Lynne Spears talks about Britney’s major meltdown
September 17, 2008 by Sherry
Since Lynne Spears has her new book to market, wherein she details life with her daughters, Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears and all the turmoil they’ve gone through, she’s doing the talk show circuits. She spoke to The Today Show and went into some of the trauma of watching Britney’s complete breakdown earlier this year.
Other highlights:
On why she wrote the book: “I have sat for hours thinking and thinking about everything that’s happened. It’s been a whirlwind. It’s been a wild ride for everybody. I think there was the tabloid version of our lives. I wanted people to see our family as we really are.”
On getting sucked into fame and fortune: “There’s the honeymoon phase at first. Everything is fabulous. Look at the wonderful trips she gets to go on. Look at the wonderful people she’s meeting. Then there’s the ugly side of things that turns, and we weren’t ready for that, either.”
On being a stage mom: “Britney pushed me, because I was a teacher… In Louisiana I had a preschool for 15 years and then I went into the public school. Of course I tried to be with Britney as much as I could, but when she was 15, 16 years old that’s when Felicia, a very good family friend, she traveled with Britney. I had to stay home, because Jamie Lynn was in school. I had another daughter. Another misconception was that I was always with Britney when I really wasn’t.”
On the 1999 Rolling Stone cover where Britney posed in her bra: “We were in shock at what was going on, and we were in awe. We didn’t have any choice in the pictures. We had no one that could tell us what we were supposed to be doing.”
On her darkest time when Britney was committed to a hospital for psychiatric problems and Jamie Lynn was 16 and pregnant: “It was so crazy at that time. I don’t think anybody was trying to sit and think what was going on. We were praying very hard, because it seemed like we were having no control over anything that was happening. We were trying.”