The ‘Toxic’ singer has praised the ‘Vogue’ hitmaker for being a “mentor” for her and offering her “guidance” at a time when she had ended her relationship with Justin Timberlake amid speculation she had been unfaithful, and recalled how the Queen of Pop would visit her to help motivate her when she was staying in Cher’s New York apartment.
Writing in her new memoir ‘The Woman in Me’, Britney recalled: “Stunningly beautiful, she exuded power and confidence. She walked straight to the window, looked out, and said, ‘Nice view.’ Madonna’s supreme confidence helped me see a lot about my situation with fresh eyes. I think she probably had some intuitive sense of what I was going through. I needed a little guidance at that time. I was confused about my life. She tried to mentor me.”
The 41-year-old star then told how the ‘Like a Virgin’ singer introduced her to the mystical Jewish faith Kabbalah.
She wrote: “At one point, she did a red-string ceremony with me to initiate me into Kabbalah, and she gave me a trunk full of Zohar books to pray with. She told me I should be sure to take time out for my soul, and I tried to do that. She modelled a type of strength that I needed to see.”
In the book, Britney also spoke about the infamous kiss she shared with Madonna during their 2003 MTV VMAs performance with Christina Aguilera.
She wrote: “Every time we rehearsed it, we did an air kiss.”
But “about two minutes before the performance”, she realised she wanted something as sensational as the spectacle of her 2000 medley at the event.
She continued: “I thought to myself: I want a moment like that again this year. With the kiss, should I just go for it?”
Madonna featured on Britney’s 2003 single ‘Me Against the Music’ and the ‘Gimme More’ hitmaker learned an “important lesson” in “power” when her friend was insistent about delaying the start time for their music video shoot to fix a seam on her outfit.
She wrote: “During our shoot together, I was in awe of the ways Madonna would not compromise her vision. She kept the focus on her. Going along with Madonna’s ideas and being on her time for days was what it meant to collaborate with her. It was an important lesson for me, one that would take a long time for me to absorb: she demanded power, and so she got power.”
Britney told how she always “tried so hard to please” other people because of the “passiveness” she saw in her mother, Lynne Spears. She wrote: “If I could go back now, I would try to become my own parent, my own partner, my own advocate — the way I knew Madonna did.”
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