Britney Spears

Spears has two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James, with her former husband Kevin Federline. She married childhood friend Jason Alexander in Las Vegas in January 2004, but the marriage was annulled 55 hours later. She married Federline in October 2004, and their divorce was finalized in July 2007.

Spears married model and fitness trainer Sam Asghari in June 2022. The couple separated in 2023, and their divorce was finalized in 2024. Spears and Asghari announced a pregnancy in 2022 and later announced that they had lost the baby.

Spears began performing as a child, taking dance and voice lessons, competing in talent shows, and training in gymnastics. After being rejected as too young during an earlier audition, she joined The All New Mickey Mouse Club at age 11. The cast included future performers Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, and Keri Russell. She also appeared in the Off-Broadway production Ruthless! and competed on Star Search.

At age 15, Spears made a demo tape that led to a development deal with Jive Records. Her first single, “...Baby One More Time,” was released in 1998, and the album of the same name followed in 1999. The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album topped the Billboard 200 and became one of the best-selling albums by a teenage artist.

Her second album, Oops!... I Did It Again, arrived in 2000 and sold 1.3 million copies in its first week in the United States, setting a record for the highest first-week sales by a solo artist at the time. With Britney in 2001 and In the Zone in 2003, Spears developed a more mature musical and visual style. “Toxic,” from In the Zone, won her first Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording.

Spears made her feature-film debut as the lead in Crossroads in 2002. She later appeared in television projects including How I Met Your Mother, Will & Grace, and The X Factor, where she served as a judge during the show's second season in 2012.

Her fifth studio album, Blackout, was released in 2007 and received strong critical attention despite limited promotion during a period of personal difficulty. She followed it with Circus in 2008, whose single “Womanizer” became her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single since “...Baby One More Time,” and Femme Fatale in 2011, her sixth album to reach number one in the United States.

In 2013, Spears began the Las Vegas residency Britney: Piece of Me at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. The residency continued through 2017 and was followed by the Piece of Me Tour in 2018. Her later studio albums included Britney Jean in 2013 and Glory in 2016.

After a series of highly publicized personal struggles and hospitalizations in 2008, Spears was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship. Her father, Jamie Spears, initially controlled her estate and personal affairs. The arrangement continued for 13 years and became the focus of the #FreeBritney movement, which grew through fan campaigns, public demonstrations, and documentaries including Framing Britney Spears and Controlling Britney Spears.

In a June 2021 court statement, Spears described the conservatorship as abusive and expressed her desire to regain control of her life. Her father was suspended as conservator in September 2021, and a judge terminated the conservatorship in November 2021.

Spears chronicled her career, relationships, conservatorship, and return to personal autonomy in her memoir The Woman in Me, published in October 2023. The book became her first solo memoir and received positive reviews from critics and fans.

In 2022, Spears released “Hold Me Closer,” a duet with Elton John that reworked his song “Tiny Dancer.” It was her first musical release after the conservatorship ended and reached the top ten of the United States Billboard Hot 100. She also released “Mind Your Business” with will.i.am in 2023.

Spears has said that she would not return to the music industry, although she also said she had written more than 20 songs for other artists. Her career has been recognized with a Grammy Award, multiple MTV Video Music Awards, the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, the Billboard Millennium Award, the GLAAD Vanguard Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.