The relationship with Justin Timberlake and the father’s absolute control: “I was his robot.” All the revelations from Britney Spears’ biography

Was an undisputed icon of pop music, awarded and idolized like no other. She was the queen of gossip, pioneer of glamorous teen couples at the time of her relationship with Justin Timberlakeambassador of that adolescent mischief that everyone saw but no one wanted to hear about, and then again, symbol of a shooting star among shaved headsthe fourteen-year story of the legal guardianship assigned to her father, the movement of fans who wanted her free (the hashtag #freebritney still collects hundreds of thousands of posts) and an Instagram profile that never stops sparking discussion, including repeated photos, dances that worry the police and conspiracy theorists who talk about photomontages and fake images.

Now, at forty-two, he is The time has come for Britney Spears to tell her truth, and tell it all. At least, that’s what it promises to do with The Woman in Me, his bombshell autobiography out worldwide on October 24th. «A revolutionary book», assures the publishing house, «which highlights the lasting power of music and love and the importance of a woman finally telling her own story, on her own terms». A book in which obviously a lot is said about his life under court-ordered guardianship, who in 2008 gave her father Jamie and a lawyer control over Spears’ financial and personal affairs. But not only that, as Britney says in an exclusive interview with PeopleAnd. “For the last fifteen years and even at the beginning of my career, I sat while people talked about me and told my story,” Britney explains. “After coming out of conservatorship, I was finally free to tell my story without consequences from the people responsible for my life.”

“It’s finally time for me to raise my voice and speak out, and my fans deserve to hear it directly from me. No more conspiracies, no more lies: only I own my past, present and future.”

The beginnings at The Mickey Mouse Club

Britney’s career in show business began when she was only eleven years old and was chosen to enter the The Mickey Mouse Club, together with Christina Aguilera, who will be her artistic rival for a period, and Justin Timberlake, with whom he will instead bond for a long relationship. “It was honestly every child’s dream,” Britney says in her book as anticipated by People. «incredibly fun, especially for a girl like me. But it was also exceptionally hard work: we performed the choreography thirty times a day, trying to make every step perfect.”

The first kiss with Justin Timberlake

Before Brangelina, long before Ferragnez, there were Britney and Justin. Two talented, beautiful, smiling, in love teenagers: a perfect fairy tale, destined to last as long as fairy tales last, and which began right in Mickey Mouse’s studios, in the most classic of kids’ games of the pre-smartphone era. «Once during a sleepover, We played Truth or Dare, and someone dared Justin to kiss me», says Britney. “A Janet Jackson song was playing in the background as he leaned down and kissed me.”

His idea of ​​normality

Britney’s life seems to have always been a swing between the limelight and the search for its normalitythe same one she appreciates today, speaking of herself as a “simple girl”, when “I play with my dogs, or watch episodes of Friends and I laugh out loud.” Already when the experience ends at The Mickey Mouse Club the swing seems to swing while Britney remains at its mercy: «When the show ended, after a year and a half I decided to return to Kentwood», she anticipates People. «There was already a push and pull inside me: part of me wanted to keep moving towards the dream; the other party wanted me to live a normal life in Louisiana. For a minute I had to let normality win. There was something wonderfully normal about that time in my life: going to prom, walking around our little town, going to the movies. But the truth is that I missed performing.”

The first album

One album is enough consecrate Britney as the new Madonnaagainst all the producers who had sent her home claiming that there would never be one again. ...Baby One More TimeBrintey Spears’ debut album (released in 1999) reached the top of the charts of fifteen countries and sold more than ten million copies in one year. The credit for that debut went to Larry Rudolph, who took the young Britney around the record companies. “I would walk into rooms full of executives and sing Whitney Houston’s ‘I Have Nothing,’” Britney says in her book. «Looking at the rooms full of men in suits looking me up and down in my little dress and high heels, I sang out loud. I finally got a record deal with Jive Records at the age of fifteen.” From there, a career on the rise, to which Britney dedicates everything. “I worked for hours straight,” he says. «I stayed in the studio as long as possible. If someone wanted to leave I said: “I wasn’t perfect”. When all the songs were finished, someone said, “What else can you do? Do you want to dance now?”, and I said, ‘Hell, of course I do!'”

The relationship with the family

For her mother Lynne Britney always has sweet words, which does not happen with her father. “For fun, starting when I was in eighth grade, my mother and I would take the two-hour drive from Kentwood to Biloxi, Mississippi, and drink daiquiris while we were there. We called our cocktails “toddies.” I liked being able to drink with my mother every now and then. The way we drank was nothing like the way my father did it. When he drank, he became more depressed and withdrawn.”

Today his family are his sons, Sean Preston, 18, and Jayden James, 17, from her ex-husband Kevin Federline. She has a complicated relationship with them, but she loves them and is in contact with them, even if they live with her father in Hawaii: “Being a mother was my dream come true.”

Legal guardianship and the relationship with the father

For Britney, growing up as the most acclaimed pop star isn’t easy. “I was watched so much growing up,” she says. “I’ve been looked down upon, people told me what they thought of my body, since I was a teenager. Shaving my head and acting were my ways to escape. But under tutelage they made me understand that those days were now over. I had to grow my hair and get into shape. I had to go to bed early and take whatever medication they told me to take.” The father, however, is of no help. “If I thought being criticized for my body by the press was bad, it hurt even more when it was my father who did it,” Britney says. “He told me repeatedly that I looked fat and that I should do something about it.”.

“Feeling like you’re never good enough is an overwhelming state of mind for a child. She had instilled that message in me as a girl, and even after having accomplished so much, she continued to do it,” she continues. «I have become a robot. But not just a robot: a sort of child robot.” And then the guardianship, which “deprived her of her femininity”, as well as of what she loved most, dance and music. “If they had let me live my life, I know I would have followed my heart, I would have come out the right way and solved everything,” Britney says. «Thirteen years have passed in which I felt like a shadow of myself. Now I think back to my father and his associates having control over my body and my money for so long and it makes me feel sick.. Think about how many male artists have gambled all their money; how many had substance abuse or mental health problems. No one tried to take away their control over their bodies and their money. I didn’t deserve what my family did to me.”