There was over 100 paparazzi following Britney,
trying to find her.
I pulled up to a gas station and lo and behold, there's Britney.
She had her wig off and she was bald, so I went up to her door.
Are you doing OK? I'm concerned about you.
Britney was very upset and pissed off.
And then at the very end, Ali, her cousin says,
"Guys, please don't. This is not good."
Guys, please, please. Guys, don't do this.
It's Britney, bitch.
This picture was really hard to look at.
What has she lost? She's lost her sanity.
CROWD: Free Britney now!
Her family put her into a form of jail.
The level of abuse ran really deep.
'I told the whole world I'm OK and I'm happy.
'It's a lie because I've been in denial.
'I've been in shock, I am traumatised.'
# Cameras are flashing by
# While we're dirty dancing
# They keep watching
# Keep watching
# Gimme, gimme, more
# Gimme more, gimme, gimme more
# Gimme, gimme, more... #
She was so naive, so innocent.
# A centre of attention... #
I think she looks nervous.
Scared.
Like she's doing something that she doesn't want to be doing.
# You get me in a crazy position... #
They just looked me in the eye and they said, "Are you a paedophile?"
# We can get down like there's no-one around... #
I've had my own personal concert with Britney.
So I just won't forget that.
# Cameras are flashing while we're dirty dancing
# They keep watching, keep watching... #
We're looking down as she's lying in bed.
So immediately that puts the viewer into the position of the lover.
# Gimme, gimme more, gimme more
# Gimme, gimme more
# Gimme, gimme more... #
She's our Britney doll. Like a Barbie to play with.
And we get frustrated with her when she demonstrates free will.
# Bet you didn't see this one coming
# The Incredible Lago
# The legendary Miss Britney Spears. #
The last time I was here was in January 1999.
I was working for People magazine when I photographed Britney
for her first home take that was ever done.
Nobody knew Britney Spears then
because her album was coming out that next week.
Lisa Means was the first photographer to be given access
to the Spears family home just before the release
of Britney's first album - Baby One More Time.
Kentwood is very rural.
A very typical small town in Louisiana.
There's a saying that there's a church on every corner in the South.
And here's the Baptist church she went to.
We kind of bonded over the fact
that I grew up in the Baptist church as well.
# When I look at you, I feel a warm feeling inside... #
Britney graduated from the church choir
to become a child star on TV in Disney's Mickey Mouse Club
alongside Justin Timberlake...
# I wouldn't lie to you, baby... #
..Ryan Gosling...
Your mum is so strict. That's nothing.
Excuse me. What's hanky panky?
..and Christina Aguilera,
before signing with Jive Records in 1997 when she was just 15.
Back then, though, the little town of Kentwood was still home.
We're going toward Britney's house that she grew up in,
which wasn't anything fancy.
Not like what she probably lives in now.
A lot of photographers push the limits
and maybe they get an outstanding shot,
but I want to treat people with respect and that courtesy.
And I think that's why they were so welcoming and warming.
This is the image that actually started the story
for Britney and People magazine.
Britney standing on top of her brother.
And he just laid there and she said, "Yeah, I'm really strong!"
So she flexed her muscles.
It was a... really quite a special moment.
She would tell me how she would sing all over the house
when she was younger, and she was pursuing a dream that...
..a lot of little girls have.
So this is quite a sweet photograph
and it's giving you a sense of her background.
So we've got this sense of her being from,
you know, a fairly normal family.
And all of these brown tones suggest that the family
is drawing from this rather 1970s aesthetic.
And she appears to be completely unstyled in it.
So she's wearing trousers, which don't fit her particularly well.
So they're looking all kind of rumpled.
It's really wholesome.
She's got this slight boyishness to her.
There's this idea that she's got this closeness to her family.
She very much seems like an everyday small town girl.
Jenny Eliscu is a music journalist who interviewed Britney
from the beginning of her career and grew close to the young star.
I think that Britney having a girl next door image
is a huge part of what kicked things off early on.
And truly her authentic self is shining through.
And she has always been in all of my encounters with her
just the sweetest, most down to earth person.
Britney's mum Lynne, and her little sister, Jamie Lynn,
were also photographed by Lisa.
Here's another image.
It was never published in People, but I really enjoy it.
Britney and younger sister Jamie Lynn.
I think she was about seven when this was taken.
They said, "Can we jump on the trampoline?"
And I was like, "Yes, that would be perfect."
The family was very warm, very generous,
very excited about the opportunity
to share part of their lives and be a part of it.
The photo shoot was a turning point for the family,
who had heavily invested in Britney's singing
and dancing lessons, even when money was tight.
During this early era of Britney's career,
her mum was the one who took her to all the stuff
and was almost a manager, like what we call a stage mum.
