around the literary effort with published excerpts.

Spears is generally not interested in any sit-down format conversations with media, and a recent exchange with People was conducted via email.

There was once chatter that Spears had invitations to appear on 60 Minutes, or in an exclusive interview with Oprah, but those have been ruled out, TMZ reported.

The music sensation reportedly made the call to opt out of a press tour all on her own.

According to the entertainment news site, the singer does not want to be bombarded with personal questions.

In extracts from the book, due out October 24, Britney unleashed shocking revelations.

She admitted to cheating on ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake with choreographer Wade Robson, following years of hearsay.

According to The Sun, Britney confirmed in her memoir that she kissed Wade during a night out.

She wrote: 'We were out one night and we went to a Spanish bar. We danced and danced. I made out with him that night.'

Britney also wrote that she was loyal to Justin for years 'with that one exception.'

The star revealed she told Justin about her kiss with Wade and they were able to move past it and stay together.

The mother-of-two also divulged that she had an abortion during her relationship with Justin when she was 19-years-old.

Spears penned that while she wanted the baby and 'dreamed of having a family' with Justin, who was also 19 at the time, he ultimately 'wasn't ready' for the responsibilities of fatherhood.

In an excerpt published by People the songstress remembered: '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.'

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Britney Spears will NOT do any TV interviews to promote her book

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Britney Spears has elected not to do any television interviews to promote her forthcoming memoir. She has already elicited buzz around the literary effort with published excerpts.

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Child Star ''Mickey Mouse Club at 10 in 1992, Signed Contract at 15 in 1996

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Child Star ''Mickey Mouse Club at 10 in 1992, Signed Contract at 15 in 1996

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1992 - 2001

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Since the infamous head-shaving incident over 13 years ago, her personal life and career have been up and down like a roller coaster - as detailed in the new documentary Framing Britney on 9Now .

Up until 2017, she was regularly performing and releasing new music despite being under full court-ordered control of her father.

Britney's son revealed in an Instagram Live video last year that she'd probably never make music again, something the singer also hinted at in June 2021.

So, what's going on? Here's everything that's happened with Britney over the last decade, to get her to where we are now - in the midst of an intense court battle.

In early 2007, Britney was filmed shaving her own head in a Los Angeles hair salon after leaving a drug rehabilitation centre. Later, she voluntarily spent some time in various treatment facilities over a few months.

In January 2008, Britney was placed under a 5150: an involuntary 72-hour psychiatric evaluation. She was photographed by paparazzi being removed from her LA home on a gurney, but only stayed in hospital for two days.

A couple of weeks later she was placed under another 5150, and while in hospital the courts ruled that she should be placed under a temporary conservatorship held by her father, Jamie Spears.

Jamie was made the permanent conservator of her affairs while attorney Andrew Wallet was named the permanent co-conservator of her estate.

In 2009, Britney toured the world with her tour, while still legally under her father's control. Leaked voicemails with her lawyer revealed allegations that Britney's father was using her visitation rights with her two children as leverage to stop her from fighting the conservatorship in court.

The pair split up by the end of 2012, before they could get married. Jason resigned as co-conservator and Papa Spears was in full control again.

In the middle of 2015, fans noticed that her energy had taken a pretty drastic shift. She suddenly looked excited and invigorated, like she really wanted to be there.

According to fans , she went from performing shows with little-to-no energy, where she just marked out the choreography, to having flawless form and actually smiling and enjoying herself.

At one point, she even wore a bedazzled top that read "YOU DON'T OWN ME" - a move some fans viewed as a nod to her father and the conservatorship.

In 2016, things kept looking up. At that year's Billboard Awards, she won the coveted Millennium Award then took to the stage to perform a medley of her past hits.

Again, she looked happy and healthy and had the stage presence that had been missing from public performances over the last couple of years.

By the end of 2017, Britney's Vegas residency had been extended twice. It was originally set to run for two years but, due to rave reviews and numerous awards, ended up running for a full four years with nearly 250 shows.

Soon afterwards, her second residency, Domination , was announced to fans. In the lead-up to opening night in early 2019, Britney was constantly posting updates and videos from rehearsal. Fans commented that she was in relatively good spirits and seemed excited for Domination .

Saying that the decision "breaks her heart", she wrote, "a couple of months ago, my father was hospitalised and almost died. We're all so grateful that he came out of it alive, but he still has a long road ahead of him. I had to make the difficult decision to put my full focus and energy on my family at this time."

A couple of days after cancelling the residency, Britney was spotted driving in LA. One of the conditions of her conservatorship is that she can't drive, and she hadn't been seen behind a wheel since 2008.

And this is when the #FreeBritney hashtag was born.

Feel free to take a breather here for a second, because here's where the drama all starts to happen.

Firstly, in March, Britney's father became sole conservator after attorney Andrew Wallet resigned from his co-conservatorship.

In April, a paralegal who worked with Britney when she was contesting her conservatorship reached out to the podcast Britney's Gram . He claimed that Britney had stopped taking her medication while rehearsing for Domination , and her father Jamie demanded she go back on them or he'd cancel the residency. When she refused, he allegedly cancelled it and placed her in a treatment facility.

#FreeBritney began trending, and her own mother, Lynn Spears, was liking comments saying that Britney was being held against her will. Britney took to social media to clear up the allegations in a video where she claimed the rumours were "out of control". She asked for time to deal with things in her own way.

The conservatorship stayed in place.

"Personally, I want for her to just find a peaceful, happy place - whatever that means for her," he said. "It's not about a career anymore - it's about life."

In June, a lawsuit filed in LA alleged that a blogger had falsely claimed the court-ordered conservatorship had manipulated Britney's Instagram to make her 'troubled'.

The opening line of the lawsuit stated, "It is time for the conspiracy theories about Britney Spears' well-being and the mob #FreeBritney movement to stop."

In September, Britney and her ex Kevin Federline, the father of her children, reached a new custody agreement which meant she got 30 per cent (unsupervised) custody of sons Sean and Jaden, then 13 and 12, while Kevin got 70 per cent. The arrangement had been in place since August 2018, according to TMZ, but it was only formalised in September 2019.

Not long after news of the custody agreement and restraining order, Jamie stepped down temporarily as Britney's conservator, citing ongoing health issues. In his place, until January 31, 2020, Britney's care manager Jodi Montgomery was approved to fill in as conservator. It was decided, temporarily, that Jamie would no longer be conservator of Britney's personal life, though he would maintain financial control over her.

In late 2019 and early 2020, people began noticing that Britney's Instagram was becoming a strange place. She posted a lot of videos of her dancing, walking around her house, and just posing in front of the camera.

Nothing really out of the ordinary, but still not what you'd expect from one of the biggest pop stars in the world. This particularly bizarre Christmas video was posted with the caption "There's no reason to ever go out of your way to make mean comments and bully people."

In January, Britney spoke in an Instagram Story about how important freedom is to her.

Around this time, she made another plea before the courts for her conservatorship to be lifted and a full hearing was scheduled for April 2020.

In March, a source revealed to that she refused to make any more music as a protest of her conservatorship . "This is the longest break between album cycles in her career - it's coming up on four years since was released - and she's perfectly content with it," the source said.

In early March, her son Jayden went on a giant rant on Instagram Live, where he called his grandfather Jamie a "d--k" and commented that Britney would probably never make new music again.

When a follower asked him if Britney was under Jamie's control, he replied, "I don't know". But when someone else wrote "help your [mum] break free", he replied, "That's what I'm trying to do."

"I remember one time I asked her, I said, 'What happened to your music?' and she was like, 'I don't know, honey. I think I might just quit it'," he revealed.

According to court documents obtained by the outlet, a judge issued an order allowing the temporary conservator, Jodi Montgomery, to remain in place until August 22, 2020.

As a way to thank fans, her record label released an alternate cover photo for the album. Apparently just before the album dropped in 2016, they changed the cover image. Fans speculated that it was because it depicted her with chains , and there could be links drawn to her conservatorship. The artwork that was released in 2016 is a low-quality screenshot from a video, so fans are pretty happy with the new one.

During isolation, Britney really leaned into Instagram and TikTok, filming a bunch of videos in her home. They're certainly quirky, and a lot of people have no clue what she's doing.

Because TikTok is flooded with Gen Z-ers who don't really know Britney's full history, she's been somewhat ridiculed in the comment section. It's also re-sparked the conversation about the state of her mental health right now.

In July, Britney responded to people who were making fun of her dancing - including Timbaland, a musician who she's worked with in the past.

"I never said I was the best dancer," she wrote on Instagram. "I dance simply because it fills my heart with joy and expression 💕!"

Britney also started adding the dates she filmed her videos to the captions, because she believes the paparazzi are editing photos of her to make it look like she's gained weight in quarantine.

"She's always wanted to get out of it," Bryan said in a podcast interview. "It's very frustrating to have. Whether someone's coming in peace to help or coming in with an attitude, having someone constantly tell you to do something has got to be frustrating.

"She's been in this thing for quite some time now. Obviously there was a need for it at the beginning that I assume everyone knows the issues that were going on, and now they've made some changes and all we can kinda do is hope for the best."

In a rare interview, Britney's father, Jamie, revealed that he was growing tired of the #FreeBritney movement.

"All these conspiracy theorists don't know anything. The world don't have a clue," he told the outlet. "It's up to the court of California to decide what's best for my daughter. It's no one else's business."

Despite this, Jamie has asked to reinstate himself as conservator along with attorney Andrew Wallet, who was once his co-conservator before resigning last year.

In the petition, Jamie asked to be given the "power to obtain all documents and records" relating to his daughter's estate, such as credit cards, bank statements and estate documents. In his filing, it was also revealed that Britney had US$2.7 million in cash assets (approx. $3.7 million) and approximately US$57.4 million (approx. $80 million) in non-cash assets as of December 31, 2019.

"People with disabilities have a right to lead self-directed lives and retain their civil rights," the ACLU said in a tweet as they shared a link to the article regarding the case. "If Britney Spears wants to regain her civil liberties and get out of her conservatorship, we are here to help her."

He told the judge that Britney no longer wants to perform, despite her father insisting that she revives her career. The judge wanted to hear this from Spears herself, which is when the lawyer claimed her mental state was not one where she should be making legal declarations

On August 22, it was decided that Britney's conservatorship will be extended until at least February 2021, and on November 10 a judge denied Britney's request to remove Jamie from her conservatorship

February 2021

On February 5, a documentary produced by The New York Times about the #FreeBritney movement was released. While attempts to contact Spears for an interview were unsuccessful, her former assistant and members of the media were interviewed for the doco titled Framing Britney Spears . The singer's parents, her siblings and her ex-husband Kevin Federline all declined to participate.

Addressing the court, Judge Brenda Penny said the purpose of the order was to give both Jamie and Bessemer "an equal division of responsibility, in the hopes that they would sit down and figure out together the best way to handle this complex estate for the benefit of my client".

Britney had requested to entirely remove her father as conservator back in November - she wanted the Bessemer Trust Company to solely be in charge of her estate - but Judge Penny also denied that request.

