Britney Spears’ parents forced her to “clean up garbage like a prisoner” as punishment for skipping school to spend time with her boyfriend.
The 41-year-old pop superstar has revealed she used to leave school early when she was a teenager to spend the afternoons with the 17-year-old boy she lost her virginity to when she was 14, but he was best friends with her brother Bryan who reported Britney’s behaviour to their parents Jamie and Lynne.
In her new memoir ‘The Woman In Me’, she explained: “I would go to school like normal at 7 a.m. but leave at lunchtime, around 1pm, and spend the afternoon with him. Then he would drive me back right as school was getting out. I’d just innocently get on the bus and go home like nothing happened. The age difference between me and this guy was huge – obviously – now it seems outrageous. So my brother, who was always very protective, started to hate him. When Bryan caught me sneaking out to go visit his friend, he told on me to our parents.”
Britney’s parents then came up with a punishment for their daughter – ordering her to go around their neighbourhood picking up rubbbish.
She wrote: “As a punishment, I had to walk around the neighbourhood all day with a bucket, cleaning up garbage like a prisoner on the highway. Bryan followed me around taking pictures as, crying, I picked up trash.”
Britney has made headlines around the world with extracts from her book, but she’s insisted she didn’t mean to cause any offence with her revelations and she’s keen to move on from her past.
In a post on Instagram, the ‘Toxic’ star wrote: “My book’s purpose was not to offend anyone by any means!!! That was me then … that is in the past …
“Most of the book is from 20 years ago … I have moved on and it’s a beautiful clean slate from here!!! I am here to establish it that way for the rest of my entire life !!! Either way this is the last of it and s*** happens !!!”