Britney Spears continues to unpack the last decade or so of her life. The latest target, which came in the middle of an innocent Instagram post about her love for shopping, is her infamous 2003 interview with Diane Sawyer.
Within hours, though, Spears had removed the entire post, leaving fans to share their encouragement on another post on her page, while also encouraging her to speak her truth and put the Sawyer post back up.
In that highly-publicized chat from Spears’ apartment at the time, the singer was fresh off of her breakup with Justin Timberlake and found herself being asked if she thought she might have a shopping addiction, as well as feeling blamed for the breakup.
After talking about some of the new items she’s received from friends in her since-deleted post, as captured by multiple news outlets including People, Britney admitted that she loved shopping, and that apparently sent her mind back 18 years.
“Do we dare forget the Diane Sawyer interview in my apartment almost 20 years ago???” she wrote in that same post, presented as a stream-of-consciousness exploration.
“What was with the ‘You’re in the wrong’ approach?? Geeze… and making me cry???” Britney continued about the 2003 interview.
“Seriously though… I lived in my apartment for a year and never spoke to anyone… my manager put that woman in my home and made me talk to her on national television and she asked if I had a shopping problem!!!” Spears continued. “When did I have a shopping problem?”
Here, Spears opened up about her mental health state in the months following her 2002 breakup with Justin Timberlake. “Something I never shared when I had that big breakup years ago was that I couldn’t talk afterwards… I never spoke to anyone for a very long time… I was in shock.”
As such, she feels it was “pretty lame of my dad and three men to show up at my door when I could hardly speak… two days later they put Diane Sawyer in my living room…they forced me to talk!!!” In a statement to People, Jamie Spears denied any involvement.
“Jamie never set up any interview with Diane Sawyer and was not present for any such interview,” he said in a statement via his lawyer. “He had nothing to do with Britney’s career at this point and was completely uninvolved in this interview.” Britney’s conservatorship, which saw Jamie firmly in control of her career, began in 2008.
“I was a baby… I was almost 22 and didn’t understand… but I f—— know now” Spears continued in her post. “She said ‘a woman or a girl…’ I would like to say now, ‘Ma’am, I’m a Catholic slut!!! You wanna join me at a mass and I can serve your husband my certificate on shopping for anonymous players???’ I should spend a thousand dollars if I want every day of my life and she can kiss my white a–.”
In the lengthy post, Britney also lashed out at her family, saying she was proud, and maybe a little embarrassed, to be excited about taking $300 from an ATM of her own money. “I’m not embarrassed to share this … well maybe a little … but I’m more embarrassed for my family for condoning the fact that I wasn’t allowed to have cash for so long when I worked my little a– off for them.”
“I’m embarrassed for the state of California for permitting my father to have me work as hard as he worked me all those years and never seeing a dime,” she continued. “I’m embarrassed for all of them and I’m sad for them because I know my value and worth now … and they LOST ME !!!”
Spears also indicated that she didn’t think she would ever again tour at the pace she was during the heyday of her career, explaining that she “hated it.”
“I know I’m not playing in huge arenas with my loud band anymore but I will be honest and say life on the road is hard!!” she wrote. “My first three years in the biz and on the road were great but I’ll be completely honest and say that after those three tours and the pace I was going… I don’t think I ever want to do it again.”
It’s unclear why Britney removed the post. Renewed criticism of Sawyer’s interview began in the wake of the “Framing Britney Spears” documentary. It led to a public apology from Justin TImberlake to both Spears and Janet Jackson (the latter for his role in the aftermath of their infamous Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction”). Sawyer has yet to comment.
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