It's impossible to know exactly what's going on in Britney's life. From the outside, there's no denying it looks messy - though she'll always be the iconic '00s pop princess in our hearts.

The address is scheduled to let the singer give the "status of the conservatorship", and will be the first time she's spoken publically about her battle to remove her father as her conservator.
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Britney's lawyer, Samuel Ingham, said, "My client requested a hearing at which she can address the court directly," but was unsure what specifically she wanted to say.

The hearing is scheduled for June 23 and it's believed Britney will attend virtually.

On June 17, a few days before her scheduled hearing, Britney answered some fan questions, addressing rumours she will never perform again.

"OK, so I hear that you guys have been writing in and I'm here to answer all of your questions," Britney said in an Instagram video. ... "The question is, Am I ready to take the stage again? Am I going to take the stage again? Will I ever take the stage again?"

"I have no idea," she answered. "I'm having fun right now, I'm in a transition in my life and I'm enjoying myself so, that's it."

June 23, 2021

On June 23, Britney appeared virtually before the court and pleaded for her "oppressive and controlling" conservatorship to be removed .

At the Los Angeles hearing, the pop star called the conservatorship "abusive," and condemned her father and the others who have controlled it.

"This conservatorship is doing me way more harm than good," she said. "I deserve to have a life."

Britney said she wants to marry her boyfriend Sam Asghari and have a baby with him, but under her current conservatorship, she is not allowed to.

She also revealed, amongst other disturbing claims - including likening her conservatorship conditions to being a "slave" - that she is being forced to take birth control against her will.

June 24, 2021

"I just want to tell you guys a little secret," she wrote alongside an image of a whimsical little girl walking into a forest with a quote by Albert Einstein: "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

Spears' caption explained that while her life may have been presented as a fairy tale, she has been living a lie and pretending "like everything was ok".

"I believe as people we all want the fairy tale life and by the way I've posted... my life seems to look and be pretty amazing ... I think that's what we all strive for !!!!" she wrote in her caption.

"I'm bringing this to peoples attention," Spears continued, "Because I don't want people to think my life is perfect because it's definitely not at all ... and if you have read anything about me in the news this week ... you obviously really know now it's not !!!!"

On behalf of Lynne, Jones then asked the judge to listen to Britney's request to change her care plan, which has been in place since 2008.

June 26, 2021

"I like the sound of the ocean at night and I like hearing people laughing from my balcony. There's a togetherness here and it's endless !!!" she captioned the video, in which she was also seen playing in the sand.

"Here's me playing in the dirt and making angels in the sand in the ocean 🌊🏝🐚 !!!! More to come ... more to share ... more to dream ... more to hope for ... and many more to pray for !!!! GOD BLESS YOU ALL !!!! Here's to Maui 🌴🌅🏖 !!!!"

June 28, 2021

"Now that she's very clearly spoken and said what she needed to say, I feel like I can follow her lead and say what I feeI I need to say," the star said on her Instagram Stories .

In the video, Jamie Lynn said she had previously spoken to her sister about hiring a new lawyer, and she's glad Britney took her advice.

"I'm so proud of her for using her voice," Jamie Lynn said. "I'm so proud of her for requesting new counsel like I told her many years ago. Oh, not in a public platform but just in a personal conversation between two sisters.

"Maybe I didn't support the way the public would like me to - with a hashtag on a public platform - but I can assure you that I support my sister long before there was a hashtag and I'll support her long after."

June 29, 2021

"[Kevin] certainly respects Britney and only hopes the best for her because when the best for her is achieved, it's the best for their kids. The kids love their mother and he wants there to be a healthy and strong relationship."

June 30, 2021

But he claims he is not responsible, and he is placing the blame on others, specifically his daughter's temporary conservator, Jodi Montgomery, and her lawyer, Samuel Ingham III.

Jamie was "greatly saddened to hear of his daughter's difficulties and suffering, and he believes that there must be an investigation into those claims," the new documents stated.

Britney's lawyer Samuel D Ingham III filed documents for Bessemer Trust to be made co-conservator, which was approved by the judge. However, Ingham's request to have Jamie removed altogether was denied.

July 2, 2021

The company said it was requesting to withdraw "due to changed circumstances."

Britney's sister Jamie Lynn asks online trolls to stop sending her death threats.

"Hi, I respect that everyone has the right to express themselves, but can we please stop with the death threats, especially the death threats to children," the 30-year-old alum wrote via her Instagram Story .

Britney's mother Lynne Spears tells reporters Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino she has concerns about her daughter's current situation.

"I got mixed feelings about everything. I don't know what to think... It's a lot of pain, a lot of worry," she said.

"I'm good. I'm good at deflecting," she added "wryly," the publication reports.

Lynne reportedly "spoke in a whisper" to reporters and "declined to answer detailed questions about the case." She later tells reporters she may have to hand up if anyone found her talking to the media.

"I'll go years without contact, and then I'll get a call every once in a while from her in a closet," Lufti told

Lufti implied Britney's phone was under surveillance from her legal team.

"Last time she called me, she was at Ralphs, in Calabasas," Lutfi says. "After she hung up, I got a call from the same number - it's an Asian doctor, who says, 'Wow, this is surreal, Britney just borrowed my phone.' Five years ago, she borrowed a phone at the gym and just made off with it."

Lutfi is currently under a five-year restraining order against Spears that was instated in 2019.

"I was originally hired at Britney's request to help manage and assist her with her career. And as her manager, I believe it is in Britney's best interest for me to resign from her team as my professional services are no longer needed."

In the filing, Ingham stated his resignation would be "effective" upon the designation of new court-appointed counsel.

Ingham represented Britney for the entirety of her 13-year conservatorship.

Jamie Lynn responds to a report she's the only member of Britney's family that isn't receiving money from the pop star.

Jamie posted a screenshot of an article headline reading 'Britney Spears' sister Jamie Lynn shares photos of her home life...after it's revealed she is the ONLY family member not on the singer's payroll.'

Jamie Lynn confirmed the report by captioning it, "facts...now leave my broke-a-- alone."

"Since Ms. Spears has requested that Petitioner retain her position as conservator, Petitioner has no intention of abandoning her by resigning because of these threats," Montgomery's lawyers wrote.

July 11, 2021

Britney Spears ' father Jamie Spears has reportedly spent millions of her money on his own defence against her, according to claims made by Britney's conservator Jodi Montgomery.

The duo have been warring since Britney's 24-minute bombshell testimony on June 23, with Jamie earlier this week blaming Montgomery for the abuse and suffering Britney testified to experiencing throughout her restrictive 13-year conservatorship.

Montgomery filed court documents on Friday, July 9 in response to Jamie's Wednesday July 7 filing, saying he was concerned Montgomery "does not reflect Ms Spears' wishes" as she handles Britney's daily "personal care and medical treatment".

July 12, 2021

Spears had been represented by lawyer Samuel Ingham III for the entirety of the conservatorship, starting in 2008, when the court put the arrangement in place, with her father, Jamie Spears, as her sole conservator, after she endured a tough time in the public eye in 2007. At the time, Spears had no say in selecting Ingham as her lawyer, which is typical for a conservatorship.

During her June 23 testimony, Spears asked the judge to allow her to hire a lawyer of her choosing. At that hearing, Ingham told the judge that he would be willing to resign, if that was his client's wish.

Ingham filed paperwork to resign on July 6, roughly two weeks after Spears' testimony, while a lawyer for Britney's mother, Lynne Spears, filed paperwork , urging the court to "listen to the wishes of her daughter" and allow her to hire her own private lawyer.

July 14, 2021

Britney's case was back in court with the popstar looking to appoint a lawyer of her own choosing.

Spears is not expected to speak again at the afternoon hearing, in which all the parties are expected to take part remotely, but she may weigh in as she seeks to hire a lawyer of her choice.

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What's going on with Britney Spears and why is everyone talking about her? An explainer

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Since the infamous head-shaving incident over 13 years ago, her personal life and career have been up and down like a roller coaster - as detailed in the new documentary Framing Britney on 9Now . Up until 2017, she was regularly performing and releasing new music despite being under full court-ordered control of her father.

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Michael Jackson & Britney Spears Duet - The Way You Make Me Feel (HD Remaster)

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Make Me... / Me, Myself & I ft. G-Eazy (Live from the 2016 MTV VMAs)

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Britney Spears - Megamix (Live from the 2016 Billboard Music Awards)

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Celebrating the pop star's life and career in photos

From launching her career as a teenager on The Mickey Mouse Club to becoming the queen of MTV's TRL generation, Britney Spears has left an undeniable mark on pop music. As she turns 40 years old, she's not just celebrating a huge life milestone - she's also living life on her own terms for the first time in nearly 14 years, now that her longstanding, controversial conservatorship has been ended by a judge. Here's a toast to Ms. Spears, looking back at some of her greatest career and personal highlights.

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Photos of Britney Spears from throughout her career to celebrate her 40th birthday and the end of her conservatorship

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As Britney's only major film returns to the big screen, director Tamra Davis tells Vanity Fair about making a movie "for girls, by girls" and how art imitated life: "That's her crying, telling us that she missed out on being a teenager."

It's astoundingly difficult to watch 2002's Crossroads, a coming-of-age movie that centers on three best friends ( Britney Spears, Zoe Saldana, and Taryn Manning) taking a road trip. The film isn't streaming either for free or purchase. If you really want, you can buy a DVD of it on Amazon-or pursue more, shall we say, questionably legal means.

That changes October 23 and 25, when Crossroads will return to theaters for a two-day global fan event that coincides with the release of The Woman in Me, Spears's highly anticipated memoir. The rerelease-which Spears herself has signed off on-is a truly rare chance to see the pop star's first and only big-screen outing in all its crimped-hair, crop-topped glory. And for director Tamra Davis, it's also a chance to reclaim the film's legacy.

The story of three estranged childhood friends who reconnect after digging up a wish box they buried as kids and deciding to enter a music competition in Los Angeles, was decimated by critics upon release. "It made me so mad when I rewatched it, because who are you to criticize girl culture?" Davis tells Vanity Fair over Zoom. "This movie wasn't for you, so don't talk about it. I'm not going to give you a whole thing about Fast and Furious or something. This really was a film made for girls, by girls."

An era when Barbie and the Taylor Swift concert film have reinvigorated the box office is an especially apt time to reevaluate Crossroads, which was directed, produced, and written by women-the script's by a pre- Grey's Anatomy Shonda Rhimes-and centered on female friendship. It was also the last of several star-making films from Davis, now 61. Her résumé also includes the first major movies for Chris Rock (1993's CB4), Adam Sandler (1995's Billy Madison), and Dave Chappelle (1998's Half Baked).

"These are films that I made with them for their fans, and we loved them. If I made a film that Adam loved and his fans loved it, that's all we wanted," says Davis. "It was like punk-rock music. If the parents didn't like it, we won.... Having Crossroads come back, it's the validation that you can't listen to those critics. You just have to believe that the thing that you made...stands the test of time.... We were right-you were wrong."

