Why Britney Spears Said She Was Living A 'Kid's Dream'

Pop star Britney Spears talks about a lot of tragic events in her life in her memoir "The Woman In Me" but she also focuses on some happier times as well.

The now 41-year-old pop star couldn't resist opening up on the start of her career during "The Mickey Mouse Club." She got her start on the show in 1993, which later helped her land her first record deal at the young age of 15!

During her time on “The Mickey Mouse Club,” Britney worked with her ex Justin Timberlake, “Genie In A Bottle” singer Christina Aguilera, and even “Barbie” actor Ryan Gosling, among others. In an excerpt from her memoir, “The Woman In Me,” released by People magazine on Saturday, Britney recalled what it was like performing on the Disney Channel variety program.

"Being in the show was boot camp for the entertainment industry: extensive dance rehearsals, singing lessons, acting classes, time in the recording studio, and school in between," she wrote.

"The Mouseketeers quickly split into our own cliques, divided by the dressing rooms that we shared: Christina Aguilera and I were the younger kids, and we shared a dressing room,” she continued. “We looked up to the older kids — Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling, and Tony Lucca, who I thought was so handsome. And I quickly connected with a boy named Justin Timberlake."

The ”Toxic” singer went on to say that working on the show "was honestly a kid’s dream — unbelievably fun, particularly for a kid like me. But it was also exceptionally hard work: we would run choreography thirty times in a day, trying to get every step perfect."

She also recalled that her first kiss with Justin Timberlake was when the cast was hanging out together at a sleepover. “[Once] at a sleepover, we played Truth or Dare, and someone dared Justin to kiss me. A Janet Jackson song was playing in the background as he leaned in and kissed me,” she recalled in her memoir.

"When the show ended a year and a half later … I decided to go back to Kentwood," Britney wrote. "Already within me was a push-pull: part of me wanted to keep building toward the dream; the other part wanted me to live a normal life in Louisiana. For a minute, I had to let normalcy win."

Amid allegations of infidelity, Britney also revealed that the former couple navigated an unplanned pregnancy when they dated from 1999 to 2002. In another excerpt of her memoir released by People magazine, Britney said that the two decided to terminate the pregnancy because Justin “didn’t want to be a father.”

“It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated,” she wrote in her tell-all memoir. “But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young."

"If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father,” she added. “To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life."

In a 2006 interview, the "Cry Me A River" singer told journalist Robert Haskell, "If I was writing an article about her, I would not be able to fight the urge to write every dirty thing about her." He went on to say, “I dated Britney half my life, but I don’t know that person anymore. I'm not sure I knew her before."

Sources later told Us Weekly that, in her memoir, Britney confessed that Justin never really realized the “power” that he had in “shaming” her for the breakup. In the memoir, she recalls how she didn't "handle things well" and admits that she might have been the "bad guy" in the relationship.

Fans are looking forward to reading more about what Britney Spears had to say when "The Woman In Me" is released on Tuesday, October 24, 2023.