Britney Spears is speaking out about her past and addressing a 2003 interview with Diane Sawyer in which the journalist grilled Spears on topics that had her in tears. There have been calls for Sawyer to apologize.
"Do we dare forget the Diane Sawyer interview in my apartment almost 20 years ago?" Spears wrote Monday in a now-deleted post, screengrabs of which were made available by People. "What was with the 'You're in the wrong' approach?? Geeze... and making me cry???"
Spears wrote that she had "lived" in her apartment for a year not speaking to "anyone" until the interview.
"My manager put that woman in my home and made me talk to her on national television and she asked if I had a shopping problem!!! when did I have a shopping problem?" she wrote, according to People.
In the 2003 interview, ABC News' Sawyer pushed the then-22-year-old Spears about her recent breakup with Justin Timberlake, among other topics. The pop icon had been tight-lipped about their breakup but Timberlake had commented on it and made a music video implying that Britney had cheated on him.
"You broke his heart," Sawyer said to a teary-eyed Spears. "You did something that caused him so much pain, so much suffering. What did you do?"
In her now-deleted Instagram post, Spears said the breakup left her "in shock," adding that she "never spoke to anyone for a very long time" after.
"Something I never shared when I had that break up years ago was that I couldn't talk afterward," she wrote via People, before adding, "I was in shock... pretty lame of my dad and three men to show up at my door when I could hardly speak... two days later they put Diane Sawyer in my living room... they forced me to talk!"
In a statement to People, however, the "Toxic" singer’s father, Jamie Spears, had his lawyer Alex Weingarten deny Jamie Spears' involvement in the interview, saying he was "completely uninvolved" in its planning.
"Mr. Spears has no idea what Ms. Spears is talking about. Jamie never set up any interview with Diane Sawyer and was not present for any such interview," the statement read. "He had nothing to do with Britney's career at this point and was completely uninvolved in this interview. Jamie loves Britney very much, wishes Britney nothing but the best and hopes that she continues to seek the help that she needs to stay safe and healthy."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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