In honor of the film's rerelease, Davis dishes on all things Crossroads, including her unorthodox first meeting with her leading lady, Kim Cattrall's "super harsh" performance as the mother of Spears's character, and her reaction to Spears saying now that the production "wasn't easy for me."

Vanity Fair: As I was trying to rewatch the film for our conversation, I learned just how impossible it is to find-on streaming or otherwise. Is that part of why the rerelease is happening?

Tamra Davis: Yes. Because people would be like, "Hey, how do I watch?" I'm like, "I know it's not available. You can't stream it. It's nowhere to be found." I tried to have my lawyers call. And then out of nowhere, I get a call from Sony that after all these years of me trying, and my lawyer, it was Britney that called to get it rereleased because she wanted it to accompany her launch of the book. So, Sony came in and picked up the film from its original distributor, Paramount, and bought the rights. It's going to be available for this event, but then they're going to do a streaming deal.
Do you feel like the movie will be received differently now?
For sure. I just rewatched it myself, and I hadn't seen it in, God, I don't know, 10, 15, years. It was all us women making it-myself and Shonda and [producer] Ann Carli behind the camera, and Britney. But yes, I feel like it's going to be received differently because at that point, she was such a gigantic pop star that people wanted to comment on that [instead of the movie]. Now, I feel like you can see it as this incredible friendship film. I just was really blown away by the feeling that I got watching it-how important female friendships are.

I read that you initially turned down the film and were reticent about making a Britney Spears vehicle. What changed your mind about her and the project itself?

My agents were like, "Oh, we don't think you should do it." I was friends with Ann Carli, I knew her from Jive Records, and she said, "Why don't you just go and meet her?" So I was like, "Okay, that sounds fun. A free ticket to Las Vegas and get to meet Britney Spears? Yeah, that's cool." So she opened the door at 10 in the morning wearing underwear and a T-shirt, and was just like, "Man, I was hammered last night." And I was like, "What? Who's this? You're Britney Spears?"

I spent the whole day with her and watched her go from this girl that's from the South, and I knew who that girl was, to Britney Spears. She had to get dressed for some big event that night, the VMA Awards or something. And I fell in love with her. She told me that she really wanted to control her image, she wanted to do the rehearsals. She said, "I'll do anything you say." She really made a gigantic commitment [that] she would let all of this go and just focus on the movie.
The film reflects a lot of Britney's personal life at the time, from singing an 'NSync song in the convertible to having her sister, Jamie Lynn, play the younger version of her character. Were those elements woven in to make Britney feel more comfortable in her first film?
I think so. She was really close with her sister and her mom during the film. I respected and loved that, of course, and her sister looked exactly like her. And the thing with Justin [Timberlake], that was super fun. They were dating at the time, and I loved their relationship. But also, it's so interesting that at that time with music, it really was this huge debate between end of the '90s rock music, which then goes into all the girls were like, "We want to hear 'NSync and have fun." So, it really was a battle of the airwaves. It was like Blink 182 versus Backstreet Boys.

You once said that nothing happened on the film "without making sure Brit was happy with it." What element of production did you differ the most on?

It had to do with her record ["I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman"]. This was a record specifically about going from this teen to a woman. And so that's what the film was about. That was what she had told Shonda. So most of those discussions happened before me. The things that I struggled with the most was-Shonda, this was her first film. She was on path to be a director. Ann was going to work with her and she was going to direct a movie starring Jada [Pinkett Smith]. So she really had a lot of strong ideas, and she and I come from very different places. I'm very visual and street, and I've worked my way up to get to where I was. And she was this incredibly educated, smart woman that was really strong and had a very specific viewpoint even at that time and age. So it was just more trying to make sure that Shonda and I were on the same page and everything that happened, she and I had to agree with.

Britney really wanted to be part of the ensemble. I think that she wanted to let go of all the power and just be part of this group and really work on that craft. So she didn't really come on as like, "Well, I see it this way." This was all new to her, so she was incredibly wonderful and open to direction.

I'm not sure if you've seen it yet, but in a newly released excerpt from her book, Britney writes about going Method for the movie and says that she felt so immersed in the process that it made her wary about putting herself through that again for another role. Did you get a sense of this feeling while working with her?

Yes, and I can't wait to hear what she says because for me, I didn't want her to act. Acting was what she learned on The Mickey Mouse Club. So when I hung out with her and Taryn and Zoe, it was [like] playing with better tennis players. Let's put you around people that are really good actors like Taryn and Zoe and Anson [Mount]. It would've been weird to have somebody fake acting with Taryn Manning, who I almost said no to because I was like, "She's amazing, but I need an actor. I don't need a girl that's really the girl." And my sister's like, "She's acting right now." I was like, "Oh, my God."

So I felt like the more I got to know Britney, the more I got to put her on the camera. I wanted to get the authentic version of her. And so when I rewatched it in the last couple weeks, I was so moved because I knew that's what I was doing. But it was really intense when she's sitting on the bed talking to her father about how she missed out on being a teenager. That's her crying, telling us that longing that she missed out on everything. That's really her. When she's crying on the bathroom floor of that rejection [by her mother], we had to get to her, really her. She's not acting in the movie. So it's so curious to hear that she saw that too, that I was really making her feel and be that character. Because she couldn't be Britney.

She was at such a professional peak. Did you find it difficult to pierce the wall of people that helped control her image, to build trust with her?
I'm so grateful for somebody like Ann, because right in the very beginning she put her foot down and was like, "The moment I have you on this set, you're no longer Britney Spears." I had the support of the producers, and the film had Britney and [record executive] Clive Davis behind it. They supported those decisions so that we really could shut out the world of Britney. It really made it a big difference.

I remember watching the Madonna documentary, and you see that when you are the top banana, everybody does everything you want to do. And that's not what it's like on a movie. So we needed to get her to the place where when she came on set, she was just like all of us. I love set life, because you feel like you're at a giant summer camp most of the time. There shouldn't be one top person that runs it, because it just wrecks it. And I just love after the film, when they're doing the B-roll of "Overprotected" and you cut away and see who she was at that time-how relaxed and fun. I just love seeing that part of her.

Kim Cattrall is so delicious as Britney's mother in the film. But is it true that Madonna was floated for that role?

It's probably internet lore. We talked about who we love. We love Britney, and I love Madonna. So to open the film with her dancing in her bedroom [to Madonna's "Open Your Heart"], and just the celebration of girl culture, that's what we do-we close our bedroom door, we play around. I love that. To me, it's my female gaze saying, this is what girls are like. I love that. And of course, Britney was super into that.

With Kim Cattrall, we all loved Sex and the City. That's legendary. So we asked Kim if she could be in the film, but it was also a real risk for her. And I think that's also what Kim liked, is she's not playing a good character. It's super harsh. You're playing a mom who rejects somebody, and it's really intense. So I really liked the bravery that she had to do a role like that. Not all mothers are...Sometimes you don't want your past to come back to you, and it's threatening.

Another thing I was struck by is that the film's main twist is identical to the one at the center of Big Little Lies season one. Has anyone ever brought that up to you?

No! Maybe [ Big Little Lies] author Liane Moriarty is a Crossroads fan [ laughs]. But that's freaking Shonda Rhimes, she's brilliant. Look at her career afterwards. She is incredible. I was so struck when I watched it, about how you start to unfold these secrets that these girls hold. But that takes time. It doesn't just happen immediately. So by the end of the film, how the friendship really builds and comes back together, I just was really impressed with that. That's Shonda showing us her complexity of female characters and that it takes time to unfold.
And you had to fight for the scene where Lucy loses her virginity to Ben, right?
Me and Sherry Lansing [then Paramount chairman], we did a screening, she said, "I have a suggestion. Let's look at the movie if we take out that scene." And I was like,
" What? The whole reason Britney made this movie is because of that scene." And it's done so tastefully that if you're a child, you almost have no idea what's going on. I did it super choreographed. I knew that I would have backup from Britney, everybody would back me up. I fought for that scene. It would've been so silly to take it out. We screened the film with the female audience after [our conversation] with that scene. And my scores were so high that Sherry let me keep it in.

As fun as the film is, there's also a sadness in knowing what Britney would experience in the years after. In the past, you believed that Britney's conservatorship prevented the two of you from reconnecting in a real way. Now that it's over, have you been in contact?

No. We've been in contact with her new manager, and I think she knows that I'm there for her. I totally respect however she wants to communicate. I knew that she couldn't speak because of the SAG contract, but I just wanted to let her know that no matter what happened, I would be next to her so she wouldn't have to do anything alone. And even knowing that she trusts me to go out and speak...I'd love to talk to her whenever she's ready. But I totally respect wherever she is right now, and love her dearly.
This interview has been edited and condensed.

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"You're No Longer Britney Spears": How 'Crossroads' Captured the Girl Beyond the Pop Star

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As Britney's only major film returns to the big screen, director Tamra Davis tells Vanity Fair about making a movie "for girls, by girls" and how art imitated life: "That's her crying, telling us that she missed out on being a teenager."

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Britney Spears’ style was the blueprint for today’s female stars, and she was shamed for it every step of the way

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Today’s celebrities mimic ensembles Britney Spears wore in the 1990s and 2000s. But the pop star was shamed and over-sexualized because of her looks.

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Review: Britney Spears, Britney - Slant Magazine

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Britney Spears - Britney Album Reviews, Songs & More | AllMusic

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Discover Britney by Britney Spears released in 2001. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.

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Rachel Syme Updated on November 29, 2018 @ 04:00PM

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Britney Spears’ Billion-Dollar Business Has Nothing to Do With Her Music

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Britney remains one of the hardest working women in pop; what we don’t discuss enough is that she’s also one of the hardest working women in perfume.

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NEW YORK - The bar has been raised in the celebrity beauty sweepstakes: Pop princess Britney Spears has signed a deal with Elizabeth Arden to develop Spears-branded fragrance, color cosmetics and skin care. This news confirms a report that ran in these columns last Friday.

The first item to be released under the Spears nameplate will be a fragrance, intended to roll out in Arden's U.S. prestige department store lineup - about 2,000 doors -?this fall, with a global release planned for spring 2005. Color cosmetics and skin care will follow, although they are not expected for at least two years. Spears joins two other famous faces working with Arden: Academy-Award winning actresses Elizabeth Taylor and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Taylor's scents are branded with her name and Zeta-Jones is the face of the company's flagship brand.

"I love perfume and cosmetics and am so excited to develop my own line with Elizabeth Arden," Spears told WWD Thursday.

Spears isn't just licensing her name to the beauty giant. In an exclusive interview with WWD Thursday afternoon, Arden president Paul West noted that the songstress is personally involved with all aspects of the fragrance's creative process, including the development of the juice, packaging and marketing. Spears has already suggested possible bottle designs and olfactory notes for her scent, which is expected to be one in a line of many Spears-branded scents, he added. Despite rampant speculation at last week's Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association meeting in Boca Raton, Fla., West emphasized that no oil house has yet won the contract for Spears' first scent.

