Britney Spears will release her tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me on 24 October, the publisher announced on Tuesday.
The Woman in Me will be “a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope”, according to a press release from Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, which acquired the memoir in a bidding war.
The release date and title, first reported by People, comes more than a year and a half since Spears landed a purported $15m deal for a memoir covering her rise to fame, her tense relationship with her family and her experience living under a legal conservatorship for 12 years, which was terminated by a judge in 2021. The deal was “one of the biggest of all time, behind the Obamas”, according to a publishing source speaking to Page Six. The former president and first lady signed a multiple book deal with Penguin Random House in 2017 for an estimated $65m.
“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, referring to the 41-year-old pop star’s court appearance to advocate for the end of her conservatorship following a much-publicized mental health crisis in 2007.
The conservatorship under her father, Jamie Spears, was an obscure legal arrangement usually for the old or infirm that ceded control of her life and finances to her family and outside representatives. Spears’s testimony, in which she told the court “I want my life back,” as well as media attention and the #FreeBritney movement, ignited new scrutiny on the potentially exploitative arrangement.
“I have no doubt her memoir will have a similar impact – and will be the publishing event of the year,” said Bergstrom. “We couldn’t be more proud to help her share her story at last.”
Spears has previously rebuked her younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, for allegations about her mental health and behavior during the promotion of her own 2022 memoir, Things I Should Have Said. Speaking to Good Morning America, Jamie Lynn Spears alleged that Britney once locked them both in a room while holding a knife. She also claimed that her older sister screamed in her face during lockdown for Covid-19, and described her behavior as “erratic, paranoid and spiralling”.
Britney responded on Twitter that she and Jamie Lynn rarely spent time together “15 years ago” – when Britney was experiencing a very public mental health crisis – and said: “So why are they even talking about that unless she wants to sell a book at my expense?”
According to the press release, The Woman in Me promises to reveal “for the first time her incredible journey [and] strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history”, and “illuminates the enduring power of music and love – and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms”.