Britney Spears; Diane Sawyer.Photo:JB Lacroix/WireImage; Gary Gershoff/Getty
JB Lacroix/WireImage; Gary Gershoff/Getty
Britney Spearswas just 21 years old when her team invitedDiane Sawyerinto her home for an interview — and the ways in which the journalist grilled the pop star on various aspects of her personal life and career still haunt her.
In her new memoirThe Woman in Me, Spears, now 41, writes thatthe controversial sit-downwas a “breaking point” for her.
“I felt like I had been exploited, set up in front of the whole world,” writes Spears. “That interview was a breaking point for me internally — a switch had been flipped. I felt something dark come over my body. I felt myself turning, almost like a werewolf, into a Bad Person.”
A rep for Sawyer did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
‘He’s going on television and saying you broke his heart," Sawyer said. “You did something that caused him so much pain. So much suffering. What did you do?’”
Britney Spears on the cover of PEOPLE.Britney Brands
Britney Brands
At one point during the interview, Sawyer asked Spears about the “spasm of publicity” surrounding her personal life, prompting the pop star to break down in tears and ask the crew to put an end to the chat.
Though the interview with Sawyer aired decades ago, the journalist has come under fire for her line of questioning in recent years, especially after the release ofThe New York Times’Framing Britney Spearsdocumentary in 2021.
That same year, Spearsspoke out against Sawyerin a lengthy message on Instagram that asked, “What was with the ‘You’re in the wrong’ approach?? Geeze… and making me cry???”
Britney Spears' The Woman in Me.
In aninterview with PEOPLE done via email, the singer called her new memoir “a labor of love and all the emotions that come with it.”
The memoir will be released through Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and will “illuminate the enduring power of music and love — and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms,” according to a release.
For an exclusive excerpt and interview with Britney Spears, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
source: people.com