West was upbeat about Spears' prospects with the company. "Britney is an ideal partner on many counts," he said. "She is an incredibly talented young woman whose career is still very much on the upswing -?witness the fact that she's selling out upcoming concert dates in hours, and has a number-one single right now. Britney has huge appeal both in the U.S. and abroad. She's very ambitious - and she's applying her considerable drive into making this the best brand it can be. We're very excited to be working with her."

West said that Arden plans TV advertising at launch and around the holidays for the new brand. While he noted that it has not yet been developed, Spears' prowess as a singer and dancer "would make showing those incredible talents in a commercial likely." Plans are also in play for Spears to do personal appearances to promote the brand.

West declined repeatedly to comment on the length of Spears' contract with Arden or on any of its monetary details. However, several industry sources speculated that the contract is royalty-based, and it is thought that the contract will run initially for about five years, with Spears possibly making a $10 million minimum over the initial five-year period. Several sources speculated that she could make as much as $25 million to $30 million from the brand during that time. It is thought that Spears will receive a 5 percent royalty.

Arden's target age group for the Spears brand is 17 to 35 year olds, making it a younger demographic than those for its Arden and Elizabeth Taylor brands; both the Taylor and Arden lineups are said to draw their largest customer bases from women 35-plus. "We think that Britney will draw in a whole new group of consumers for us," added West.

Spears' deal is the latest in what has become an unusually heavy rush by celebrities to join forces with beauty brands. Since January, Scarlett Johansson has signed with Calvin Klein Cosmetics, Tommy Hilfiger Toiletries has picked up Beyoncé Knowles for a development gig (tentatively titled True Star) and Elaine Irwin-Mellencamp has signed a spokesperson deal with Almay. And it doesn't look like the flood of celebrities heading into beauty deals will slow down anytime soon; as reported, the Estée Lauder Cos. is said to be working with Ashley Judd on a spokeswoman deal for its new BeautyBank division, and market rumors are circulating that Sarah Jessica Parker is looking for a scent deal, possibly with Coty Inc.

The Spears deal was brokered through Brand Sense Marketing, the Los-Angeles-based integrated marketing and licensing firm. "We are thrilled to have Elizabeth Arden on board as a premier licensing partner for our client Britney Spears," said Robert Hollander, president of Brand Sense. "They have already demonstrated superb creativity and exceptional commitment to building this key category of Britney's licensing program into a huge retail success."

The Spears contract wasn't the only news Arden had Thursday. The company also released its fourth-quarter and fiscal 2004 numbers. Onetime costs for debt reduction and restructuring caused Elizabeth Arden to report a wider fourth quarter loss attributable to shareholders of $11.6 million, or 48 cents, for the three months ended Jan. 31. That compared with a loss of $431,000, or 2 cents, in the like period last year. When excluding the charges, the beauty firm reported net income of $11.3 million, or 39 cents a diluted share. Sales for the quarter rose 26 percent to $213.9 million compared with $169.8 million. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, net sales increased 20.5 percent.

In addition, the company said it expects earnings per share to grow 22 percent to 24 percent for the year ending Jan. 31, 2005, excluding any onetime costs, and said it anticipates sales for the year to increase 8 to 10 percent.

For the year, Arden reported a loss of $20.1 million, or $1.02 a diluted share, including the noncash charge related to conversion of the Series D convertible preferred stock owned by Unilever. Excluding the charges, income was $24.5 million, or 97 cents. Last year, Arden reported income of $14.5 million, or 78 cents. Sales in 2003 increased 8.3 percent to $814.4 million, compared with $752 million. Excluding the impact of foreign currency translation, sales increased 4.3 percent.
-?With contributions from Jennifer Weitzman

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Pop princess Britney Spears has signed a deal with Elizabeth Arden to develop Spears-branded fragrance, color cosmetics and skin care.

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That's right: Amid a career that has had its highest of highs (see: 2001 VMAs) and lowest of lows (see: all of 2007), Britney Spears has built one of the most lucrative perfume empires of all time. According to a rep from Elizabeth Arden (Spears's fragrance partner), her perfumes comprise a "billion dollar fragrance franchise." Spears just put out her 20th fragrance, Private Show, to much hype - proving that, in spite of her often-tumultuous trajectory, she's still a powerhouse when it comes to scents.

"The fact that she has done so many fragrances and that [Elizabeth Arden] is still interested in developing her brand speaks to her talent and the fact that she is very much doing well," says Sue Phillips, president and CEO of Scenterprises, a fragrance branding and marketing company (she's also formerly of Elizabeth Arden). "She is one of the few celebrities who actually enjoys fragrances, and it shows - you can see it in her sales."

The rush for celebrities to create fragrances started when Elizabeth Taylor partnered with Elizabeth Arden to create the very first celebrity-backed scent, White Diamonds. The scent was an enormous success, having earned close to a billion dollars in revenue to date. As the royalties that artists and actors were receiving from album and movie sales started to decline, many of them turned to the fragrance industry, which promised quick, big revenue. For most celebrity perfumes released after White Diamonds, the trend was the same: "They usually went up like a rocket and did really well at launch, but they had a hard time sustaining customers," says Don Loftus, president of Parlux, a fragrance company whose celebrity portfolio includes the likes of Paris Hilton, Rihanna, and Jay Z.

That all changed when Britney Spears entered the market in 2004 with her debut scent, Curious. Spears was at a career high: She had just released her fourth studio album, In The Zone, as well as the racy video for her hit song "Toxic."The Curious scent was a mixture of sweet, accessible ingredients like orchids, vanilla, and jasmine petals; the bottle was pretty and bright blue, adorned with two dangling pink hearts. " At the time, young women did not really like fragrances because they reminded them of their grandmothers," Phillips says. "Suddenly [with Curious], there was this luscious, floral fragrance with a youthful feel that didn't seem old or mature."
Curious became "by far" the number one scent not just in the celebrity category, but across the entire fragrance industry.
Spears made young women care about perfume for the first time. According to data from the NPD Group, a retail market research firm, an overwhelming 81 percent of young women were aware of Britney Spears's fragrance when it came out, similar to awareness levels for both Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret, two brands whose body sprays were the most popular option for young women at the time. "She made it cool to wear fragrance," says Karen Grant, vice president and global beauty analyst for the NPD Group. "Young people are still very engaged in fragrance, and that awareness was raised years ago by Britney Spears. Britney was part of that appeal."

Curious became "by far" the number one scent not just in the celebrity category, but across the entire fragrance industry, Grant says, breaking all of Elizabeth Arden's records for a fragrance launch. As of 2013, Curious had sold 500 million bottles, according to The Hollywood Reporter. And it's not even Spears's most successful fragrance - according to Elizabeth Arden, that top position is occupied by Fantasy, her musky, fruity potion released in 2005. At one point, Spears's website claimed that her perfumes occupied a staggering 34 percent of overall fragrance sales, though Elizabeth Arden would not confirm this statistic - and Spears has since taken down that statement from the site.

While not all of Spears's perfumes have been quite as triumphant in the market as Curious or Fantasy, she stills takes in an estimated $50 million a year from just that portion of her business, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "When you think about the big houses like Chanel and Dior, none of them even have 20 fragrances," Loftus says. "So it's huge that she's been able to sustain interest. It's not easy to do."
Britney's secret to success lies primarily in a simple fact: She actually likes perfume.
Britney's secret to success lies primarily in a simple fact: She actually likes perfume. This is not always a given when it comes to celebrity scents. "With celebrity fragrances, when it's not integrated with the actual brand, it loses its luster," Phillips says. "If you look at people like Lady Gaga or Madonna, whose fragrances should have done well, they didn't do as well as Britney because they didn't care. Britney really cares about fragrance. She loves to talk about it, wear it, and even sing about it." On the latter point, Phillips is referring to Spears's 2013 single " Perfume." The video for the catchy ode about spraying your signature scent all over your two-timing boyfriend's sheets for revenge contains at least four close-ups of Spears's Fantasy scent. Similarly, the very first shot of her music video for " Circus" features adjacent bottles of Curious and Fantasy; " Work Bitch" showcases Fantasy Twist; " Hold it Against Me" flashes to a gleaming bottle of Radiance. Even just a few months ago, when Spears released a sneak peek of her new album Glory on Instagram, it was wrapped in an ad for her new fragrance, Private Show. No other celebrity has gone to such lengths to incorporate fragrance into her identity as Britney Spears has.

And it really works. "Her perfumes feel very authentic. Consumers feel like they are buying into her life," Loftus says. "Every launch has felt like it was at the moment for her, and reflective of where she was in her life. That's the number one rule of anything, really - you have to believe it came from the house."

Spears's scent supremacy defies the trope of bright-but-fleeting success that most starlets face - not only as fragrance ambassadors, but also as artists. Since her ascent to fame in 1992 (when she first appeared on Disney's Mickey Mouse Club), she has managed to stay consistently in the news. Whether the report is about her new album or her stint in rehab, "any press is good press," Grant says. "The fact that people are talking about her and aware of her is really important." Her perfumes function as "a constant reminder that she's a relevant entertainer," Phillips adds.

Spears's relationship with her fans is also a unique one. "The thing about Britney is that your heart goes out to her," Grant says. "Even when she does things that make you go 'Come on, Britney!' people don't hate her, they root for her. That is an enduring quality about her." And that sympathy translates into sales. According to Loftus, "her real fans thought that when Britney was going through difficult times, buying her perfume would help her. It's strange the relationship people have with these brands."

Marketing and celebrity aside, Spears's perfumes have managed to consistently nail the most important element - she makes scents that people actually want to smell. "The advertising and the merchandising will get people to the counter,"Phillips says. "What makes people come back is the actual juice itself - and hers are really great fragrances." Case in point: Her 2009 perfume, Midnight Fantasy, earned a perfect four-star review in the New York Times for its musky and rich plum-cherry combination.

So is Spears's collective portfolio the next Chanel No. 5? It's hard to know for sure - but, as Grant points out, she has made an undeniably indelible mark on the fragrance world: "When a young celebrity, like Ariana Grande, comes out with a perfume now, it's usually inspired by Britney, and that's because hers had the longevity."

Grant says that most reports seem to indicate a general decline in the celebrity fragrance industry. Thankfully, there are no signs of Spears's fragrance empire - or career - dying out anytime soon.

"At one point every young girl wanted to be Britney Spears," Phillips says. "They wanted to have her lifestyle and be famous and have her figure and her money and her talent. Then she hit a bad streak and went in a downward spiral. But then she reinvented herself. Maybe there is a story there about sticking with it and coming back and never giving up. Maybe that's the message that is her legacy. Maybe that's why her perfumes still do well."

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The Curious Staying Power of Britney's Perfume Empire

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Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering...

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Feb. 24, 2021: This post has been updated to include details on the celebrities who have apologized to Britney Spears, including Justin Timberlake.
It's November 2002, and Justin Timberlake is doing a radio interview with Star and Buc Wild, the shock jocks who hosted Hot 97's morning show at the time. It's a big deal for the former *NSYNCer-as a member of a boyband, he would never have scored coverage by the station, which had been an influential force in hip-hop and R&B since the early 90s. But he had a Neptunes-produced solo album, dance moves appropriated from Michael Jackson and a new haircut that didn't look like ramen noodles at all, really, so the station now saw a fit. And he saw an opportunity to set the stage for a whole new level of stardom. Even better, the price was low: just Britney Spears' dignity.

