Britney Spears called out Ryan Seacrest for asking about her parenting skills during a 2007 interview that was supposed to focus on her new album.
“The only press I did for Blackout was a live radio interview with Ryan Seacrest when it came out in October 2007,” Spears, 41, wrote in her new memoir, The Woman in Me, which hit shelves on Tuesday, October 24. “In the interview which was supposed to be about the record, Ryan Seacrest asked me questions like, ‘How do you respond to those who criticize you as a mom?’ And, ‘Do you feel like you’re doing everything you can for your kids?’ And, ‘How often will you see them?’”
Spears wanted to talk about Blackout, which was released just months after her public breakdown following her split from Kevin Federline. The pop star thought Blackout was some of her best work yet, but she felt like Seacrest, now 48, was one of many who only wanted to discuss her personal life.
“It felt like that was the only thing people wanted to talk about: whether or not I was a fit mother,” Spears wrote. “Not about how I’d made such a strong album while holding two babies on my hips and being pursued by dozens of dangerous men all day every day.”
She went on to note that she doesn’t hold any ill will toward Seacrest, who’s interviewed her again in the years since.
Spears and Federline, 45, split in November 2006 after two years of marriage. The former couple share sons Preston, 18, and Jayden, 17.
Following her split from Federline, Spears underwent a series of highly publicized mental health struggles. In February 2008, she was placed under a conservatorship that gave her father, Jamie Spears, control over her person and finances for many years.
“In my old life I’d had freedom: the freedom to make my own decisions, to set my own agenda, to wake up and decide how I wanted to spend the day. Even the hard days were my hard days,” Britney wrote of those years in her book. “Once I gave up the fight, in my new life, I would wake up each morning and ask one question: ‘What are we doing?’ And then I would do what I was told.”
Britney was finally released from her conservatorship in November 2021 after 13 years. She has not, however, reconciled with her family. “I don’t think my family understands the real damage that they did,” she wrote.
The Woman in Me is available now wherever books are sold.