She was there to help Britney live her dream of becoming a performer.
This also didn't get published.
It's not one that's ever been seen by anyone.
They wanted to go get some ice cream,
so we went to the local drive in place.
I was smushed in the back of the truck to get the images,
so it was kind of challenging too.
But Jason is driving, a childhood friend, and Courtney.
I think this is her cousin here.
And we just had so much fun.
They were singing to Madonna and Britney was like,
"I hope I get to meet her one day."
And we were all like, "Oh, that would be really cool."
She was so naive, so innocent.
And I don't mean naive in a bad way.
I mean it in a really good way.
Didn't understand what was about ready to come.
And I don't think I did either.
Nobody knew if this album was going to hit like it did.
# Oh, baby, baby
# How was I supposed to know... #
Do you get up in the morning and think, I'm living the dream of every young school girl,
and I've got a number one album and single. Yeah, I'm completely overwhelmed.
I get to travel and see the world.
I knew I loved the song, but I didn't know everyone else would.
A week after Lisa's shoot,
Britney's first album, Baby One More Time, was released.
It catapulted the 17-year-old to global stardom,
selling over 10 million copies in its first year.
But it was the music video,
made by British pop promo director Nigel Dick,
that turned Britney into a star overnight.
# Yeah... #
I'm now locked in with,
"Oh, you're the guy that did that Britney video."
BELL RINGS
Here she is, the biggest new thing in American music, Britney Spears.
The first idea that I came up with was rejected.
# That something wasn't right... #
But the people at the label had spoken with Britney
and she had an idea.
Could I get on a phone call with her?
She said, "I want to be dancing in a school with some cute boys."
And that was the brief.
# Oh, baby, baby
# How was I supposed to know
# That something wasn't right here? #
The teenage Britney dictated not only the location for the shoot,
but also the most controversial image of the video.
From my instruction, the wardrobe lady brought in
a bunch of tracksuit bottoms and T-shirts
and sweatshirts and whatnot.
And so we put this on Britney and she said,
"Well, wouldn't I be wearing a school uniform?"
And I'm like, "Uh-uh".
"I just don't think this is a good idea because certain people
"are going to get a certain perception about this."
# Show me how you want it to be... "
And my producer was a woman
and the label representative was also a woman.
And they both said, "Oh, I think that's a great idea."
And I was overruled.
Britney embodied the American dream
and knew how to appeal to teens everywhere.
# How was I supposed to know... #
Kevin Wu is a lifelong Britney superfan
who was instantly hooked on the video.
They played this every morning on MTV at like 6:00am in the morning
so I could watch this and go to my boring high school
fantasising that this was what high school was actually like,
which was exactly what she intended.
# Tell me baby... #
I really admire the fact that as a teenager,
she took creative control and this was what sold me on Britney Spears.
Wearing school uniform in this video,
she's not being like the little girl.
She's being the very empowered girl.
That is very much the legacy of what's been going on earlier in the 1990s.
There was this incredibly important transformation in the image of girlhood
and it was really driven by Riot Grrrl,
which was feminist, punk rock music...
..and also picked up by the Spice Girls calling for girl power.
# Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
# So tell me what you want, what you really, really want... #
Standing up to this kind of idea of women as sex objects
and very vocal about the power of the girl.
And I think the styling of this video is, I'm sure in her mind,
absolutely speaking to her generation.
What was really striking in the moment when this came out
was that immediately it was very, very sexualised.
She was leched over.
# My loneliness is killing me... #
There was a review which said,
"Britney is an artist conceived by oily old men in raincoats."
And I was at dinner with somebody that I know.
They just looked me in the eye and they said, "Are you a paedophile?"
# Hit me baby one more time. #
Everyone figured out, oh...
..part of what is gaining traction here
is this uncomfortable desire that is around her.
And so much of what's happened to her
has been because of this thing that we projected on to her
from the very beginning that we won't let go of.
Britney's schoolgirl image opened the floodgates for the media
to speculate about the 17-year-old's sex life.
Am I a virgin?
A businessman made her an indecent proposal.
$12 million, if he could become her first lover.
A bookmaker in Wales is offering 25 to one odds
that Britney Spears gets pregnant next year.
Just eight weeks after the album launch
and the first photo shoot with Lisa Means,
the celebrity photographer David LaChapelle
arrived in Kentwood for a Rolling Stone magazine feature
titled 'Inside the Heart and Bedroom of a Teen Dream'.
When we shot together, I said, "We're shooting for Rolling Stone, which has an older readership."
I said, "Let's do something for them. Let's do something a little bit more provocative."
And she was up for that. It's coming from her.
But we knew what we were doing when we did those photographs.
We knew they were going to cause a little bit of a ruckus.
I didn't quite know it was going to be that big of a ruckus.