I was 17 and still very much a fan of boybands, but I don't remember hearing about the interview at the time. It's only now, thanks to Framing Britney Spears, that I know what he said. Samantha Stark, the documentary's director, included the clip to support her argument that media has consistently shaped narratives around Spears, rarely to her benefit. And it's breathtakingly callous: "Did you fuck Britney Spears?" one of the DJs asks. Timberlake laughs, then says, "Okay, I did it!"

I can't stand Timberlake, so I definitely don't want to absolve him of any responsibility here, but to me, what's most stunning about this exchange isn't his behaviour. It's the fact that he was allowed to get away with this frankly transparent PR strategy for so long. Because that's exactly what it was. Timberlake had released "Like I Love You," the first single from Justified, in August of that year and it did... fine, reaching number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. His existing fans liked it, and he was even invited to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards that year. But he, or perhaps his team, understood that none of that was enough to launch the kind of solo career he wanted.

So: Britney. He gave sad TV interviews about the demise of their relationship, painted her as a villain and a " horrible woman," made a music video starring a Spears lookalike and continued to reference her in magazine profiles, his book and even on stage for 14 years after they broke up.

And not a single journalist called him on it.

Journalists have always been obsessed with Britney Spears' sexuality

To understand why this happened, you have to understand the sexist double standard Spears was operating under. Up to that point, much of the media coverage she'd been subject to fit neatly into one of two competing narratives: either she was sexy and would hopefully soon be sexually available (but not too sexually available), or she was sexy and it was harming America's youth.

An example of the former: When Spears was 17, Dutch journalist Ivo Niehe asked her about her breasts in a interview, a clip of which is included in Framing Britney Spears. It's hard enough to watch the obviously uncomfortable teenager try to demur as he keeps pushing her to discuss her body, but there's one line that I find particularly gross: "You seem to get furious when a talk show host comes up with this subject," Niehe says, in a clearly calculated attempt to shame her for being uncooperative. Because if you can't get someone to freely discuss their breasts on television, why not leverage the way young women are socialized to obey their elders, I guess? (He now says the clip that was included in the documentary was taken out of context and that his goal was a respectful conversation about her thoughts on plastic surgery. Which... sure 🙄.)

An example of the latter: a year later, Spears and her mom, Lynne, appeared on The View to promote their book, Britney Spears' Heart to Heart. After Spears performed "Oops... I Did It Again," the pair sat down with Lisa Ling and Meredith Vieira for an interview that was supposed to be about their relationship and the project, but instead quickly zeroed in on the singer's appearance, and especially the revealing outfits she wore. "Often you see that with women who are older," Ling says at one point in the interview. "It was just kind of a shock sometimes to see some of the revealing outfits on someone as young as you are." It may have been the gentlest slut-shaming ever, but it was still very much slut-shaming.
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With that context, it's easy to see why Spears and Timberlake publicly claimed to be virgins for the duration of their relationship-she was already receiving so much criticism that any actual confirmation she was having sex could have been professionally devastating.

While we were all shaming Britney Spears, Timberlake became "Trousersnake"

But even that decision played into the media's obsession with the contradiction between her sexiness and innocence... which wasn't anything new. As Constance Grady argued in a 2020 Vox article about the enduring appeal of Princess Diana, the press has found that juxtaposition "intoxicating" in plenty of blondes, from Spears to Diana to Marilyn Monroe. "Underlying this archetype is a sort of reassuring whisper to the watching man-and it is always a man who is assumed to be watching-'It's okay. She can't manipulate you because she doesn't know what she's doing. She will never use sex to get her own way because she doesn't know she's sexy. It's safe to want her. You will always have more power than she has,'" Grady writes. "Unless the woman does know what she's doing. Unless she's not a real virgin after all. That would ruin everything, wouldn't it?"

Why yes, it would. Timberlake's casual confirmation that they'd been lying all along had zero impact on his own brand. As Hayley Hill, a former magazine editor and Spears' one-time stylist, points out in Framing Britney Spears, while young female stars were subject to a brutal double-standard when it came to sex, boyband members like Timberlake faced little (if any) of the same pressure. "I worked with all of the boy bands-all of them," Hill says. "Not one of the boys were ever under this much scrutiny." In fact, he was able to aggressively pursue sex symbol status with zero pushback, even after he was characterized as a " wild sex machine" who deserved the truly cringey nickname Trousersnake. I mean... Details magazine literally congratulated him for getting "into Britney's pants" on the cover of the December 2002 issue.

His laughing "Okay, I did it!" had a huge impact on her though. Not only was it a betrayal of her trust and privacy, it also called attention to her dishonesty, and, I'd argue, eased the way for the cruelty that was to come. And there was so much cruelty to come. Yes, Timberlake's behaviour post-breakup was spiteful, insensitive and obviously self-serving. But it's never been celebrities' jobs to hold themselves to account. So, why didn't any journalist think critically about his motivations as he turned his revenge fantasies into music videos, and maybe, I don't know, call him on it? Instead, Spears became the proverbial whipping boy.

This wasn't just a tabloid problem, though

I think it's important to distinguish between tabloid and mainstream journalists here. Framing Britney Spears pays a fair bit of attention to tabloids, including interviews with Brittain Stone, the former photo director of Us Weekly, and paparazzo Daniel Ramos, whose SUV Spears famously hit with an umbrella. Both men seemingly struggle to understand the role they played in Spears' objectification. "The goal was not to sort of-with these kinds of images, be negative about people," Stone says. "It was to enjoy their lives in a somewhat aspirational-slash-relatable way." Which is interesting because the magazine often was negative, branding her as "out of control," "sick" and a "time bomb" on various covers. It also existed in the same ecosystem of publications that published upskirt photos of her, gave her cruel nicknames and denigrated her as white trash. Meanwhile Ramos characterizes what's essentially stalking as a "symbiotic relationship" and claimed Spears "never gave a clue or information to us that 'I would appreciate you guys leave me the eff alone.'" (So many props to the interviewer, who asked, "What about when she said, 'Leave me alone?'")

I'd argue that mainstream journalists played an equally important role in shaping public perception of Spears. After all, it was Barbara Walters who gave Timberlake a high-profile opportunity to comment on their sex life when she asked if they practiced abstinence or not. (He replied "sure" and then laughed, conveying the exact opposite.) Diane Sawyer grilled Spears on what she supposedly 'did' to Timberlake, saying, "you broke his heart. You did something that caused him so much pain, so much suffering. What did you do?" Matt Lauer called her a bad mom to her face. Rolling Stone published a profile of the singer by Vanessa Grigoriadis that described her as an " inbred swamp thing." And late-night hosts had a literal field day with Spears' declining mental health, with the exception of Craig Ferguson, who refused to joke about her in 2007 ( something he thought he'd get fired for). The rest of the white men who made up the roster of late-night hosts, and who exerted significant control over the pop cultural landscape, had plenty of jokes, from Jay Leno saying "in three years, [she'd] be married with kids, knocking around a trailer somewhere" to David Letterman's not-very-funny comments about her "chapped head." (Because she'd shaved it, get it?)

And in a way, I think that's worse. Even the least media-savvy reader knows to doubt the veracity of tabloid covers, or at least to question whether there's more to the story. But when ABC News and Diane Sawyer tell their viewers that Spears is a slut who hurt that nice *NSYNC boy, it sends a message about who the singer is-and what she deserves.

And we didn't leave sexist media coverage in the early oughts

Now that I'm thinking about it, what are your guys' must read "oh my god people wrote this?!" instructively cruel celeb profiles of the 2000s? I'd love to compile a list of TEACHABLE MOMENTS. To start: Lindsay Lohan as Rolling Stone IT GIRL 2004 https://t.co/Ftfs9eh9fC
- Jordan Crucchiola (@JorCru) February 7, 2021

Of course, it wasn't just Spears-mainstream, respected journalists working for prestigious outlets were constantly saying problematic shit about young women. In 1995, Rolling Stone described Alicia Silverstone as "a kittenish 18-year-old movie star whom lots of men want to sleep with." In a 2000 profile, Sports Illustrated described Anna Kournikova as the "jezebel of sweat" (she was 19) and argued that "even in this age of supposed enlightenment, a hot body can count as much as a good backhand." A 2004 Rolling Stone profile of Lindsay Lohan begins like this: "Lindsay Lohan has been eighteen for just under a week when she tells me her breasts are real. I did not ask (gentlemen never do), though my reporting (discreet visual fact checking, a goodbye hug) seems to confirm her statement. Lohan fields queries about her breasts in most interviews, which is probably why she decided to pre-emptively address the issue."

If never read this before but I really hope this will be the last of my "she has breasts AND claims to read" profiles/interviews. Lots of levels of gross/embarrassing aspects to this but the attempt at a feminist critique at the end is maybe the worst part. https://t.co/5YVFgnn3WC
- Emily Ratajkowski (@emrata) November 1, 2020

And it's not even constrained to some long-ago point in journalistic history. In 2013, Stephen Marche profiled Megan Fox for Esquire and described her skin as "the color the moon possesses in the thin air of northern winters" before opining on the nature of bombshells (because Fox is one, of course): "To be a bombshell in 2013 is to be an antiquity, an old-world relic, like movie palaces or fountain pens or the muscle cars of the 1970s or the pinball machines in the basement. Bombshells once used to roam the cultural landscape like buffalo, and like buffalo they were edging toward extinction." I just... don't even know. In 2018, Thomas Chatterton Williams profiled Emily Ratajkowski for Marie Claire France, which included yet another reference to breasts ("She was admittedly blessed with the most perfect breasts of her generation") and the writer's shock that Ratajkowski reads: "The day I read that she was a fan of Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño, my brain snapped. It doesn't matter that she really took the time to read the 1,300 pages of 2,666, the mere fact that she knew his name already seemed incredible to me, as if we were definitely meant to get along."
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To be fair, those recent pieces were overwhelmingly panned by a media ecosystem-and a public-that's now much more educated on power dynamics, privilege, sexism and mental health. But that just goes to show how recently journalists felt empowered diminish, undermine, insult and condescend to young women with little thought for the impact on them, or the ways that this type of coverage perpetuates inequality. (You'll notice that the women who are subjected to this type of objectification tend to be white; racialized and especially Black women didn't, and often still don't, have the protection of desirability.)

