Britney Spears’ New Memoir Is Out Now: Where to Buy ‘The Woman in Me’ Online
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Let the tea spill. Britney Spears is baring it all in her new memoir, The Woman in Me, released on Tuesday (Oct. 24).
Excerpts from the pop star’s highly anticipated were first released by People magazine earlier in the month, and more tidbits were revealed leading up to the book release. In the memoir, Spears speaks on her relationships with Justin Timberlake, Kevin Federline and Sam Asghari, and lots of other details about her life.
On Friday, Spears took to Instagram to clarify the “purpose” of her book. “My book’s purpose was not to offend anyone by any means!!! That was me then…that is in the past!!!”
Spears added that most of the events in the book happened 20 years ago and that she’s not harping on the past. “Hopefully I can enlighten people who feel particularly alone in most cases or hurt or misunderstood!”
The Woman In Me is already a hit for Spears. Pre-orders pushed the book up the bestsellers lists at Amazon and Barnes & Noble ahead of its official release.
The book is available as a hardcover, e-book and audio book (listen to The Woman in Me for free with a trial from Audible). You can buy the memoir at various retailers including Amazon (also available on Kindle), Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and Bookshop. The audiobook is narrated by actress Michelle Williams.
According to the excerpts shared by People, Spears opens up about everything from her childhood and career to her conservatorship, and reveals never-before-told stories from her past. She writes about joining the Mickey Mouse Club, sharing a dressing room with Christina Aguilera, meeting Timberlake for the first time, landing a record deal at age 15 and more.
“It’s finally time for me to raise my voice and speak out, and my fans deserve to hear it directly from me,” Spears said in an interview with People. “No more conspiracy, no more lies – just me owning my past, present and future.”
Spears goes on to share a story about her mother allowing her to drink alcohol “for fun” when she was in the eighth grade, and reveals that she was body-shamed by her father. Spears also says she had an abortion during her relationship with Timberlake. She goes on to write about a “passionate” fling with Colin Farrell and revealed that she “still loves” Timberlake.
“After [the abortion], I was messed up for a while, especially because I still love Justin so much,” writes Spears. “It was insane how much I loved him, and for me, it was unfortunate.”
Elsewhere in the book, Spears gets candid about shaving her head in 2007 and being under a conservatorship for 13 years.
“I’d been eyeballed so much growing up. I’d been looked up and down, had people telling me what they thought of my body, since I was a teenager. Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back,” she explains in the book. “But 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.”
In other passages from the book, Spears details memorable career moments such as her iconic MTV VMAs performance of “I’m a Slave 4 U” with a yellow python (she was terrified during the performance and the snake hissed at her) and filming the movie Crossroads. Spears says she couldn’t separate herself from the Crossroads character and decided to stop acting as a result.
“That was pretty much the beginning and end of my acting career, and I was relieved. 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,” she reveals in the book. “If I had, instead of working on my album In the Zone I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night.”
Spears’ debut memoir is a “brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope,” according to a press release from publisher Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Announced in July, more than a year after Spears was released from a 13-year conservatorship, the book reveals “for the first time her incredible journey — and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history,” per the news release.
The pop star has started a new chapter following her split from Asghari after one year of marriage and six years together. Asghari filed for divorce in August citing “irreconcilable differences.”
Spears later confirmed the split, writing on Instagram, “As everyone knows, Hesam and I are no longer together… 6 years is a long time to be with someone so, I’m a little shocked but … I’m not here to explain why because its honestly nobody’s business !!!”
Purchase The Woman in Me here.
Latifah Muhammad
Billboard