The 8 biggest bombshells in Britney Spears’ forthcoming memoir, “The Woman in Me”

For years, Britney Spears’ own story has been written by the media. The acclaimed pop diva only recently broke free from a debilitating conservatorship that stripped her of her autonomy and wreaked havoc on both her career and personal life. Now, for the first time ever, Spears is grabbing the pen and taking control of her own narrative in a forthcoming memoir.

Titled “The Woman in Me,” Spears’ latest literary work will tell the “journey (and) strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.” In anticipation of the book’s release, People obtained excerpts from it which featured several shocking revelations about Spears’ love life and pivotal pop culture moments.

From her relationship with Justin Timberlake to her heartbreaking 2003 sit-down interview with Diane Sawyer, here are the 8 biggest bombshells from the book thus far:

01 Spears had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake

Spears revealed that while she was dating the lead vocalist of NSYNC, she became pregnant with his baby but ultimately had an abortion:

“It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated,” Spears recounted. “But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”

Spears continued, saying the abortion she underwent remains “one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”

“If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it,” she wrote elsewhere in her book. “And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”

Spears’ abortion claim sparked online chatter and even grabbed the attention of Timberlake himself. In a new report from Entertainment Tonight, an unnamed source said Timberlake “has been focusing on his own family and trying not to concern himself with Britney’s memoir."

“In recent years, Justin has tried to be supportive of Britney from a distance,” the source continued. “They dated so long ago, but he still has respect for her. Justin and Jessica [Timberlake’s wife] just want everyone to grow and evolve instead of continuing to bring up the past.”

02 Spears said shaving her head and acting out were her “ways of pushing back”

The infamous moment, which took place in 2007, was covered by several media outlets, namely tabloids that created an erroneous narrative that Spears was crazy and mentally unstable. At the time, Spears was navigating her bitter divorce from Kevin Federline and as a result, was targeted by paparazzis and hateful critics.

“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,” Spears wrote.

“Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back,” she added.

In 2008, when Spears was put in a 13-year-long conservatorship under her father, she said she wasn’t allowed to keep her head shaved:

“Under the conservatorship I was made to understand that those days were now over,” Spears wrote. “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.”

“I think back now on my father and his associates having control over my body and my money for that long and it makes me feel sick … Think of how many male artists gambled all their money away; how many had substance abuse or mental health issues. No one tried to take away their control over their bodies and money. I didn’t deserve what my family did to me.”

03 Spears was terrified of the snake she performed with at the 2001 VMAs

Although Spears’ 2001 performance of “I’m a Slave 4 U” during the MTV Video Music Awards remains one for the history books, it’s also Spears’ scariest onstage moment. Spears opened up about how terrified she was of the snake she had to perform with:

“All I knew was to look down, because I felt if I looked up and caught its eye, it would kill me,” she wrote. “In my head I was saying, ‘Just perform, just use your legs and perform.’ But what nobody knows is that as I was singing, the snake brought its head right around to my face, right up to me and started hissing.”

04 Spears relied on Adderall throughout the 2000’s

Spears said she sought the ADHD medication Adderall as a reprieve from reality, especially during her party girl days alongside Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan amid the early 2000s.

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

05 Spears said her 2003 Diane Sawyer interview “was a breaking point”

At just 21 years of age, Spears sat down with Sawyer, who interrogated the star about her career and personal life. When asked about her high-profile split from Timberlake, Spears broke down into tears and asked the camera crew to stop filming.

“I felt like I had been exploited, set up in front of the whole world,” Spears wrote.

During the interview, Sawyer brought up rumors sparked by Timberlake and the public that alleged Spears had cheated on him:

“He’s going on television and saying you broke his heart,” Sawyer said. "You did something that caused him so much pain. So much suffering. What did you do?” Sawyer also called Spears’ abs the “most valuable square inch of real estate in the entertainment universe” prior to the sit-down.

Years later, notably after the release of The New York Times’ “Framing Britney Spears” documentary in 2021, Sawyer came under fire for her insensitive questioning and apparent misogyny.

06 Spears said Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River” video portrayed her as unfaithful

Spears reflected on the time Timberlake released his music video for “Cry Me a River,” which featured an unfaithful girlfriend that looked very similar to Spears. The plot of the video involves “a woman who looks like me, cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain,” as described by Spears.

Spears said the media outcry portrayed her as a “harlot who'd broken the heart of America's golden boy,” when she was actually “comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood.”

Spears and Timberlake officially broke up in March 2002. Elsewhere in the book, Spears confirmed that she kissed choreographer Wade Robson while dating Timberlake.

07 Spears drank daiquiris with her mother when she was in the eighth grade

“For fun, starting when I was in eighth grade, my mom and I would make the two-hour drive from Kentwood to Biloxi, Mississippi, and while we were there, we would drink daiquiris,” Spears wrote. “We called our cocktails ‘toddies.’”

Spears said she and her mother, Lynne Spears, frequently drank alcoholic daiquiris together beginning when Spears was in the eighth grade. Drinking together was also a way for the mother and daughter to bond with each other.

“I loved that I was able to drink with my mom every now and then,” Spears wrote. “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.”

08 Spears almost starred in “The Notebook”

Spears said her acting gig in the 2002 comedy-drama “Crossroads” wasn’t easy because of “what acting did to my mind.” Despite that, Spears was offered another major acting role in one of Nicholas Sparks’ film adaptations:

“‘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,” Spears explained. “If I had, instead of working on my album ‘In the Zone’ I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night.”

"The Woman in Me" is slated to be released on October 24.