Media is still shaping narratives today-for better and sometimes for worse

I admit I wrote many of those Us Weekly cover stories back in the day. Trust me, we wouldn't have kept reporting out the saga if public interest weren't rampant. Everyone is complicit to varying degrees.
- Mara Reinstein (@MaraReinstein) February 10, 2021

There have already been some pieces that suggest a new cultural reckoning is here, or at least imminent. It's definitely no longer acceptable to treat women the way journalists treated Spears, and since the documentary dropped, she's received a litany of apologies. Justin Timberlake posted an obviously PR-approved Notes App mea culpa to Spears and Janet Jackson, who he also screwed over, on Feb. 12, a full week after Framing Britney Spears dropped in the U.S.-and about two decades after her fans first started calling for him to publicly atone for his behaviour. Sarah Silverman addressed, though didn't actually apologize for, her 2007 roast of Spears. Even the famously cruel Perez Hilton has addressed his coverage of Spears, telling Good Morning Britain, "I regret a lot or most of what I said about Britney. Thankfully, hopefully, many of us get older and wiser."

But... I'm not sure media is holding itself accountable. As Jezebel points out, they're certainly not engaging in self-reflection. Writer Emily Alford cites Glamour, which published an essay entitled" We're All to Blame for What Happened to Britney Spears," as one example. Alford "assumed it would be some sort of letter from the editor explaining that the beauty industry was deeply shitty to all women for a very long time-in fact, in 2007, Glamour still routinely published candids of women on the street dressed in outfits their editors deemed bad published for readers' amusement. Instead, it was a piece about how the 'media' needs to do better for all (famous) women, and the 'we' in the title does not mean Glamour, it means, well, who can say. Everyone on Earth, maybe?" Or what about Rolling Stone, which repromoted that extremely cruel 2008 cover story earlier this week, seemingly without realizing that it was part of the problem Framing Britney Spears rails against?

And none of the individual journalists who are facing backlash for their cruel lines of questioning or snarky commentary have responded publicly, while those who are engaging with the conversation still don't seem to be willing to actually take responsibility. In a now-deleted tweet, comedian Billy Eichner pointed out that there are "lots of virtuous folks on [Twitter] pretending they didn't read Perez Hilton or Us Weekly's abusive coverage of Britney religiously in 2005. We are all to blame." (He went a tiny bit further than just reading Perez Hilton, for the record.) The magazine's film critic, Mara Weinstein, chimed in, saying, "I admit I wrote many of those Us Weekly cover stories back in the day. Trust me, we wouldn't have kept reporting out the saga if public interest weren't rampant. Everyone is complicit to varying degrees."

I find this... laughable. Sure, metrics matter, whether that's how many print issues are sold or how many clicks a story earns online. And the fact that so many people were clamouring for the tiniest crumb of information about Spears' downfall is a problem for sure. But you can't blame readers for the way you framed stories, or the cruelty you displayed.

Journalists never want to be part of the story. We think we're just covering what happens, that we're somehow separate from the news. But our biases inform our interpretation of events, which affects what we choose to omit or include in our coverage. That matters because our work helps shape how people think, talk about and treat our subjects-and also each other. When we made it acceptable to ridicule Britney Spears and allowed Justin Timberlake to push his narrative to her detriment, we also made it acceptable to do that to any young woman. And when we don't acknowledge that, we aren't just dodging responsibility for our actions, we're actively perpetuating sexism and misogyny.

And Did You Hear About...

Vanity Fair's profile of the anonymous woman behind Deuxmoi, in which the writer figures out who she is but doesn't say (🤷🏽‍♀️) and the subject refuses think about the implications of her actions (🙃).

Anne Helen Petersen revisiting her 2017 analysis of Armie Hammer's career.
This pitch-perfect parody of Malcolm & Marie.
Rolling Stone's piece on Phoebe Bridgers smashing her guitar on SNL and how that moment subverted music history.

Friday Things intern Shayelle Smith's love letter to rom-coms, and recommendations for the eight best ones to stream right now.

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Reminder: Journalists Helped Justin Timberlake Hurt Britney Spears | Friday Things

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For years, media has shaped public perception of Britney Spears. Why won't we admit it?

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You're Responsible for Britney Spears. So Are We.

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You're Responsible for Britney Spears. So Are We.

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This article is a collaboration between New York Magazine and Vox. It was also featured in One Great Story, New York's reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly.

"There's been suspicious activity online, and now her account has been deleted," said the caller.

"Are you related to her?"

"I am not."

"Don't be nervous, girl, you got it," one of the other people on the stream said as the attendant put them on hold. "We need to do this," said the other, reassuring the caller and possibly themselves.

To the loosely connected cross section of fans identified by hashtags like #BritneyIsNotFree, #WhereIsBritney, and #FindBritney, there was something strange about Spears's new life. She was still working and hanging out with some of the same people she had during the conservatorship. Wouldn't she have wanted a fresh start? Fans couldn't shake the suspicion that something was off in the photos and videos of her 2022 wedding. Why were all these celebrities whom she didn't seem to know in attendance? And was it possible the Spears they had been seeing on Instagram - the one in pictures that were often blurry - wasn't the real Britney at all?

One theory, spread on TikTok and Instagram over the past year, has proposed that Spears is being held against her will in a mental-health facility, which would sound far-fetched had it not already happened once before: In April 2019, Spears entered a treatment center, reportedly for "emotional distress" over her father's health issues. When an anonymous source claiming to be a paralegal involved with Spears's legal team told the podcast Britney's Gram the performer was being held in the facility because a photo had surfaced of her driving a car, the media, including this magazine, framed it as a conspiracy theory. But last August, Spears uploaded a 22-minute audio file to YouTube corroborating parts of the source's account and alleging her father had threatened her with lawyers if she didn't agree to go quietly. "I wanted to scream, and I wanted to get out," she said. "I kind of stopped believing in God at that time."

And then there were all the bizarre stories in the news. In mid-January, TMZ published a video of Spears in an L.A. restaurant with a headline describing her behavior as " manic," despite the fact that the video only showed her holding a menu in front of her face to avoid being filmed. Free Britney advocates were furious; it seemed like the media, fed stories by the people around her, were trying to make her appear to be an untrustworthy narrator.

All of which is to say the trio's call to police wasn't only because she'd deleted her Instagram. It was simply the latest in a series of what they believed were earnest appeals for help. So they tried to offer it. Their call to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office resulted in a wellness check at Spears's home. Upon investigating, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office said, "We don't believe that Britney Spears is in any kind of harm or any kind of danger."

By the next day, the fans who had made the call were almost as reviled among the Britney fandom as those responsible for her conservatorship. Not many people had watched the TikTok livestream at the time, but a fan account posted a clip of the 911 call to Twitter, where it went viral. "These are the 'fans' that called the cops on Britney because she deleted her Instagram account..y'all know what to do!" read the tweet. Even Spears responded. "I love and adore my fans but this time things went a little too far and my privacy was invaded," she wrote in a statement. "During this time in my life, I truly hope the public and my fans who I care so much about can respect my privacy moving forward."

The police call was a turning point within the fandom, making clear there were lines fans could not cross, and to question Spears's personal life was to cross one of them. Free Britney had always been a grassroots, somewhat anarchic movement, one that had undoubtedly accomplished impressive change and championed the rights of conservatorship-abuse victims. Until November 2021, when Spears was freed, its followers at least shared the goal of getting her out of the conservatorship. More than any other fandom, it made the case for the power of a parasocial relationship, for the ways in which fans are protectors of those they follow. Now, when it should be taking its victory lap, Free Britney has splintered into distinct factions, each of which believes the other has turned its back on the original mission: helping Britney Spears.

The first music video Brennen White remembers seeing on MTV was "  ... Baby One More Time," the 1998 bubblegum-pop single that catapulted the then-16-year-old Spears to global superstardom. "That was very impactful for me, to see somebody that came across very confident and owned her sexuality and who she was," says White, who's now 32. Like Britney, he grew up in Louisiana, and she reminded him of girls he knew as a kid. "I always felt like she could have been one of my friends."

Today, the Britney fandom knows him by another name: @RealC0CKy, one of the most determined advocates of what I'll refer to as Free Britney 2.0, the Free Britney subgroup that believes Spears is not yet truly free. He estimates that he spends around 30 hours per week investigating Britney's situation, between researching and talking to sources, posting on social media, and appearing on podcasts. White has been involved with the Free Britney movement since 2009, when the conversation was taking place largely on the fan message board BreatheHeavy, which remains active today. He isn't on it anymore, though. "They're definitely in bed with Britney's team," he says, the "they" being BreatheHeavy and "Britney's team" being "Team Con" - the people who presided over her conservatorship. As the Free Britney community describes it, Team Con includes Spears's father, Jamie, and the rest of Britney's immediate family; Lou Taylor, the Tri Star Sports & Entertainment founder and architect of Britney's conservatorship; and her former court-appointed lawyer, Samuel Ingham. They also suspect people who've had some connection to Spears over the past 13 years but no discernible connection to the conservatorship, including anyone involved with her agency, CAA; Cassie Petrey, who runs the company that helps manage Spears's social accounts; and Cade Hudson, Spears's longtime friend and, as of 2022, her manager.

Over the phone, White speaks in a southern accent with a dry, provocative wit. Like most who believe Spears is not free, he uses pithy nicknames for the major players in her world, ranging from the sort-of funny ("Loucifer" refers to Lou Taylor, who is Enemy No. 1) to the outright cruel (he has referred to Petrey as "Fatssie Petrey"). White has been threatened and doxxed multiple times but views this as a sign he's asking the right questions. When I ask if any of this has affected him, he deadpans, "No. I live in an open-carry state. I'm good."

When White says BreatheHeavy has been corrupted by Team Con, he's really talking about one person: its founder, Jordan Miller, 35, one of the first people to popularize the Free Britney movement. Miller began signing off his posts with "Free Britney!!!" in early 2009, years before the slogan took off. It was people like Miller who first noticed the oddities of Spears's situation - the fact that she was not allowed to have a cell phone or to drive - and alerted the rest of the world to what would become one of the biggest celebrity scandals of the 21st century. White was never quite friends with Miller, he says, but they had been on good terms, exchanging messages on BreatheHeavy every so often. Things changed in 2019, when White says Miller began removing BreatheHeavy threads when users questioned Spears's safety or talked about certain members of her team. "He claims to be a major player in the Free Britney movement, but all I ever saw him do was shut down conversations and protect her team," White says.

These days, Miller is more focused on the world outside Free Britney. "A lot of us are in the boat where we need a second to allow Britney to process things and post freely," he says. He lives in Las Vegas, where he works in marketing for Amazon, and denies most of what White says about him. He has a relatively lax approach to moderating the site, he says, shutting down threads only when the conversations become nasty (say, commenting on Spears's body). He doesn't recall many back-and-forths with White. Miller does, however, remember that at some point, he blocked White. "I didn't want to feel that negativity," he says. "He was a loud troll."

White believes he's simply looking out for Spears, and that anyone who could possibly have a financial interest in her work is suspect. Spears's conservators were indeed profiting - while Jamie earned more than $6 million throughout his role as conservator (and petitioned for $30 million in legal fees), Spears was given a $2,000 weekly allowance. White worries the people around her could still be forcing her to work so they can make money off it. "We're about two years out since her alleged freedom, and there's still not a single criminal charge that's been filed," he says. "And we definitely didn't think she'd be placed in a 'care plan.'"

