The new issue of Rolling Stone offers some insight into what has lead to Britney Spears’ downward spiral.
Among the revelations:
• As a teen, the singer’s mother, Lynne, allowed her to get breast implants. But after going under the knife, “she regretted the implants, particularly because her chest was still growing,” a friend says. “When her natural breasts became larger, she had the implants removed.” But Spears kept the surgery a secret. Adds the friend, “When other girls did their boobs [they admitted it] and moved on, but Britney was brought up to lie about herself.”
• The singer never bonded with her father Jamie, mostly because of his heavy drinking. “It was upsetting for Britney Spears to be around her dad,” a pal tellsRolling Stone. “He came backstage one night, and he was wasted. She was devastated. Britney would tell friends that her father was emotionally abusive.”
• When Britney was just beginning her career in the 1990s, she was bribed to work around the clock. “If she didn’t want to come out of the trailer, the label would come to me saying, ‘Please talk to Britney, make sure she performs, and we’ll take you on a shopping spree,’” a close friend says. Adds her former driver: “We would wake Britney up at 6 a.m., and she’d work on a video for three or four days straight for 20 hours a day.”
• Throughout her career, she lobbied “ to appear trashier,” the magazine claims, to appear more mature. (As a kid, her parents let her walk around the house naked, Rolling Stone reports.) “Every girl in America was wearing crop tops and booty shorts, and Britney felt like she was being held back,” says a friend. “She would joke about wanting to do videos topless.”
• Darrin Henson, who was the choreographer for several videos from Britney’s first album, says: “Britney would come offstage after performing in front of 15 to 16,000 people and start crying because she thought she was terrible. The girl doesn’t know who she is.”
• She reportedly began sleeping with Wade Robson around the time of the 2001 VMAs. “In February 2002, Timberlake discovered a ... note from Robson in Britney’s room. Britney and Timberlake were performing onSaturday Night Live that night, and they sat backstage miserable — he refused to accept her apologies,” an insider says. “The breakup was a terrible shock, particularly as it was followed by Britney’s parents divorce two months later.”
• Britney’s 2002 split from Justin Timberlake devastated her. “Justin had his head screwed on so straight... He became the great force in her life, but it started a pattern — she began to look for guys to help her get away from the people who could control her,” an insider says.
• Britney’s original concept for her 2004 video “Everytime”: “To die in an overflowing bathtub with pills and booze strewn around, and get reincarnated as a baby,” a source says. But Spears’ label objected, and she refused to shoot initally. “Finally, Britney agreed to do it, but first she said, ‘I need three Red Bulls, and call my doctor,’” the insider says. The video, which co-starred bad boy actor Stephen Dorff, ended up featuring her running away from the paparazzi before drowning in a bathtub.