17-year-old Britney played the role LaChapelle suggested.
She was Lolita, the girl who attracts adult desire.
Ken Johnson in The New York Times seizes on your manipulative cynicism
when you tell Britney to frolic with a Teletubby. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, there it is.
Britney's first Rolling Stone cover.
LaChapelle did his LaChapelle thing.
Afterward, her mum, Lynne, describes the cover photo
as though it was taken in Britney's bedroom
with some outrage and regret that she let the photographer and Britney
go into her room with the door closed
to do some photos that were inappropriate.
However, this photograph was taken in the living room.
And I know this because I interviewed Britney
about this specific photo,
as well as interviewing David LaChapelle about it.
And they both describe the same thing, which is that this was in the living room,
and that he had fashioned a ladder so that he could get up above
and laid down this blanket on the floor
and had the Teletubby at the ready.
And you can tell looking at it, she's laying on the floor.
You know, that seems clear once you see it.
Was Lynne there in the living room for this photo?
We don't know.
But as the person who was always the stage mum,
if anyone could have stopped it, it could have been her.
For starters, in no universe is this a teenage girl's bed.
She's there on a set of pink satin sheets,
which do not look like they've been slept in.
She's got a lot of make-up on.
She's got this incredibly impeccable, airbrushed skin.
She's got this hair that looks quite disturbing.
And in fact, it looks like plastic hair.
It's very interesting that although she's being
styled in this very grown up way,
she's also very much there with a kind of childish doll.
So she is being shown to be childlike,
to have that cute aspect to her,
at the same time that she's also being shown as sexually available.
For me, this is an image that's located in the world of soft porn.
We're looking down at Britney as she's lying in bed,
so immediately that puts the viewer into the position of the lover.
She's looking directly into your eyes and you're in a moment of intimate relation with her
because her body is very close to you
and it's very exposed and it's very vulnerable.
And it very much puts it into the tradition
of women who are presented as nudes
for enjoyment by an assumed male audience.
But then there's also this sense that she's been so manipulated
that she looks like she's a doll.
And indeed, she's a doll lying still, box fresh,
inside the satin of its presentation box.
The doll is available to be played with, to be manipulated.
She becomes this emblem for other people
to project their fantasies on to.
David LaChapelle is famous for his sensuous,
intimate photographs of celebrities.
Images that speak to the trust that his subjects have in him.
LaChapelle's photography I associate with being hyper everything.
So everything's very, very brightly coloured,
very shiny, very sexed up
and a world of high artifice and high camp as well.
So there is an extent to which he's basically co-opting Britney for his world.
So she's slid into his aesthetic here.
This photograph isn't really about her as a person.
She's conforming to his vision here.
She's kind of not the girl next door any more.
You know, to me, it looks like she's doing what they want in that respect.
But she looks a lot older,
if this was just a few months after the one I took.
But I was glad I got to see the innocence.
LaChapelle created the defining image of her
as a provocative child woman,
and Britney's music videos continued to tease and titillate.
# I think I did it again... #
She's pop's most perky performer,
more popular for her skimpy outfits than her poptastic tunes.
# Oh, baby... #
Seriously, I'm from the South. We would go outside and wash cars in our sports bras.
It's hot there, you know? It's not something that it's like, "Ooh!"
But as Britney's image veered from innocent to sexualised,
it became increasingly hard for her to retain control
over how she was represented.
# Ooh, baby, baby
# Oops. #
These are from the Britney shoot,
which I did in 2000 for her record company
when she was just about breaking big.
Nigel Parry has made a career of photographing global celebrities,
from David Beckham to Lady Gaga.
The images that he took of Britney were snapped up,
selling around the world.
She was just a lovely young girl, shooting to stardom and fame.
She was very down to earth.
She had that innocence about her,
which some may say was taken advantage of in the end.
I do like the composition on this one.
It'll have been my idea for her to wear the black and white
because I love huge contrasts.
And I will often tell people to open a button,
fix something in their pocket, to make them not feel like a statue.
But I had no idea what was going to be done to the white jacket later on.
All right, well, this is GQ magazine.
Around here, as you can see, they've undone the buttons,
they were closed up to here,
and then enhanced certain things about her body.
In other words, they've given her a big cleavage and a big set of boobs.
And it's really quite different from the actual image.
# Superstar, where you from, how's it going... #
Dylan Jones was the editor of GQ magazine
when Nigel's image was used for a cover story
and Nigel says was photoshopped without his consent.
So this is the June 2000 issue of GQ with Britney on the cover.
And I think she was a very one dimensional pop star.
The headline is 'Thank heaven for little girls.'
I think probably she was given more cleavage.
Even then it was slightly distasteful, but that's what Britney was selling.
