Pop princess Britney Spears is set to open up about her 13-year conservatorship in a multimillion-dollar book deal with publishing house Simon & Schuster.
The deal is said to be worth as much as US$15 million ($21 million), and came after a fierce bidding war between multiple publishing houses, all keen to tell Spears’ story.
The deal is one of the biggest non-fiction signings of recent times – although it falls well short of Barack and Michelle Obama’s record agreement, secured in 2017 for a reported US$60 million ($83 million).
Spears will detail the highs and lows of her music career, her iron-clad conservatorship and troubles with her family in the upcoming memoir.
The Toxic singer was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship by her father, Jamie Spears, at the height of her career in 2007.
Her father reportedly had full control of her estate for years. Spears was prohibited from using social media, driving a car and even from remarrying.
Despite the restrictive conservatorship, Spears continued to sell millions of albums, tour the globe and perform at her Las Vegas residency.
In a 2021 court hearing, she told a judge that her conservators forced her to work, despite her pleas for a break.
“I just want my life back,” Spears testified.
Her father was suspended as the head of the conservatorship in September, and the conservatorship was terminated by Judge Brenda Penny in November.
Earlier this year, Spears’ younger sister, former Nickelodeon star Jamie-Lynn, released a memoir of her own, Things I Should Have Said, in which she detailed her perspective of her sister’s conservatorship.
In the book, Jamie-Lynn alleged that Britney once grabbed a knife and locked them in a room together when they were young.
The allegations and promotions for the book sparked an ugly feud between the two sisters, with Britney calling her sister “scum” and slamming her comments in a series of social media posts.
“You’ve stooped to a whole new level of LOW,” she tweeted. “Please stop with these crazy lies for the Hollywood books.”
Tweet from @britneyspears
The book deal comes at a time of new beginnings for Spears. Late last year, she also announced her engagement to long-time partner Sam Asghari.
Earlier this month, Spears also hinted that more music was on the way, writing that “this is a tease of what’s to come”.
Late last week it also emerged that Spears and her lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, had been invited to testify before Congress about the state of guardianships and conservatorships in the US.
The singer is yet to comment publicly on the book.
