Britney Spears’ Bombshell Quotes in ‘The Woman in Me’ Memoir: Justin Timberlake, Conservatorship and More

Drinking at 13

When The Mickey Mouse Club show ended, a then-teenaged Britney returned to Kentwood, Louisiana, and went back to school. She recalled that in eighth grade, she and her mom, Lynne, would drive to Biloxi, Mississippi, “for fun” and drink daiquiris there.

“We called our cocktails ‘toddies.’ I loved that I was able to drink with my mom every now and then,” wrote Britney, noting that they didn’t go to extremes like her alcoholic father, Jamie. “The way we drank was nothing like how my father did it. When he drank, he grew more depressed and shut down. We became happier, more alive and adventurous.”

Booze was simply part of the culture when Brit was a kid, a source tells In Touch. “Nobody ever questioned it.”

Justin’s Betrayal

One of Britney’s biggest revelations was that she had an abortion during her relationship with Justin Timberlake. (The pop power couple dated from 1999 to 2002.) The “Toxic” singer said she was surprised to discover she was pregnant at 19 but had always envisioned having a family with Justin.

“It wasn’t a tragedy,” she mused. “I loved Justin so much.” Yet the ’NSync-er urged her to terminate the pregnancy. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young,” she revealed, adding that she “would never have” done so if not for Justin. “To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”

Sharing the story in her book has shaken her ex, a source tells In Touch. “He really doesn’t want to talk about it. He’s shocked and upset.”

The Reason for the Razor

It was the buzz cut seen around the world: In 2007, a spiraling Britney was photographed gleefully shaving her head at an L.A. hair salon in between rehab stints. Now, she said it was an act of reclaiming herself.

“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,” she recalled. “Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back.” Especially at her dad, who was often critical of her looks, snapping at her to lose weight.

“Jamie was livid,” says an insider. “He went absolutely ballistic.” (Britney wrote that once her conservatorship was in place, she was forced to grow her hair and stay in shape.)

Used as a Moneymaker

During her 13-year conservatorship, Britney released four albums and headlined her Piece of Me Las Vegas residency, which raked in $138 million. She described feeling gaslit because at the same time the conservatorship rendered her unable to make basic life decisions.

“I accomplished a lot during that time when I was supposedly incapable of taking care of myself,” she wrote. (In 2022 court docs, Britney’s team claimed Jamie helped himself to $36 million of his daughter’s money while acting as her conservator.) “It was almost funny how I won those awards for the album I made while I was supposedly so incapacitated that I had to be controlled by my family.”

A source says Britney isn’t hopeful about getting those funds back. “She figures Jamie spent it.”

Turned Down ‘The Notebook’

After 2002’s Crossroads, Britney was wary of acting. “I didn’t know how to break out of my character,” she wrote. “I really became this other person.” So she was relieved when Rachel McAdams beat her out for the 2004 hit film The Notebook. “Casting came down to me and Rachel McAdams,” she continued. “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.”

Cheating on Justin

After years of speculation on the subject, Britney confirmed in The Woman in Me that she cheated on Justin with her choreographer, Wade Robson. The “Criminal” singer described a night of dancing and making out with Wade during her relationship with Justin. However, she added that she and Justin agreed to move on from her moment of infidelity because she was otherwise loyal in their relationship.

Jamie Lynn’s Betrayal

At one point in the book, Britney called Jamie Lynn Spears a “total bitch” as she described how her little sister, who was 11 years old at the time, treated mom Lynne Spears amid her divorce from Jamie. Britney described feeling “betrayed” by how Jamie Lynn “changed” and said that her sister “ruled” their home.

Her Drug of Choice

Britney’s alleged partying with fellow stars Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan was a hot topic in the media in the early 2000s. However, the singer wrote that their nights out weren’t as “wild” as they seemed. Despite the press’s claims, Britney insisted that she “never had a drinking problem” and didn’t see the appeal of hard drugs. Instead, her “drug of choice” was the ADHD medication Adderall.

“[Adderall] made me high, yes, but what I found far more appealing was that it gave me a few hours of feeling less depressed,” she wrote.