Britney Spears Says 2003 Diane Sawyer Interview ‘Was a Breaking Point’: ‘I Had Been Exploited’

Britney Spears was just 21 when her team invited Diane Sawyer to her home for an interview – and the way the reporter grilled the pop star about various aspects of her personal life and career still haunts her.

In his new memoir The woman in meSpears, now 41, writes that the controversial sit-in was a “breaking point” for her.

I felt like I was being used, put in front of the whole world, Spears writes.

A representative for Sawyer did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

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in Notice In the interview, which aired in November 2003, Sawyer, now 77, grilled Spears about her high-profile breakup with Justin Timberlake, with a series of questions inspired by rumors started by Timberlake himself that the pop star had cheated on him.

“He’s going on TV 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.

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At one point during the interview, Sawyer asked Spears about the “publicity spasm” surrounding her personal life, prompting the pop star to break down in tears and ask the crew to end the conversation.

Spears repeatedly said she was “uncomfortable” during the sit-in, and Sawyer criticized her for “upsetting a lot of mothers in this country” by projecting her good-girl image across scantily clad magazine covers. (Sawyer began the special by declaring Spears’ abs “the most valuable square inch of real estate in the entertainment world.”)

Although the interview with Sawyer was broadcast decades ago, the journalist has come under fire in recent years for her questioning style, especially after its publication The New York Times‘ Framing Britney Spears documentary film 2021.

That same year, Spears spoke out against Sawyer in a lengthy Instagram post that asked, “What happened to the ‘You’re wrong’ approach?? God… and it makes me cry???”

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In an email interview with PEOPLE, the singer called her new memoir “a labor of love and all the emotions that come with it.”

The memoir will be published by 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 statement.

For an exclusive excerpt and interview with Britney Spears, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.

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Source: HIS Education