First glimpses of Britney Spears’ much-anticipated memoir “The Woman in Me” open up the alleged cruelty she suffered during her strange conservatorship between 2008 and 2021. Excerpts shared by People magazine in the US ahead of the release controversy on October 24 showed details of an abortion she had while dating Justin Timberlake.
Spears writes of the abortion and says she loved Justin very much and had visions of becoming a family. However, he was not excited about the pregnancy, and their romance was still not ready to give birth to anything but songs. The couple dated from 1999 until 2002, being young. Timberlake did not comment on Spears’ narrative.
Of the conservatorship, Spears recalls having lived a shadow of herself for thirteen years, with her father and associates controlling her life and finances. She describes being treated like an infant as well as losing her identity. They wanted her wild on stage, but they drew her off stage.
While her father, Jamie Spears, has not commented on the excerpts, he has previously defended the conservatorship, stressing its role of protection for Britney and her children.
Spears’ court claims in 2021 about the conservatorship were explosive, and she eventually freed herself from its grip in November. The memoir only regurgitates some of these accusations, like having birth control and medication forced on her.
In the infamous head-shaving incident, she refers to it as her way of rebelling against the public scrutiny that has followed her at such a young age. Yet under the conservatorship program, such acts were discouraged.
Other topics covered in the memoir are her childhood entry into showbiz, her iconic snake-draped performance at the 2001 MTV VMAs, and her challenging film career, whose script she did not even read before performing in it.
Since the end of the conservatorship, Spears has returned to recording and got married to her long-term boyfriend, Sam Asghari, but they divorced after 14 months.