Britney may be back – but her demons haven’t gone away. And no one knows that better than her mother, Lynne, as she reveals in this frank interview.
There was a point, admits Lynne Spears, mother of Britney, when she toyed with the idea of calling her autobiography It’s All My Fault. ‘I can laugh about it now, but did I feel that way at the time? Yes, I did and, if I’m being totally honest, I still do,’ she says.
Lynne is referring to her daughter’s all-too-public meltdown last year, when she sank from America’s sweetheart to public enemy number one, seemingly intent on destroying herself and everything around her.
‘When her life was such a success, what did she need me for? And when things took a turn for the worse, I was out, because other people – dancers, managers – were closer to her, and with her day and night. Being a mother, you can’t help but have regrets about what you did and didn’t do for your kids, and I’m no different,’ admits Lynne.
…It must have been hard to see her daughter wrenched from her young children, but Lynne has nothing but praise for their father, Kevin Federline. ‘He has been real good with Britney, and doesn’t want to keep the kids from her at all,’ she says, adding that Britney’s access rights translate in real terms to ‘getting to see the kids almost any time she wants’.
‘He’s not a bad guy and he has a good heart. I would have chosen a prince or a state governor for her, but Kevin’s worked a lot to help out, and I can’t say anything bad about him.’
Lynne, 53, has been painted over the years as the hard-nosed architect of Britney’s fame, pushing her off to dancing and singing lessons as a young girl, desperate for superstardom. It’s an image that clearly rankles.
‘I was never a stage mum and never Britney’s manager. What really gets me about that stage mum thing is that, in this business, it’s customary for the mother to take five per cent, but I never did, even when times were bad and our family needed the money.
Jamie [Britney's father] and I both said that we never wanted to be her managers; we just wanted to be parents. I was never in the driver’s seat as far as Britney’s career goes.’
…By the time Britney was 11, she was a star of Disney’s popular Mickey Mouse Club TV series. Many claimed that Britney’s escalating fame was a godsend to her parents, who were teetering financially, but Lynne is indignant at the suggestion.
‘It cost a lot to send Britney to classes and competitions, and by the time she made it to the Mickey Mouse Club, what she made barely paid for the apartment we stayed in [in Florida], and with living expenses, too, it actually cost us money. But she really wanted to do it and we weren’t going to stop her.’
In retrospect, does Lynne sometimes wish that she had said no to all the aspirations of her daughter? ‘Well, that’s unrealistic,’ she says. ‘You don’t tell your child, “You can’t play football because you might get into steroids one day”, because you just don’t foresee those problems. Even if I had said no to Britney, maybe worse things might have happened because she was frustrated and couldn’t fulfil her dreams.’
In January of this year, Jamie was awarded ‘legal conservatorship’ over his daughter, giving him control over Britney’s personal and business affairs. Lynne and Jamie divorced six years ago after 27 years of marriage, but on this course of action they were united.
‘I admire Jamie for making the effort and trying to do it well,’ says Lynne. ‘We decided he should be the one to do it, because he’s the stronger figure. Mums always give in to their kids because we’re softies, and what Britney needed at the time was the stronger person.’
But Jamie, too, has had his problems. He has battled with an addiction to alcohol, though he has now been sober for five years. ‘We all had reservations at first,’ admits Lynne, ‘and we all worried that the stresses of such a major undertaking would affect them both. But Jamie’s really doing well with Britney, and I must give him credit for that.’
By all accounts, Mr Spears is no slouch on the disciplining front, apparently drawing up a list of rules with which his 27-year-old daughter must comply, including no emailing or driving. And no exceeding the £750 a month allowance he gives her. ‘She was spending a lot of money, so that would make sense,’ says Lynne.
‘Jamie’s real gruff sometimes, but he’s been a disciplinarian when it was needed. He’s always adored his children, but when they were younger, he was so distracted with work and was drinking heavily, so they maybe didn’t bond like they should have done.’
Of Britney’s recent liaison with British paparazzo Adnan Ghalib (who at one point reportedly sold semi-naked pictures of Britney for around £25,000), Lynne remains tightlipped. ‘Did I think it seemed right that they were seeing each other? Oh, no. But when I met him, Sam Lufti [Britney's former manager] was also around, and Adnan was definitely the better of the two. But Adnan’s out of her life now,’ Lynne adds, with some relief.
As terrible as it must have been for Lynne to witness Britney’s plight, the most difficult chapters for her to write in her book were those concerning her youngest daughter Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy at the age of 16, and the birth of her baby daughter, who is now six months old.
Jamie Lynn followed Britney into showbusiness by starring in children’s TV show Zoey 101, and when the story of her pregnancy broke, the critics were quick to blame Lynne.
‘With Britney, everything had always been out there in the public domain,’ she says. ‘So, even if I wasn’t used to the pain, I was still used to those things happening. But with Jamie Lynn it was so different. I couldn’t believe that my studious, perfect little girl had got herself pregnant. I just went into shock. But she’s doing great now, and is a wonderful mum to Maddie Briann.’
Have Jamie Lynn and her boyfriend Casey Aldridge set a wedding date? ‘No, but Jamie Lynn will do the right thing at the right time.’ Does that involve having more children? ‘Oh, no, definitely not,’ says Lynne, horrified. ‘I think it took that one time to make her grow up and realise her responsibilities.
It’s about time Lynne Spears stepped up and took some accountability for what’s happened to her daughter. Clearly, her biggest mistake wasn’t getting her child into show business, but instead, it was failing to teach young Britney the basics of being a holistic, independent human being. All she ever knew how to do was be a star- she never learned anything else, especially how to be a decent parent or responsible adult.
It’s interesting that those close to Britney, and Britney herself, still have not mentioned anything about her being mentally ill in any way. Most of us just assume that there must have been some kind of mental illness at work, what with the pink wig and the Brown Boots and the British accent and the car accidents and so on. But it’s never been confirmed. The only thing that’s been publicly disclosed was the court’s assessment that she was a “habitual substance abuser.”
