Britney Spears in New York City in August 2016.Photo:Allen Berezovsky/WireImage
Allen Berezovsky/WireImage
Britney Spearsis shedding light on the public breakdown she suffered in 2007.
In the pop superstar’s much-anticipated upcoming memoirThe Woman in Me, she looks back on hitting a photographer’s car with an umbrella after shaving her head that year and explains that grief and her custody battle were weighing heavily on her at the time.
The “Toxic” singer writes in the book that she was “out of my mind with grief” after her aunt, Sandra Bridges Covington, died of ovarian cancer in January 2007. The same year, Spears went through a legal dispute with ex-husbandKevin Federlineover the custody of their children, sonsSean Prestonand Jayden James, now 18 and 17, respectively.
“Withmy head shaved, everyone was scared of me, even my mom,” writes Spears inThe Woman in Me. “Flailing those weeks without my children, I lost it, over and over again. I didn’t even really know how to take care of myself.”
Sean Preston, Britney Spears and Jayden James in 2013.Gregg DeGuire/WireImage
The difficult experiences ultimately led to incidents such as shaving her head and attacking a paparazzo’s car.
The Grammy winner was put in a court-ordered conservatorship in 2008, grantingfatherJamie Spears and a lawyer control over her financial and personal affairs. She writes in the book that those in charge of her life forbid her from keeping the shaved head and instructed her to focus on fitness, “go to bed early” and take various medications.
Britney Spears' The Woman in Me.
Spearspleaded with a judge in open courtto end the legal arrangement in September 2021, and Jamie was suspended as her conservator. Two months later, theconservatorship was terminated.
Since then, she’s looked to take control over her own journey.
“Over the past 15 years or even at the start of my career, I sat back while people spoke about me and told my story for me,” Spearstold PEOPLE in a recent interview done via emailfor this week’s exclusive cover story. “After getting out of my conservatorship, I was finally free to tell my story without consequences from the people in charge of my life.”
The Woman in Meisavailable for pre-orderahead of its release on Oct. 24.
For an exclusive excerpt and interview with Britney Spears, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
source: people.com
