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- Britney Spears' memoir, The Woman in Me, is set to be released on 24 October.
- The memoir explores various aspects of her life, including her 13-year conservatorship.
- Here are five takeaways from the excerpts of the memoir.
Britney Spears is set to release her memoir The Woman in Me on 24 October. Excerpts of the memoir have already been circulating, initially obtained by People. In the book, Spears explores her career and personal life, including her controversial conservatorship.
The book contains several revelations about the star's life, such as her abortion while dating Justin Timberlake, who she started a relationship with in 1999.
She writes:
Timberlake felt that he was too young to be a father at the time, Spears shares.
"To this day, it's one of the most agonising things I have ever experienced in my life," she adds.
READ MORE | Britney Spears says she had abortion while dating Justin Timberlake
Some details she shares from her pop music career include how terrifying it was to perform with a snake at the 2001 VMAs.
Here are some other takeaways from the memoir's excerpts.
1. Why Spears really shaved her head
For Spears, shaving her head in 2007 was a way of taking back control.
She shaved her head during her divorce from dancer and rapper Kevin Federline.
On why she shaved her head, Spears writes:
The moment was immortalised by paparazzi and Spears continued to attract attention due to her public behaviour, like attacking a vehicle containing paparazzi with an umbrella.
In 2008, she locked herself and her 16-month-old son Jaden in a bathroom, after which she was admitted to a hospital. Her father, Jamie Spears, was subsequently granted a conservatorship over her, which lasted 13 years.
2. Drinking daiquiris with her mother in the eighth grade
In the memoir, Spears shares how she and her mother used to share alcoholic drinks together when she was in Grade 8. The two drank daiquiris, which they called "toddies".
"For fun, starting when I was in eighth Grade, my mom and I would make the two-hour drive from Kentwood to Biloxi, Mississippi, and while we were there, we would drink daiquiris," she writes.
She contrasts this experience with her father's relationship to alcohol.
3. Being body-shamed by her father during her conservatorship
During her conservatorship, Spears writes that she was body-shamed by her father.
She writes about the early period of her conservatorship and refers to her behaviour that resulted in numerous headlines.
"Under the conservatorship, I was made to understand that those days were now over. I had to grow my hair out and get back into shape. I had to go to bed early and take whatever medication they told me to take."
She continues: "If I thought getting criticised about my body in the press was bad, it hurt even more from my own father. He repeatedly told me I looked fat and that I was going to have to do something about it."
4. Losing her creative spark and the mental strain of the conservatorship
With all the pressure put on her during her conservatorship, her mental health and creativity took a toll.
She writes about the lack of control she experienced:
"The woman in me was pushed down for a long time. They wanted me to be wild onstage, the way they told me to be and to be a robot the rest of the time. I felt like I was being deprived of those good secrets of life — those fundamental supposed sins of indulgence and adventure that make us human."
"They wanted to take away that specialness and keep everything as rote as possible. It was death to my creativity as an artist."
She writes more about feeling like a robot and being stripped of her womanhood.
"I became a robot. But not just a robot — a sort of child robot. I had been so infantilised that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself," Spears shares.
"The conservatorship stripped me of my womanhood, made me into a child. I became more of an entity than a person onstage. I had always felt music in my bones and my blood; they stole that from me."
ALSO READ | 'I had a lot of therapy to get this book done': Britney Spears memoir set for October release
She also continues to write about how her father mistreated her and how his words hurt her.
"Feeling like you're never good enough is a soul-crushing state of being for a child… He'd [Jamie Spears] drummed that message into me as a girl, and even after I'd accomplished so much, he was continuing to do that to me."
She also felt like a shadow of herself during her conservatorship.
5. Her unintentional experience with method acting
While filming the road trip movie Crossroads (2002), Spears had a difficult experience immersing herself in her character.
"The experience wasn't easy for me. My problem wasn't with anyone involved in the production but with what acting did to my mind," she writes.
She continues:
"I think I started method acting — only I didn't know how to break out of my character. I really became this other person. Some people do method acting, but they're usually aware of the fact that they're doing it. But I didn't have any separation at all."
She started walking and acting differently due to her role. That was the beginning and ending of acting for Spears.
She writes:
"I hope I never get close to that occupational hazard again. Living that way, being half yourself and half a fictional character, is messed up. After a while, you don't know what's real anymore."
She also shares that she was nearly cast to play in The Notebook, which stars Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. She was excited to act alongside Gosling since they previously worked together on The Mickey Mouse Club. However, she is glad she did not land the role.
