Britney Spears, pregnant again! The story of her tumultuous life in photos

"So I took a pregnancy test and.... well... I'm pregnant." A simple and direct message from Britney Spears. That's how she announced, via Instagram, that she is pregnant with her third child. It's the first baby with her fiancée Sam Asghari.

Britney Spears looks to the future with optimism and a little fear... because she feels her belly is growing very fast! What if they are... twins! The singer has two pregnancies from the past to compare, from her now-teenage sons Jayden and Sean.

In 2021, Spears won her case against the conservatorship that had controlled her life for 13 difficult years. She is now free to make important life decisions herself, like getting married and have a baby.

An important step towards total freedom for Britney Spears was made on September 29, 2021. On that day, a Los Angeles court determined that the singer's father is no longer her legal guardian. Jamie Spears had been the administrator of her daughter's estate since 2008, and she was very unhappy in that situation.

The case of Britney Spears against her father Jamie was one of the Hollywood stories of the year. In various revealing articles and documentaries, and finally in the singer's own words, it had become clear that she had absolutely no freedom of movement under the existing arrangement.

(Image: IG, @britneyspears)

Britney Spears was not able to decide whether she wanted to get married or have children. She couldn't make decisions about medical treatments, long trips, or big purchases with her boyfriend.

From now on, Britney Spears' business will be taken care of, temporarily, by a public accountant of her choosing. The #freebritney movement has been pushing for years for its idol to have her freedom back.

Britney Spears is not entirely free though. While her father and his abusive guardianship are now out of the picture, she is still officially under conservatorship. The court still has to decide about the future of that arrangement.

The initial decision to take Britney Spears' financial independence away stems from around the time this picture was taken. In 2008, the court ruled that Spears was unable to control her own life after she had displayed successive episodes of anomalous and self-destructive behaviour.

Her shaved head and confused behaviour was a far cry from the teenager who sang 'Baby, One More Time' with a mischievous smile in a high school building. The 'school' girl gave way to a young woman who remained in the spotlights and media frames, mostly for negative reasons.

Before '...Baby One More Time,' it had all started with the Mickey Mouse Club. Britney Spears, born December 2, 1981 in Mississippi, joined a group of talented child actors, singers, and dancers on the Disney channel. Most of them would come to dominate the charts in the 1990s.

(Beside her: Ryan Gosling!)

In 1999, '....Baby One More Time' (which Rolling Stone would label 'the greatest debut single of all time' in 2020) showed that Britney Spears was no longer an innocent little Disney girl. She confirmed her seductive image with songs like 'Oops!... I did it again.'

Other memorable performances and videos were 'Slave 4 U,' where Britney danced with a snake, and 'Me Against the Music,' where she kissed Madonna. By then, in the early 2000s, journalists and fans began to realize that Britney was not only a brilliant performer but also an unstable young woman under a lot of pressure.

The truth is that the 'Princess of Pop' got involved in quite a few scandals after she emerged from the Mickey Mouse Club as a rebellious teen star.

Read about her fellow Disney kids: many of them had a hard time afterwards

On New Year's Eve 2004, Britney Spears impulsively married her high school friend Jason Alexander in Las Vegas. Her lawyers, worried that he could get a fortune out of the divorce without a prenuptial agreement, went to great lengths to have the marriage annulled. Their argument? She "lacked understanding of her actions." After just 55 hours, Britney and Jason were 'unmarried.'

In September 2004, the singer gave birth to her first child (Sean). The father was dancer Kevin Federline. At the time, Federline had a parallel relationship and two children with Shar Jackson.

In October of the same year, Kevin Federline and Britney Spears got married. They celebrated a wedding with unusual outfits: he wore a white jogging suit that said "p*mp daddy," while her tracksuit was pink and plush.

In May 2005 the newlyweds premiered a reality show called 'Chaotic.' The title was perfect for the content of the show, and the program drew enormous criticism. Britney herself said that "it was probably the worst thing I've ever done in my entire career."

One year after having Sean, she gave birth to her second child: Jayden Federline. Britney Spears was then 24 years old.

(Image: Sean, Britney and Jayden in April 2013)

With a baby and a toddler at home, Britney went partying with Paris Hilton in the fall of 2006. Photos of her party with the socialite caused a scandal. The Princess of Pop plunged into a world of excesses that would cause her to lose custody of her children a few months later.

Without a doubt, 2007 was a terrible year for Britney Spears. Separated from Kevin Federline, losing custody of her children, using forbidden sedatives and not producing or performing music, the star had to be admitted into rehabilitation clinics several times.

During one of her leaves from rehab, Britney Spears notoriously went into a hair salon and shaved her head herself, stating that her extensions were too tight. It was February 2007. Those who witnessed it said that the artist began to cry when she looked at the result in the mirror.

A week later, Britney Spears attacked paparazzi photographers on the street with an umbrella.