The "care plan" or "termination plan" refers to a sealed document meant to help Spears adjust to post-conservatorship life. It was developed by one of her former conservators, Jodi Montgomery, and her medical doctors in anticipation of the end of the conservatorship "to ensure that there are guidelines in place for supportive decision-making to help her adjust and transition to life outside the Conservatorship," according to Montgomery's legal filing. It is sealed "away from the prying eyes of the public" because, as it notes, it contains sensitive and confidential information about Spears's health and her two sons.

Free Britney activists like Miller saw the care plan as simply a temporary legal step to help Britney adjust to her new life. Termination plans are standard at the end of conservatorships, explains Tamar Arminak, a family lawyer for Amanda Bynes, who was in a conservatorship for nine years before it was terminated in 2022. (Spears's lawyer Mathew Rosengart would not comment on the record.) Still, the care plan aroused suspicion among adherents of Free Britney 2.0, who believed it could be a secret quasi-conservatorship, hidden from public view under the guise of keeping Spears's medical history private. They worried that because Spears had testified that Montgomery forced her to see a therapist and a psychiatrist three times a week during the conservatorship, she could not be trusted with her well-being (Arminak points out that Montgomery's role as her personal conservator made her responsible for devising a plan, alongside Spears, for what her post-conservatorship life would look like). Another rumor spread that the conservatorship might secretly still be active in Hawaii, where Spears frequently vacations. Arminak says that's not so: "The minute the original conservatorship terminates, it terminates."

If one event galvanized Free Britney 2.0, it was Spears's wedding to Asghari, the Iranian American personal trainer and actor whom she met on the set of her 2016 video for "Slumber Party." White calls it "the wedding from hell." He had already suspected Asghari was using Spears for her money (he and other "Sam antis," a subset of Free Britney that dislikes Asghari, refer to him as "Scam," "Scram," or "Sham"). When they married, on June 9, 2022, fans pored over the footage and pointed out the oddities: Why, for instance, were there so many beautifully shot portraits of Asghari and only grainy pictures of Spears? None of Spears's children were in attendance, while a strange assortment of celebrities were - some, like Paris Hilton and Madonna, had long, public histories with the pop star, while others, like Ansel Elgort and Selena Gomez, didn't. And why did the wedding take place at Spears's home? "The woman who's been conserved in this prison house is choosing to get married in the prison house?" White asks. Scariest of all, hours before the ceremony, Spears's ex-husband Jason Alexander broke into her home armed with a knife and refused to leave the property, streaming it all on Instagram Live. Some within Free Britney 2.0 viewed Alexander as a savior, someone who was trying to rescue Britney and "expose the truth" about the wedding. In an Instagram post the next day, Spears said she'd had a panic attack the morning of her wedding - confirmation, they believed, that even she knew something about it was weird. "We watched clips on TV shows where celebrities described it as 'Britney's fairy-tale wedding,' but it didn't feel like a fairy tale," says Trey Serna, 39, a morning-news anchor for a South Texas ABC affiliate and a popular Free Britney 2.0 TikToker.

The photos and videos made for irresistible bait everywhere online, but particularly on TikTok, which has an unparalleled ability to turn a single idea into a megaviral trend in a matter of hours. In the months after the wedding, many users who had only tangentially paid attention to the original Free Britney movement watched videos that suggested Spears was still being controlled or, worse, wasn't really Spears at all. The wedding was a crucial recruiting tool on the best recruiting platform in history, one that often prioritizes the loudest voices in the room, regardless of whether what they're saying is true.

When she's not working at her job in corporate finance or posting on her dog's TikTok, 23-year-old Anita Datta moonlights as the host of one of the largest - and most extreme - Free Britney 2.0 TikTok accounts, @BritneyIsNotFree. She had been seeing content about how Spears wasn't truly freed since the conservatorship ended, but she only started posting about it a few months after the wedding. She's one of the many people on the app who believe the Spears we have seen on Instagram, at her wedding, and in other public sightings isn't actually Spears but a combination of AI re-creations and body doubles, trotted out while the real Spears is kept somewhere else, possibly a mental facility. Datta cites Spears's June 2021 court testimony as "the last time where I can say for sure for a fact she is the one speaking." Many of her most viral videos invite viewers to inspect each frame of Spears's Instagram posts, pointing out glitches, lags, or other inconsistencies as evidence that the real Britney is not the person we're seeing.

More than a year later, she's still regularly posting about the wedding. A video from July of this year titled "Proof Britney Spears Was Replaced by an A.I. on Her Wedding Day" starts with a screenshot of Spears and Asghari walking down the aisle. "Look at the hands of Britney and Sam," Datta says, her voice distorted by a TikTok filter. "Britney's hand clearly blends into his hand, into his coat jacket. And her thumb color is the same as his skin color." (Britney was wearing white fingertip-less gloves.) She zooms out to Kathy Hilton in the background of the image, standing and clapping at the end of the ceremony, with part of her body obscured by the church pew. "I have no clue why Kathy Hilton was even at the wedding, but her leg is missing," Datta says. "Something really weird is going on." She asks her followers to please let her know in the comments if they have a reasonable explanation why "Kathy Hilton doesn't have a leg."

Miller and the rest of the OG Free Britney crowd consider this newer faction to be largely conspiracists looking for online clout. (Serna finds this laughable: "I hate to say it, but I was TikTok famous before Britney.") They sometimes refer to them as "BAnon." By continuing to share theories and ask questions about Britney's safety on her Instagram posts, they say, Free Britney 2.0 is stigmatizing what is likely the result of an unfathomably difficult and complicated life. "You go on TikTok, and they refuse to accept that a woman in her 40s might have mental-health issues," says Jared Lipscomb, a makeup artist and podcaster who started hearing whispers within the hair-and-makeup community about the ways Spears was being heavily managed and controlled in 2013. "They'd rather believe she's an alien than the fact that she's going through a traumatic experience."

Spears's Instagram has always been a place where fans go for clues about how she's actually doing. Between viral Facebook-core image macros about positivity and self-love and cute photos of flowers or the phases of the moon, Spears dances, twirls, and shows off her bikinis and bralettes in dizzily edited videos and heavily filtered photos taken at unusual angles. Hers is the opposite of a typical celebrity social-media account: It's chaotic in a fun way and in a way that can arouse concern, all of which is deeply confusing for fans who are used to seeing their starlets post careful, publicist-approved content. Over the course of the conservatorship, Free Britney activists developed detailed theories about messages Spears was sending via her Instagram posts. In the most famous example, from June 2020, one commenter wrote, "if you need help wear yellow in your next video"; a few days later, Spears did. The same held true after the conservatorship: In November 2022, on the anniversary of its ending, one Twitter user wrote, "Britney's gram is filled with cries for help. Some are cryptic but some are really very clear. If you're not seeing it, you are choosing to ignore Britney herself. Do not celebrate freedom today." They posted a screenshot of a video from October 2022 in which Britney dances to a song called "S.O.S." and, at one point, spells out the letters with her hands.

Since this past December, Spears has only rarely left her Instagram comments open. She turned them off after posting a series of nude photos and pictures of herself in her great-great-grandmother's veil; on one post, a top comment was a theory that Spears was being locked in her house and that all of her videos were being secretly recorded from behind a mirror. Even fellow celebrities had theories - after Spears posted a photo of her sister, Jamie Lynn, former Bachelorette star Kaitlyn Bristowe wrote, "Ok well now we know who's running her account. Cough Jamie cough." On December 21, when actress Alyssa Milano tweeted, "Someone please go check on Britney Spears," Spears reposted the plea on her Instagram Stories and wrote, "It saddens me to see things about me from people who don't know me!!!" A month later, after briefly deleting her Instagram, she explained on Twitter that she'd shut down her account "because there were too many people saying I looked like an idiot dancing and that I looked crazy. Honestly, I was doing my best, but it disturbed me to see people freely talk about it on TV ... yep, it hurt my feelings."

On the rare occasion when she does leave her posts open, a scroll through the comment section will reveal tens of thousands of people arguing over whether the "real" Spears is the one posting or, alternatively, pleading with her to "prove" she's happy and free. They point out the gap between her two front teeth that seems to have mysteriously appeared; they wonder if the Spears with the gap is actually a body double. They ask why her videos have such an amateurish quality, why her hair doesn't appear to be professionally done, and why, if she's always on vacation, as her Instagram photos suggest, there are no photos taken by paparazzi, who had always seemed able to track her location 24/7. (The paparazzi have, in fact, taken photos of Spears several times since her conservatorship ended, and when they do, Spears pleads with them to stop.) Mostly, they wonder why so many of Spears's photos are recycled from previous content.

In December 2022, Serna published the first in what is now an 88-part series called "Free Britney ... again?" in which he points out how, a year after her freedom, Spears was still posting the same dancing videos and long captions to Instagram as she was during the conservatorship. "Either she's being held at a facility and they're posting old videos so that nobody says anything - but if they're trying to do that, they're not doing a good job," Datta says.

If Spears isn't in control of her Instagram, who is? For a long time, it was shaped at least in part by Petrey, the founder of the digital marketing firm Crowd Surf, which has worked with Spears since 2009. White believes Petrey is manipulating Spears's Instagram, making her seem unwell by posting semi-nude photos and provocative captions. He also believes Petrey, along with Spears's manager, Hudson, have fed unflattering stories to tabloids like TMZ, "Page Six," and the Daily Mail to make it seem as though Spears needs to go back into a conservatorship. (At times, Free Britney 2.0 theories directly contradict each other - why would Team Con need to invent a reason for the public to believe she was mentally unwell and "in need" of a conservatorship if she was still in one?)

The truth, according to a person close to Crowd Surf, is more mundane. Despite being employed by Spears for nearly a decade and a half, Petrey has only worked with her in person a few times. The majority of their interactions were through phone calls and text messages, usually in group chats where Spears would ask Petrey and her staff for advice on what to post or help with editing photos and videos. During the conservatorship, Petrey had a distant working relationship with Lou Taylor. She cut off contact with Spears's father, Jamie, after her court testimony in June 2021 - though she wasn't speaking to him or the other conservators much at all by that point.

Petrey is not the sole person who works directly with Spears on her social media; there's a team of people at Crowd Surf who help out with whatever she needs. Posting anything without the star's consent? They could get sued for that. "Britney is very much the director and the producer and in charge of it," says the source close to Crowd Surf. Some conspiracy theorists wonder why Spears won't simply "go live" and "prove" she's alive and well. "Let's say she did go on live and said, 'Everything's okay!'" the person continues. "There's going to be another theory about why she was forced to do that. It never ends." (Spears has also historically been uncomfortable with the idea of livestreaming; in November, when Asghari went live on Instagram and asked Spears if he could show her face on the stream, she replied offscreen, "I don't want to talk to them right now.") Of the old photos Spears posts to her Instagram, one friend of the pop star, who has been in her life before, during, and after the conservatorship, says, "How often do people post photos where they think they look good that were taken six months before? It's not as deep as people think it is."