That was the point of Britney. That was the package.
Oh, my God, that's just creepy.
That's so gross.
It makes her look like she's got absolutely huge breasts.
That she's undoing her shirt in order to show to the camera.
It's so revolting and such an appalling manipulation.
It really speaks to the culture of the moment.
I would say this is like a dark era for women.
I'm fairly certain we would have cleared that
with Britney's management.
Certainly, my recollection is that everything was done
with everyone's approval.
I was sad to see that they'd done it
and then even more sad to hear the phone calls from her agent
and from the record company who were livid
and assumed that I'd done that.
And, erm, I hadn't.
I think at the time, everybody needed a bigger cleavage.
That was the time.
You're going to get me cancelled.
# All your people look at me like I'm a little girl
# Well, did you ever think it'd be OK for me to step into this world? #
No matter who was really in control of her image,
Britney seemed unstoppable.
She was by now setting records
as the fastest selling female artist in America.
And she hit peak Britney on the 28th of August 2003
as her childhood dreams came true...
# Everybody comes to Hollywood... #
..and she shared a stage with her idol, Madonna,
at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Actor comedian Kalen Allen is a regular at the event.
The VMAs have always been known to pull a stunt.
It's where Beyonce announced her pregnancy.
That's where Lady Gaga wore the meat dress.
I remember the first time I went to the VMAs,
I was excited to be there
because I knew something crazy was going to happen.
Britney has said she went into it wanting to one up herself
and the attention she'd gotten for previous performances.
Famously, of course,
Britney had this history of the yellow snake in 2001.
# Cos you're in Hollywood You're in Hollywood... #
So now we have Madonna and we have Britney Spears.
# Hollywood... #
We have Christina Aguilera. Her two proteges almost.
A little bit of that, you know what I mean?
And you have this big moment in the conclusion.
# Could it hurt you when it looks so good... #
You have this kiss that nobody was expecting.
# Crazy... #
Who could forget this?
The famous VMAs kiss between Britney and Madonna.
The mummy pop star passing the energy to the baby pop star
is how Madonna described it to her daughter.
Britney was obsessed with Madonna.
She idolised Madonna.
So she felt 100% in on it. No regrets.
# You got that something, what can I do? #
I love it.
You know, as a queer person, I found this to be very revolutionary.
It kind of normalised it.
It kind of... It was almost political.
Her same-sex kisses has tongues wagging coast to coast.
What do you make of that? It's disrespectful.
Personally, I don't too much care for this type of stuff.
The iconography of Britney is this push and pull
between innocence and naughtiness.
And this belief that she is sweet and down to earth
with this need to have her be in trouble with us for something.
Britney! Wait! This way!
She's never not been getting in trouble with us
for something or another.
When the then governor of Maryland's wife
said she wanted to kill Britney because of her sexualised image,
Britney saw the funny side.
She's... Oh. I think I've heard this! What did she say?
That she wanted to kill you!
I feel sorry for her.
You know, seriously, she probably needs to get laid! Oh, yeah!
I mean, in a way, one of the oddest things about this photograph
is that Madonna is kissing someone who's dressed as her younger self.
# Like a virgin
# Hey
# Touched for the very first time.... #
And there is almost a sense
in which she's drawing the power of youth on to her side.
So there is that slightly kind of vampiric extraction
of fame and currency and attention that's happening,
and also of narcissism as well.
# Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh... #
In hindsight, it's Madonna smartly dipping in and out of the zeitgeist
and kind of Britney's gone because that's all Britney had.
She was just relentlessly pushing this button
of I'm young, but I'm sexy.
You could look at this picture in 20 years' time
and people will be going, "Who's that person with Madonna?"
That's what I think of that picture.
# I can't take it, take it, take no more
# Never felt like, felt like this before... #
By the early 2000s, the media landscape had evolved.
All right, guys, look out, look out! Let's go, let's go!
Cheap digital cameras now meant celebrities
could be followed round the clock by paparazzi.
Britney!
Big smile!
Britney, whose fame was at its height, was hunted down
as celebrity magazines and websites
began to offer millions for exclusive pictures.
She became their most lucrative target in LA.
During that time, there was a huge growth
in celebrity lifestyle type of magazines.
A lot of the British photographers could see that
and got themselves a US visa and moved out here.
Photographer Nick Stern joined them in LA
and was hired to follow Britney.
Hey, Britney.
When I first came out here, a lot of the paparazzi photographers
were previously taxi drivers or construction workers.
Guys! Guys! Back up!
They saw a way to make money
and sometimes a lot of money very quickly.
This is Ventura Boulevard, which is generally referred to as the Valley.
And a lot of Britney's running around was done in this part of town.
Hey, Snoop, open the door!
