Britney Finally Tells Her Story. It’s Dark.
With her new memoir, the pop star tries to close a long and maddening chapter of her life. Will we finally let her?
One of the most disturbing parts of Britney Spears’s story has long been the way people talk about her. As soon as the pop star was released from the legal guardianship of her father in November 2021, ending a 13-year ordeal that she has described as torture, some onlookers asked whether one of the most successful women on Earth could handle living as an adult. In barroom chitchat, meandering podcasts, and online comment sections, you can now find people claiming that freeing Britney—allowing her to, for example, choose how she spends her money or what she eats for dinner—was a mistake. They cite alleged evidence of erratic behavior such as the recent that the 41-year-old Spears posted of herself dancing sexily with prop knives.
