Britney Spears lands $15 mn deal for 'tell-all' memoir
Thursday, 24 February 2022 (12:34 IST)
London: British pop star Britney Spears has landed a “record breaking” publishing deal for a tell-all memoir about her rise to fame, her relationship with her family and her experience living under a conservatorship for more than a decade.
Spears has signed a massive $15 million history-making deal for a celebrity memoir with publishing giant Simon & Schuster to distribute her autobiography.
The news comes in the wake of her sister Jamie Lynn's own much-publicized memoir, which Britney has vociferously been critical of.
After Jamie Lynn appeared on Good Morning America, the pop idol tweeted “The two things that did bother me that my sister said was how my behaviour was out of control. She was never around me much 15 years ago… So why are they even talking about that unless she wants to sell a book at my expense?”
Britney's lawyer Mathew Rosengart issued a strongly worded cease-and-desist to the actress, asserting that Britney will “no longer be bullied” by her family.
“Although Britney has not read and does not intend to read your book, she and millions of her fans were shocked to see how you have exploited her for monetary gain. She will not tolerate it, nor should she,” the letter read.
She has been hinting her intent for some time that she's ready to start writing her book. Sharing a photo of an old-school typewriter, she wrote in early January, “Shall I start from THE BEGINNING???”
While earlier this month, Spears teased that she is working on her first music project in five years after being freed from her conservatorship. Sharing a video of herself dancing, she wrote on Instagram, “This is a tease of what's to come !!!!”
Britney's court mandated conservatorship which was put in place by her father began in 2007 and she remained so for almost 14 years.
Amid rumours, that Britney was being held in conservatorship against her will, the #FreeBritney movement gained traction.
In 2021 Spears gave public testimony about her conservatorship for the first time, telling a Los Angeles judge that she had been forced to work by conservators despite begging for breaks, and that she had no control over her finances, was denied her wish to marry her boyfriend, and was barred from removing her birth control despite her wish to have a third child.
“I've been in shock. I am traumatised,” Spears said. “I just want my life back.”
The judge suspended her father from the conservatorship in September, before it was lifted entirely in November. Spears said soon after that she believed her family members “should all be in jail” for the “demoralising and degrading” treatment she says she experienced under the arrangement.
Since the end of the singer's long and notorious conservatorship period, Britney has been the subject of a number of documentaries that have focused on her legal battles and bids for freedom, many of which she has criticized. (UNI)