Britney Spears: 5 things we’ve learnt from her memoir 'The Woman in Me' ahead of its release

The 41-year-old mother of two, who first rose to fame in 1999 with the hit single ‘...Baby one me time!’, has for the first time bared all in a memoir called ‘The Woman in Me’ which is set to offer an in-depth account of her life and career.

Due to be published tomorrow (October 24), a media release about the book reads: “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.

“With remarkable candour and humour, Spears's groundbreaking memoir illuminates the enduring power of music and love — and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms.”

Below we have listed some of the main revelations to come out of the memoir so far, from the entertaining and quirky to the deep and personal:

A past pregnancy

When she was 19, Britney fell pregnant with then boyfriend Justin Timerblake and had an abortion, People magazine reported exclusively earlier this week.

In her memoir, Britney wrote: “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.

“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.

“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.”

Speaking specifically about her experience undergoing the abortion, Britney added: “To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”

Britney and Justin dated between 1999 and 2002 and she then went on to become a mother three years later, having Sean Preston, now 18, and then Jayden James, 17 — sons she shares with her second husband, Kevin Federline.

Attempts to speak about her conservatorship in the UK

For 13 years Britany was under a conservatorship – first put in place in 2008 following her public meltdown the year prior – which gave her father control over her estate and financial affairs, as well as her person.

She was finally freed from the conservatorship in 2021 but in her memoir Britney reveals that she tried to make the world aware of it, right here in the UK.

Britney wrote: “I even mentioned the Conservatorship on a talk show in 2016, but somehow that part of the interview didn’t make it to the air. Huh. How interesting.”

According to the Sun newspaper, the interview in question was on ITV’s The Jonathan Ross show in which, talking about her ninth album Glory, Britney said “I have this Conservatorship for years and I felt like a lot of decisions were made for me so I wanted this to be my baby and I’ve been really strategic about it.”

A source told the Sun: “Everyone was shocked - the Conservatorship was always there but never spoken about.

“The fact Britney raised it on one of the biggest shows in the UK set off alarm bells.

“A series of meetings quickly took place as to how to control the situation - the priority switched to keeping the comments off air.

“There was a lot of back and forth but ultimately ITV played ball and removed all mention of the Conservatorship.”

The reason she posts risque pictures on Instagram

Britney’s Instagram account has been causing quite a stir since her conservatorship ended as the singing superstar has shared a variety of revealing images with her 42 million followers.

In her memoir, Britney revealed the posts are to do with her enjoying her own agency again after so many years being under other people’s direction and control.

She wrote: “I know that a lot of people don’t understand why I love taking pictures of myself naked or in new dresses, but I think if they’d been photographed by other people thousands of times, prodded and posed for other people’s approval, they’d understand that I get a lot of joy from posing the way I feel sexy and taking my own picture.”

How she really felt about that VMA performance

One of Britney’s most iconic performances was at the 2001 VMAs alongside an albino snake that was wrapped around her neck and for the first time Britney has revealed what was going on inside her head throughout.

The ‘Princess of Pop’ wrote: “It's become an iconic moment in VMAs history, but it was even more terrifying than it appeared.

“All I knew was to look down, because I felt if I looked up and caught its eye, it would kill me.

“In my head I was saying, ‘Just perform, just use your legs and perform’.

“But what nobody knows is that as I was singing, the snake brought its head right around to my face, right up to me, and started hissing.

“I was thinking, ‘Are you f***ing serious right now? The f***ing godd*** snake's tongue is flicking out at me. Right. Now.’ Finally I got to the part where I handed it back, thank God.”

She nearly got a role in The Notebook

Whilst it has been shared before that Britney auditioned for the iconic romantic film The Notebook, in her book she revealed just how close she was to getting the part of Ally.

Britney wrote: “The Notebook casting came down to me and Rachel McAdams, and even though it would have been fun to reconnect with Ryan Gosling after our time on The Mickey Mouse Club, I'm glad I didn't do it.

“If I had, instead of working on my album In the Zone, I'd have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night.”

Britney and Ryan worked together on Disney's The Mickey Mouse Club beteen 1993 and 1994; he instead went on to star in The Notebook with the Mean Girls and Time Traveller’s Wife star Rachel, who was relatively unknown at the time.

Elsewhere in her memoir, Britney’s relief over not getting the Notebook part can be better undersood as the singer explains how overwhelming she found playing Lucy Wagner in the coming-of-age film Crossroads aged 21.

She wrote: “My problem wasn't with anyone involved in the production but with what acting did to my mind. 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.”

Britney later added: “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.”

The Woman In Me is available to pre-order now from Amazon and Waterstones amongst other retailers.