You would have had as many as 30 or 40 cars
absolutely causing mayhem here at this junction.
The driving was downright illegal.
I saw cars driving on the wrong side of the street, jumping red lights.
Accidents were regular here.
One car might be there with a sole purpose
of trying to block other photographers...
Hey, watch it, watch it.
..so that their agency guys could get the exclusive pictures.
# I can't take it, take it, take no more
# Never felt like, felt like this before... #
There was cars attacked with baseball bats.
There was tyres slashed. There was windows broken.
It was pretty dog eat dog then.
When you have this type of celebrity
to where you can't just even do the most mundane things,
like you can't go to a grocery store, it is incredibly lonely.
This way, Britney!
Look out, guys. Over here, Britney!
Because the moment you slip, they will tear you down.
When do you want to get married?
Did you hire a photographer yet, Britney?
Paparazzi attention became feverish
when she began dating one of her backing dancers, Kevin Federline.
Out the way. Clear the way. Excuse me. Clear the way.
Within months, they'd married,
and by 2005, Britney's image had been transformed
from sexually available pop princess to wife and mother.
Did you happen to see that photo of Britney Spears
taking her baby son's life in her hands?
When she fled from paparazzi with her baby on her lap,
she was officially cast in her new role of 'Bad Mum'.
Britney was being followed by photographers in New York in 2006
when she stumbled for a second in the street.
The image was used as more proof by the media
that she was an unfit mother.
Britney retreated to a cafe to try and hide with her son.
Oh.
This picture is really hard to look at. Erm...
It instantly... I just... I barely saw it and I knew what it was.
It's a photo of Britney and her first-born baby.
I believe that's Preston.
Leanne Simmons was nine-years-old
when she first saw Britney in concert.
This was, I think, when it really started to get really dark,
the way that the public was treating Britney.
And she's not only being photographed by photographers outside in the street,
but people inside of this restaurant.
To see a young mum with a baby...
..seeking solace in a diner and just...
She's so emotional in it that that's what brings me to tears,
because I can only imagine what she felt like in that moment
and how alone she felt.
This is a really...
..horrible photo on many, many levels.
We can see her face is looking really upset
and she's looking dishevelled.
So this 100%, you can tell just by looking at it,
is a photograph that was taken without her consent.
So the great image that we have of the mother and child
that's come down to us through art history is the Madonna and Child.
And of course, it presents a completely impossible ideal.
Young, virginal, devoted, self-sacrificing.
And in reality, motherhood doesn't look like that.
It doesn't feel like that.
And what we seldom see, certainly in art history,
is the mother that's not flourishing,
the mother that's having a bad time.
So it's only really as you start to come into the 1960s and '70s
that you get images of what the real experience of motherhood is like.
Where you're really, you know,
juggling between your love for the child,
but also you're feeling that you're unable to cope.
Britney was labelled not just as an unfit mother,
but increasingly as white trash.
Look at Britney.
That whole picture of her
is giving you a new definition of what not to wear.
Britney makes trailer parks look trashy!
I want to give this woman a hug. It's a tough one to look at.
Unfortunately, in our society and our culture it's easy to...
..vilify a mother,
especially with Britney being the worldwide phenomenon that she was.
I think she was unfairly held to a much higher standard
than the average person would have been.
But you really do see the love that she has for her son.
Britney's image was being relentlessly exploited by paparazzi,
but their information often came from those who were closest to her.
You know, we would get information and they would tell us,
"Hey, Britney's going to be here at this time at this place."
So we were always getting tips.
Please, stop it!
Leave me alone!
And Jamie, Britney's dad, would give out some information to us
and tell us where Britney's going to be at.
Daniel Ramos was a videographer working for the X17 agency
and filming Britney in 2007,
the year that her relationship with Kevin Federline was collapsing
and a custody battle was beginning for their two children.
And increasingly, Britney's own relationship
with these photographers had become complicated.
You, come here! You!
There were times where she would invite us to her home.
But she would only allow one car and all the paparazzi
would have to jump in one car and leave all the camera gear
and their phones in the trunk.
She eventually started dating a paparazzo guy.
So to us, I didn't know whether she was coming or going.
You know, it was just very confusing.
Are you guys dating or what?
As Britney began dating paparazzo Adnan Ghalib,
there were rumours that she might have fallen pregnant again.
Who's your new boyfriend, Britney?
That was all the buzz. Is she pregnant? Isn't she pregnant?
People trying to get a picture of any kind of bump that she may or may not have.
And I saw these magazines and they said I was pregnant.
And, like, it's so true.
Like, America, believe everything you read
because, like, you're smart and I'm stupid.
And then Britney was out and about one day
and a photographer had gotten his camera with a short lens
and did what they call an upskirt shot.
