Britney Spears slams media for not focussing on the beautiful stories in her memoir
Britney Spears
Pop princess Britney Spears has long had an adversarial relationship with the media and tabloids for the way they exploited her in the 90s and 2000s. In her blockbuster new memoir “The Woman In Me,” the “Toxic” singer even reveals that her decision to shave her head in 2007 was a direct response to how interviewers would sexualize her, or criticize her for her body shape.
Now that her memoir has been on the shelves for a couple of weeks and has become fodder for more tabloid headlines, the “Me Against The Music” songstress has taken to her official Instagram to once again call out the media for being salacious with her life story.
Posted on Wednesday the 8th, she wrote in her IG caption, “My book has a lot of sad stories and drama in it … I’m sure some are aware of that but just know there are tons of other beautiful and good stories in #TheWomanInMe…”
“...but that’s not what the media decides to pick up all the time !!!” she continues, adding three exclamation points for emphasis.
She then reminds everyone who may be reading the headlines rather than reading the book that she is in a new place in her life. “It is what it is … so going forward just know that was me then … that’s the past and this is me now !!!”
She then made a reference to how controlled she was during her life by her family or by her management and record label by posting behind-the-scenes wardrobe fittings from her 2001 “Overprotected” music video and writing, “Psss throwback to when they wanted me in my pyjamas for the Overprotected video but I said … please that’s too sweet, give me some damn clothes 😂👗😳 !!!”
Some of the revelations from her memoir have definitely struck a chord with not just the media but also pop culture at large, including her admission of having an abortion during her relationship with Justin Timberlake in the early 2000s.
In an excerpt published in People, she writes, "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.”
She then went on to explain that because of the media, she couldn’t have the medical procedure done at a hospital, so she did it in her bathroom, which she described as “excruciating,” lasting for hours, and that she still remembers the pain 20 years later. She described Timberlake trying to soothe her by playing guitar next to her as she was in pain in the bathroom.
It has been reported that Timberlake is upset that the “Womanizer” singer chose to share her story and what transpired during their relationship during a time when he’s trying to remount his NSYNC career and celebrate his wedding anniversary with wife Jessica Biel. That upset has apparently also affected longtime Timberlake collaborator Timbaland, who recently had to apologize for suggesting that Britney be “muzzled” for writing her book.
During a Q&A at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Timbaland told the crowd.“She going crazy. I wanted to call and say, ‘JT, you gotta put a muzzle on that girl.’ But you know what? We live in an age of social media and everybody wanna go viral. I get it because that’s the way you make money. Go viral.”
“I apologize to the Britney fans, even to her,” he said earlier this week. “You have a voice. You speak what you want to speak. Who am I to tell you what not to speak? And I was wrong for saying that, but I was looking at it from a different lens.”
