After 13 years in a controversial conservatorship that she claims stripped her of basic human rights - it’s no surprise Britney Spears wants to tell her own story on her own terms. Having famously turned down high profile interviews with Oprah, the global pop star will, instead, be releasing a tell-all memoir titled “The Woman in Me” on October 24.
“Okay guys so my book is coming out very, very soon. I worked my ass off for this book. I had a lot of therapy to get this book done so that you guys better like it,” she said in one of her signature dancing Instagram videos. She also posted a teaser video that revealed the memoir’s black-and-white cover with the words: “It’s coming, my story, on my terms… at last,” written in a pastel pink across the video.
The Toxic hitmaker first announced that she was writing a book in April 2022 after landing a $22 million deal with Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. According to a source speaking to Page Six, the deal was “one of the biggest of all time, behind the Obamas,” who signed a record-breaking $65 million multiple book deal with Penguin in 2017.
I have no doubt her memoir will have a similar impact — and will be the publishing event of the year
Of course, the hefty paycheck is understandable. The memoir – which has been described as “a story about freedom fame, motherhood, survival, faith and hope” – will document the 13 years that Spears lived under a court-ordered conservatorship as enforced by her father, Jamie, which the singer said “literally killed me” and that it “felt like my family threw me away”. Apart from a 22 minute audio message that Spears posted to social media last summer, this will be the first time she has talked about conservatorship after it ended in November 2021, thanks to the fan-led #FreeBritney movement.
“Britney’s compelling testimony in open court shook the world, changed laws, and showed her inspiring strength and bravery,” Jennifer Bergstrom, Gallery Books Senior Vice President and Publisher, told PEOPLE. “I have no doubt her memoir will have a similar impact — and will be the publishing event of the year. We couldn’t be more proud to help her share her story at last.”
It will also examine her neck-breakingly fast rise to international pop stardom at just 16 years old, as well as her life as one of the most photographed, headline-generating, women in the world.
According to reports, Spears finished writing the book last July but was held back by a paper shortage in the publishing industry and two unnamed A-listers pushing back against their portrayal. Considering the 41-year-old is still entangled in legal battles with her father, who is requesting that she continue to pay his legal fees, and her notoriously fractious relationship with her younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, there’s plenty of heat attached to the book already.
But the press release has been quick to point out that the book represents “the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms”, which is a privilege Spears, like anyone, deserves.