He'd gotten his camera, pointed up her skirt like that,
and there was blood from her period on her underwear.
The agency sold that picture with a caption,
'Britney is not pregnant - period.'
And I just thought that was absolutely disgraceful.
But also, I could see that Britney was experiencing
some form of mental breakdown.
She looked like a very frightened, very injured animal.
Get off the street! You're breaking the law!
Get off the street! Get up!
I emailed the agent saying, "Please do not put me on Team Britney again."
And I quit.
Within a few months,
speculation about her mental health had reached fever pitch
when Britney popped into an LA hair salon
and reached for the clippers.
So whether shaving her head is a form of liberation or really just a meltdown,
it's clear that Britney Spears is displaying some pretty strange behaviour.
How concerned should we be for her poor kids? I mean, she has two babies.
This is a very serious situation.
You have someone desperately ill and who could even be in a dangerous situation.
In 2007, that infamous night of the umbrella attack,
she came out of rehab
and a lot of things were happening in Britney's life.
There was over 100 paparazzis trying to find her,
but a lot of people didn't know about Britney Spears' cousin Ali,
that was driving a white Mercedes.
So when Roberto of X17 spotted that white Mercedes,
he called me and right away and said,
"Danno, you need to come help me out. I need your video."
Because he does photos. That's big money.
Especially at that time when she shaved her hair and she was wearing a pink wig.
When I followed her, Roberto said, "We're going into a gas station."
And I pulled up right at the same time
that Ali went inside to the store and lo and behold, there's Britney.
And she took off...
She had her wig off, the pink wig, and she was bald.
How are you doing? You doing OK?
I'm concerned about you, though, OK?
Roberto's taking pictures
because that was the money shot was to get her without the wig.
Britney's cousin gets back in the car
and they go to Kevin Federline's house,
where her two kids are at.
And Britney has been wanting to see her kids for a while
and Kevin was not having it and was not going to let her in.
We kept on following and then at the very end,
that's where she stops at the Jiffy Lube, this oil change place.
Britney was very upset and pissed off, so I went up to her door.
Ali, her cousin, says, "Guys, please don't. This is not good.
Please guys, don't do this.
That's when Britney grabbed the umbrella from the back of her car
and she was hitting my truck.
This is actually the photo that Roberto took
and she was really trying to break the windshield.
And this is actually the umbrella that Britney, erm, left behind.
Once she saw the flashes going off of Roberto's camera,
she just swung the umbrella and hit him.
When she knew she hit him, she dropped the umbrella
and ran back to the car, waiting for her.
Oh!
Damn! That's where she got you with the umbrella.
When I look at this photo right now
and I've been looking at it throughout the years now,
I mean, I feel bad.
I really do feel bad, sincerely.
She gave me an apology for hitting my truck with the umbrella and hitting Roberto.
But I'm sorry to her too as well for not leaving her alone.
Britney was now mocked and humiliated on national television,
even on the popular game show Family Feud.
Name something Britney Spears has lost in the past year.
Her hair. Her hair. There it is.
She's lost her sanity.
Her underwear.
All right, her hair, her mind, her marriage.
There you have it. All right.
This is really a moment where she's said in a very public way,
I'm not going to conform to the image of me
that you've created any more.
And we associate the shaved head in women particularly with punk,
and with this idea that you're not going to conform to, you know,
stereotypical femininity and sexual availability.
And at the moment with Britney, where she's really trying
to no longer perform as a kind of sexy doll any more.
To remove that projection, that then opens her up to,
"Well, then, she must be a crazy woman."
This really is her saying, "I don't want to play any more."
I would say this is one of the most misunderstood photos of Britney.
Meg Radford has been a fan of Britney since childhood.
I think this was one of the first moments
of Britney rebelling from the machine
because she was saying, you can't prop me up if I'm not pretty.
I don't understand how so many people
didn't see that this was a woman who was having a hard time,
who needed support, and who, we collectively,
made it much worse for because of the way that we treated her.
Britney Spears has done it again.
Early Thursday night, police were called to Spears' Los Angeles home
because Britney would not turn over her two sons to ex-husband K-Fed.
It ended with a hysterical Spears
taken to LA's Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre
for a mental evaluation
because she could be a danger to herself and others.
In the years leading up to this time,
a lot of people saw Britney publicly behaving
in ways that were cause for concern.
The reason they took her here instead of Cedars-Sinai, where she was last taken,
is reportedly because her psychiatrist was treating her for bipolar disorder.
By the time the second hospitalisation happened,
the wheels had already been set in motion by her family
to get this kind of legal guardianship over her.
Britney's family has been working to get her under psychiatric care.
This was carefully orchestrated.
I think by that point the toothpaste was out of the tube
in terms of everyone seeing her as a mess and out of control.