Lipscomb and others say that most of the inconsistencies Free Britney 2.0 points to can be explained by other means; he suspects much of the fan theorizing comes from the public's ignorance of the peculiarities of L.A. celebrity culture - there was a rumor, for instance, that Spears was being sex-trafficked because she would only dine in hotels; Lipscomb notes that hotels are often the most discreet places for celebrities to eat because many have private entrances. Other theories, he says, reveal ignorance of Spears the person. "I've talked to so many people who've worked with Britney and I've talked to people who've dated her," he says. "People question, 'Why doesn't she have her hair done?' I knew her hairstylist - she hates having her hair done. They're still analyzing every movement and trying to zoom in to see if that's a bruise on her ankle. It's just like, 'Oh my God, you guys, at some point you do have to get a life.'"

The original Free Britney movement may have been proved right, but it has always attracted extremist thinkers. Even QAnon believers used Spears's case to exploit their own aims, seeing a beautiful woman controlled and abused by "Hollywood elites" as evidence that she is a victim of a larger cabal of Satanic cultists. Jasmin Vargas, a Free Britney supporter since 2016, has written about how conspiracy theories derailed the movement, which was largely made up of fans trying to do the work of journalists - a necessary tactic when journalists wouldn't take them seriously, she writes. But that still didn't make them journalists.

Vargas cites a 2019 episode of Britney's Gram - the podcast run by Tess Barker and Barbara Gray that was crucial to eventually revealing the truth of the conservatorship - that discusses one of Spears's Instagram captions, in which she celebrated losing five pounds. "If you know Britney at all, if you're a fan even casually, you'd know that she would never write that," Tess says. "No. Never," Babs responds. They later backtracked their comments when Spears continued to discuss her weight in future posts. Perhaps Spears would talk about her weight now? The fandom's fixation on knowing the "real" Britney is rooted in an idea of who she used to be, and to accept who she is now would mean giving that up.

"Her whole career, there was an image of her that was created, and if she didn't comply with it, there were consequences," says Miller. "Now that she's finally allowed to have control over how she's portrayed, that makes people uncomfortable. And that's good. It should be a little uncomfortable, because what happened is not right."

The tricky part is that it's impossible to stop speculating once you've decided nothing you see and hear is true. "We're never going to be fully satisfied because the answers we got were plainly inaccurate and covering up something that was pretty gross," Vargas tells me. "As much as I do want to hold people accountable - you shouldn't call 911 on a person that you don't actually know - I have sympathy for the fact that dedicated Britney fans have lived the last 15 years with some amount of doubt as to what is going on in Britney's life. That's hard to turn off once the conservatorship is officially done."

None of the Free Britney 2.0 fans I spoke to condone the call to police - not even those who made the call. One of the people on the stream released an apology video. "My intentions were pure but my actions were wrong," she said. "I had an instant trauma response, and I thought that this was the way to help." The other went private on all his social-media accounts after a barrage of harassment, including tweets at his employer that attempted to get him fired. White, Datta, and the rest of Free Britney 2.0 believe they cannot simply do nothing, however. "You see fans fighting on social, saying, 'Leave her alone!'" Serna says. "We're literally just concerned for her well-being. The duty right now of a fan is to be speaking out on a human who appears to be possibly suffering."

Multiple people close to the pop star say she is adamant they not talk to the press, which makes it difficult for them to address the rumors head on. (Spears did not respond to a request for comment.) "The fans really need to let her go through what she needs to go through," says the friend of Spears. "Everybody wants her to get back on her feet and be the best version of herself, but that stuff doesn't happen overnight. That's not the way mental health works." They added that the conspiracy theories in her Instagram comments and on Twitter and TikTok are actively harming Spears's well-being, mimicking the constant surveillance of the conservatorship and the tabloids. "Every time conspiracy theories get a lot of attention, they destabilize a situation where she's trying to gain trust and then it sets everybody back."

Spears has been working consistently since the end of the conservatorship. This summer in particular has been busy, and every new project has been met with Free Britney 2.0's characteristic suspicion. In a long-awaited announcement, Spears said she would release her memoir, The Woman in Me, in October, promising to reveal "for the first time her incredible journey - and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history," according to the press release.

In response, Datta made a video about how off her announcement seemed: Spears had posted, then deleted a full-length video of herself sharing the news, then reposted the same announcement shot in selfie mode. She captioned it "PROOF Britney Spears is STILL BEING CONTROLLED."

White doesn't buy the book at all. He points to the fact that people he believes are part of "Team Con" are promoting it, by which he means Hudson, Petrey, Spears's publicist Jeff Raymond, and Kim Kardashian (who works with Lou Taylor and therefore has a connection to Team Con). This is all evidence, he believes, that the memoir will tell a "heavily edited and redacted" version of the true story - yet another way for the people around her to profit off her. It's right there on the cover, he adds, which features a black-and-white photo of a young Spears taken in 2001. "My first thought was, They're using a 20-year-old picture?" White says. "It doesn't seem like she's very invested." As for Spears's new collaboration with will.i.am? White believes it was done with AI. The song, appropriately, is called " Mind Your Business."

Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the July 31, 2023, issue of New York Magazine.

Want more stories like this one? Subscribe now to support our journalism and get unlimited access to our coverage. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the July 31, 2023, issue of New York Magazine.

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Some Britney Spears fans are searching her Instagram posts and TikToks for clues. After the end of her conservatorship and her marriage to Sam Asghari, many think Britney is in trouble.

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Britney Spears' life has not been easy, and to pen down the difficulties of her journey is not at all easy. Early on, she was objectified by the media and her s*x appeal was made a huge deal. Her exes did her dirty, and her mental health deterioration was not handled well by the audience. The conservatorship was terminated in 2021, but the singer still has a long way to go. Before the course of legal guardianship began, she had several episodes of public mental breakdowns that are difficult to watch even today.

In 2006, the singer nearly dropped her 8-month-old son while having a glass in another hand. Hundreds of paparazzi followed her, and people were quick to doubt her parental skills. To know what really happened, scroll on.

Britney Spears was pregnant in 2006 and walked out of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, in Manhattan, with her son Sean Preston. She wore a white cut-out long top and jeans. Reportedly, she was surrounded by hundreds of paparazzi as soon as she appeared outside the hotel. While walking, her jeans got stuck with her open-toed sandals, and she tripped. Sean almost fell from her arms, but the mama was quick to handle him. Her bodyguards also came in to help, but the damage was done. Hundreds and hundreds of flashes were observed in a span of a few seconds, capturing Britney's vulnerable moment.

A YouTube page called Celebritiesprofile1158 shared glimpses of the event recently, and it's heartbreaking. Britney Spears went to a cafe nearby to spend some alone time with her child, where she wept and caressed her son, probably feeling guilty and awful. But the media did not give her any privacy and clicked on her throughout her breakdown.

Take A look:

It might have been okay then (doubtful) but it's so not okay now! The video has over 6 thousand comments, most of them slamming the paps for making a mockery out of Britney 's mental health. Here's what they wrote -

"She's been literally abused in different ways all these years...."

"That picture of her sitting there crying makes me feel so many emotions. Poor girl it absolutely breaks my heart"

"I'm convinced that Brittany had postpartum depression and having back to back babies is hard for any mother but imagine if you're struggling with that and the world is watching and chasing you"

"She was so young too, between wanting to protect her baby and feeling alone it would have been so overwhelming, that poor woman I'm so happy she's finally free."

"WTF is wrong with this world?"

Let us know what you think of this incident, and for more such stories, stay tuned to Koimoi.

Must Read: Timothee Chalamet Breaks Up With Kylie Jenner For Having 2 Kids & An Ex, Travis Scott? Reports State, "His Career Is On Fire!' & Netizens Dub Them As "F-Buddies "

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When Britney Spears Almost Dropped Her 8-Month-Old Baby & Was Left Crying While Being Chased By Hundreds Of Paparazzi, Here's What Happened

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Britney Spears once almost dropped her eight-month-old son and was clicked by paps and shamed by the media. Read!

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The Cruel Media Coverage of Britney Spears

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The Cruel Media Coverage of Britney Spears

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‘Sorry, Britney’: Media Is Criticized for Past Coverage, and Some Own Up (Published 2021)

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Conversations about the relentless focus on the pop star’s mental health, mothering and sexuality have begun anew following The New York Times documentary “Framing Britney Spears.”

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n 2003, shortly after the release of her fourth album, In the Zone-and on the heels of her high-profile breakup with Justin Timberlake-Britney Spears sat down for an interview with journalist Diane Sawyer. In her new memoir, The Woman in Me, a copy of which was obtained by TIME ahead of its Oct. 24 release, Spears writes that she was pressured by her father and told she was going to do the interview. She felt exploited, embarrassed, and exposed, she says.

"It was completely humiliating," Spears writes. "I wasn't told what the questions would be ahead of time, and it turned out they were 100 percent embarrassing. I was too vulnerable then, too sensitive, to do this type of interview."

In the two decades since the interview, many have reckoned with the high-scrutiny celebrity culture of the 2000s-especially involving young women. And more recently, the interview has had a resurgence on TikTok, with viewers criticizing its tone and content.

In the book, Spears shares that the breakup with Timberlake-initiated by him suddenly via text-devastated her and left her in a state of shock. She still had tour dates left in her contract, so she went back to work, but in hindsight, she wasn't ready.
Read More: Britney Spears Reveals How She Feels About the #FreeBritney Movement
"I didn't want to share anything private with the world," Spears writes. "I didn't owe the media details of my breakup. I shouldn't have been forced to speak on national TV, forced to cry in front of this stranger, a woman who was relentlessly going after me with harsh question after harsh question. Instead, I felt like I had been exploited, set up in front of the whole world."

During the interview Sawyer was intense, probing, and critical. "Ladies and gentlemen," she narrates in a voiceover, "the most valuable square inch of real estate in the entertainment universe." The accompanying footage is a montage of close-up shots of Spears' navel.

"That interview was a breaking point for me internally-a switch had been flipped," Spears writes. "I felt something dark come over my body. I felt myself turning, almost like a werewolf, into a Bad Person."

The lyrics of Timberlake's latest album at the time, Justified, seemed to point the finger at Britney, and rumors swirled that she had cheated on him. (In The Woman in Me, Spears writes that he had cheated on her multiple times, and she had made out with a choreographer in retaliation.) This was the crux of the Sawyer interview. "You did something that caused him so much pain," she told Spears. "So much suffering. What did you do?"

More From TIME

Sawyer critiqued Spears' perceived raciness, told the audience that she bit her nails, and pressed the singer on whether she had ever "gone further" than she wished she had. The journalist said that Spears was "constantly feeding the publicity monster" and seeking attention.

"I honestly feel like that moment in my life should have been a time for growing-and not sharing everything with the world," she continues. "It would have been the better way to heal. But I had no choice. It seemed like nobody really cared how I felt."

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Britney Spears Slams Diane Sawyer Interview

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In her new memoir, The Woman in Me, Britney Spears writes that she was pressured by her father to do the interview with Diane Sawyer.