After a short break, Britney returned to the stage in September 2007. She presented her new song 'Gimme More' at the MTV Awards. Unfortunately, the costumes, the staging and the singer's performance turned out to be a real embarrassment. Or, as Entertainment Weekly exclaimed, a "horror."

Another shocking moment happened in late 2007 when the singer learned from paparazzi that her younger sister (Jamie-Lynn, star of the series 'Zoey 101') had gotten pregnant at age 16. At first, Britney denied it. When she realized that the news was real, she started to cry.

In 2008 the star lost custody of her children for a second time because she was "under the influence of some substances" in their presence. Spears could only visit Sean and Jayden under the supervision of a social worker.

At that point in her life, the courts approved Britney's father's request to become her guardian. They ruled that she was unable to take care of herself.

The heydays of Britney Spears' musical career seemed to be over. What people tend to forget due to the personal troubles, however, was that the Princess of Pop still had her share of successes after 2008. For one, her sixth album 'Circus' went directly to the top of the American charts, giving her the world record of being the youngest female artist to have five albums debut at number one.

In 2011, Britney became a judge in the talent show 'X-Factor' with a then-record-breaking salary of $15 million. The next year, she scored a major hit with will.i.am: 'Scream and Shout.' Several media spoke of a successful comeback - even though the personal problems remained.

It seemed in those years, the 2010s, that things were not quite alright with Britney Spears. Only later, in 2021, would the world learn the details of her life under the oppressive conservatorship of her father and his team.

In January 2019, Britney Spears cancelled a million-dollar tour to care for her father, Jamie Spears. He suffered a colon perforation that almost cost him his life.

The situation affected Britney very much and may have been the shock that pushed her over the edge that year. In early April 2019, she was admitted into a psychiatric facility for mental and emotional problems.

Because of her mental state, Britney was unable to testify that year in the case against her father for the control of her financial affairs.

Paparazzi caught Britney Spears looking quite bad after leaving the institute. Fans were worried and rumours about her health and family relations circulated on social media.

In those last years of Spears' conservatorship, a movement gained momentum on social media: #FreeBritney. Fans and activists for the protection of people under guardianships spoke out against the oppressive situation that the pop star was living in.

In February 2021, a documentary came out that sparked a lot of controversy and debate. 'Framing Britney Spears' told a long, personal, and painful story about the singer's life and the case against her father.

By June 2021, the increasing number of revelations had given Britney's case its momentum. Having remained silent in the court for the past thirteen years, the 39-year-old superstar finally felt ready to speak about her experiences in court. She phoned in a 20-minute statement filled with anger and sadness. "I am traumatized," she said according CNN. "I'm not happy. I can't sleep, I'm so angry it's insane. I'm depressed."

In a bombshell testimony, where the singer even used the term 'sex trafficking' and spoke of getting administered drugs 'against my will,' Britney Spears recalled that she did not want to perform in Las Vegas in 2018 but that she felt forced to do so. "The people who did this to me should not be able to get away and walk away easily... They should be in jail," she said.

"Ma'am," she told the Supreme Court Judge, "I've worked since I was 17 years old. I can't go somewhere unless I meet someone every week in an office. I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive, but ma'am there are a thousand conservatorships that are abusive as well. I want to end the conservatorship."

Britney herself sounded like she was exhausted from all the fighting and from being unable to make decisions about her own life. "I deserve to have a two to three year break... I feel ganged up on, bullied, left out and alone. I'm tired of feeling alone. I deserve to have the same rights, having a child or any of those things."

Britney's net worth once consisted of approximately 170 million dollars. The passage of time, the expenses on lawyers and other matters, as well as the lack of continuity in work and income, have reduced that fortune to 60 million dollars, Forbes estimates.

In 2019 alone, Britney Spears spent over $1.2 million on lawyers. She has also had to pay her father's salary as guardian of $128,000 per year, 'E! News' reports.

In the face of all instability, at least the singer has the unconditional support of Sam Asghari. The model/actor (born in Tehran, 1994) has been her boyfriend since 2016.

Sam Asghari was among the first persons to react to the documentary 'Framing Britney.' He said on Instagram about Britney's dad: "I have no respect for someone who tries to control our relationship and constantly throws obstacles in our way." He added that he looked forward to "a normal and amazing future together" with Britney.

(Image: Instagram)

According to Page Six, Sam also helped Britney prepare for her big moment in the court room. An anonymous source told the site: “Sam has been a huge support for Britney. He helps boost her confidence and assures her that everything will go well."

The source added that Asghari had been "following the #FreeBritney movement online for a while now and always tells Britney how much she’s loved and supported by fans."

Even though the singer has lived in a constant maelstrom of instability, she may be on her way to better health. In early 2021, she told her Instagram followers: "I am taking the time to learn and be a normal person... I love simply enjoying the basics of every day life !!!!"

With her newfound freedom, a wedding and a baby on the way - or maybe two! - Britney's forties might well become the time of her life.