And that has been the narrative that has haunted her ever since.
Give me three feet, boy. Give me three feet.
I mean it, right now. Three feet.
Britney's family pushed through a legal arrangement
known as a conservatorship, which gave her father, Jamie,
unprecedented control of her finances, personal life and career.
Three feet or five feet?
Her parents had kind of a turbulent relationship during her childhood.
Jamie, her dad, is an alcoholic.
And so there was a lot of chaos.
Right here, Jamie!
And a lot of bullying.
Britney was blocked from hiring her own lawyers
because she was deemed to be mentally incapable of making that choice.
Jenny Eliscu met her in secret in a hotel bathroom
to try and help in January 2009.
I knew that she was scared of her father,
that she didn't want him to be the one in charge of her.
I agreed to meet up with her
so that she could sign legal paperwork saying,
I want to choose my lawyer and I've chosen this person.
It was a very sort of high intrigue, espionage type feeling situation.
Paperwork was submitted and her team claimed it was a forgery.
It was, you know, pretty devastating.
# Look at you, getting more than just a re-up... #
For a decade, from 2008 to 2018, Britney seemed to conform.
# I call them like I see them
# I know what you are, what you are, baby... #
# Oops, I did it again... #
She was glossy and polished again,
every performance perfectly choreographed
as she earned millions.
# You better work, bitch... #
But as she performed her Piece Of Me residency in Vegas,
some felt her lyrics sent a message.
# You better work, bitch, you better work, bitch... #
And you seem in a in a really good place right now. Would that be a safe thing to say?
Yes, sir. OK, so you're pretty happy. Pretty solid. Yes. That's good to know.
You know you have millions of fans around the world. I know you know that.
But I hope you know that they feel, erm, love to you.
They feel protective of you. I feel for them as well.
CHEERING
But in 2018, she finally rebelled in public
when she was on stage in Las Vegas.
Oh.
The infamous Britney Spears Vegas residency announcement.
Yep, I was there. I was hosting this.
Probably one of the most confusing, unorganised nights of my career.
She had just finished Piece of Me residency,
which was absolutely ultra successful.
And then Britney said that there was going to be an announcement in Vegas
with a whole new residency, so then that's when I was asked to cover it.
Hello world!
We are live in Las Vegas for an announcement
that you are not ready for everybody. Yes!
CHEERING
This event I was so excited for.
I remember exactly where I was when I watched it because it was live streaming on YouTube.
I did think it was weird.
I was like, she just did a four year residency.
Like, why is she doing another one again?
But I was like, well, I guess she wants to.
# There's no more waiting Tonight is the night... #
The Britney fans have been there all day.
Everybody's kind of just in the moment
expecting something gag worthy.
Y'all excited?
CHEERING
Oh, yeah, baby. Now listen. She's coming.
It's about to happen down in Las Vegas.
MUSIC
And she comes out.
She waves.
Ladies and gentlemen, Britney Spears!
She says hello to everybody.
Pyrotechnics. Britney domination.
Everybody loves it.
Here she comes. She's coming down the stairs.
After this, I think it was supposed to be an interview.
I was supposed to ask her a couple of questions.
We were supposed to chat about the residency and if she was excited.
# You better work, bitch
# You want to live fancy... #
So this was the moment that I knew something was wrong
because her body language was very off.
I think she looks nervous, scared,
like she's doing something that she doesn't want to be doing.
She's being paraded around like...
..she's not a real human.
# You better work, bitch... #
She was just being directed on how to do everything.
# Now, get to work, bitch... #
I was like, I don't think she wants to do this.
It doesn't feel like this is her choice, you know what I mean?
Next thing I know, she says, "Bye."
That's not what was supposed to happen.
There's no speech.
And you can tell that the handler is talking to her.
And there's clearly a moment where she's like, "No more."
# You want a hot body... #
Nobody knew what was happening.
And I remember a lot of the fans being like, "Is she coming back?"
Asking me. And I'm like, "Honey, I don't know."
# Sip martinis... #
I'm looking, trying to see if she's coming back?
Look, do I talk now? What's happening?
And then she literally just walked down a runway
and got into a car and left.
And it was, like, very confusing and concerning.
And I was worried.
Bye!
Hey!
Oh.
Yeah, that was a rough one. That was a rough one.
This is rooted on reclaiming autonomy.
I'm done.
I have done this for many years. I want my life back.
She felt like she never got to live or a break, you know?
We've seen that for many people. It's happened to Mariah.
It's happened to Whitney. And this goes back way...
If we even want to go way back in time, talk about Judy Garland.
In January 2019, Britney's management officially announced
the cancellation of the new Vegas residency
and an indefinite work hiatus.
Britney had denied the conservatorship
the use of her image or her voice
and alleged in court that she was then forced to take lithium
after she refused to continue working.
She said no to this,
and they put her into a facility to drug her against her will.
And so, I don't know, I just I think it's all really sick.
And this photo just makes me feel really sad
for the little girl inside Britney
who isn't getting to make her own decisions about her own life.
To find out later that they were using her kids to control her
and that if she didn't do what they wanted,
that they would take away her access to them, it's sick.
CROWD: Free Britney now! Free Britney now!
What do we want? Free Britney! When do we want it? Now!
As word of Britney's refusal to continue performing spread,
the Free Britney movement was galvanised,
a citizen's army determined to challenge the conservatorship.
Protests began in earnest in 2019.
Your family puts you in this legally binding form of jail,
in a lot of ways.
It was just such a sham and a way to control her and her money
and a way to make her as profitable as possible for them.
They controlled all of her finances, so she got a weekly allowance.
I mean, I just think it ran really deep,
the level of control and manipulation and abuse.
Who's running this ship?
Her brother, Bryan, gave a rare and revealing interview on a podcast,
offering his view on the family dynamics behind the conservatorship.
The women in this family are very, very strong minded
and have their own opinion, and they want to do what they want to do.
And as much as I admire that as a guy
and being like one of two guys in this entire family,
it kind of sucks, man, I'm not going to lie.
In 2021, Britney herself spoke to the Los Angeles court
to try to end the conservatorship.
I told the whole world I'm OK and I'm happy.
It's a lie because I've been in denial.
I've been in shock. I am traumatised.
My dad and anyone involved in this conservatorship
and my management, they should be in jail.
She spoke so clearly and eloquently. It was like...
I was bawling, listening to it. I was just like, what the heck?
And then November 12th, 2021,
finally, Britney was freed from her conservatorship.
What's next for Britney,
and this is the first time this could be said for about a decade,
is up to one person - Britney.
CHEERING
Meg, Kevin and Leanne were the organisers of the LA protests.
There were so many people... I know. ..just flooding the streets.
We had this entire street shut down.
What a day. Oh, my gosh.
I'm getting goose bumps because this was the time it finally happened.
People just cheering and hugging. Strangers hugging. People... Crying so much.
There wasn't a stranger there because we were all there for the same reason.
It was... It was a really magical day. Magical is the right word.
You can see all the confetti, all the happy smiles.
That's so beautiful.
This image with the figure of Britney held aloft
with this ecstatic crowd behind her
immediately makes me think of images of Semana Santa,
the week of the saints.
Religious devotees carrying aloft statues of saints
in religious processions around Easter time.
This has very much got that quality of a kind of religious icon to it.
The success of the Free Britney movement
in galvanising that public outcry so that the very same judge
who'd been rubber stamping this for years finally stopped doing that.
But I think all credit for that goes to Free Britney.
I'm proud of them and I'm proud of Britney for surviving.
I mean, that's the biggest thing to be proud of.
The conservatorship ended in 2021 and Britney is free,
but she has retreated from the world and stopped performing live...
..occasionally still making headlines for the wrong reasons.
But in the vacuum that's been left,
it's now the fans and not photographers
who are creating their own images to honour their idol.
I think this was generated by AI.
I would imagine.
You haven't seen it? No. Oh, I'm on Twitter too much!
This is Rio, where in place of Christ the Redeemer,
it's a ginormous statue of Britney Spears
from the 2001 VMAs, which is my favourite look of hers.
Me too. Your tattoo. Oh, yeah.
I have a tattoo of that, look. I can moisturise it!
She's holding Banana the snake.
Love Banana.
He's still alive, right? Yeah. Yeah. Last I heard. Yeah.
Your Banana the snake update! He was still alive!
I mean, it's kind of magnificent in a way,
because instead of having this very stern icon of Christ overlooking the city,
you've got Britney in all her glory.
And I'm sure it's intended as a great celebration,
but it's also quite terrifying, the idea of being this kind of,
you know, the giant emblem on the hill that everybody looks up to.
How can anybody live up to that perfection and that level of scrutiny?
Celebrity becomes the kind of modern religion.
And we create these celebrity icons,
and then we project all of our needs and our desires
and our hopes on to them.
The danger really is that as a celebrity
who has all of that projected on to you,
you don't get to be yourself.
You can only be that kind of available vessel
for other people's fantasies.
And I'm going to be so honest with you.
I think...
I think maybe what fans are struggling with
is that yes, they have freed Britney,
but I think what they thought was going to happen
is that she was still going to be the Britney that they remembered.
And I don't think that is possible.
I think this Britney is figuring out who she is
without being a pop star and what that looks like.
And I think the reason why these AI images are created
and why the fans do this is because they still want her to be what she used to be.
And that's just not how evolution or liberation works.