The sweetest child, it seems, had learned to indulge in a constant mode of performance: singing loudly in the bathroom, in the backyard or on the trampoline; being Little Miss Perfect at dance recital; the trophy winner in gymnastics; the perpetual first place at talent contests and the voice that amazed people whenever she sang.
All these images form a performing montage that brought attention and approval, and it was that attention that soothed the young Britney, allowing her to feel good, to feel extra-loved. Why the constant mode of performing, though? As the psychotherapist queries:
As with most personas presented to the outside world, they tend to be a front to a hidden story of what is actually stirring beneath the surface. From the moment we are born our behaviours are influenced by environments into which we arrive. And if a child’s behaviours are not the result of being taught but are instinctive, then it is most likely a reaction shaped by what the psyche has experienced, both before birth and in early childhood. So where Britney was described as a bundle of energy, I’d query whether observers were actually witnessing a bundle of anxiety in a girl whose energy had its origins in nervousness, not excitement. Where we see a child so young striving for perfection and being so tidy, I’d suggest she was trying to control the outside of her life because she felt so out of sorts on the inside. Where we see a child disappear into a self-created, make-believe world, I’d examine the domestic reality she was trying to escape. And when someone is seemingly engaged in a perpetual performance, I’d wonder what unconscious needs are motivating that need to perform, and for whom the performance was aimed to please—Britney or her parents?
Such questions become valid when we go beyond the surface-deep reality of Britney’s upbringing: the deeper truth and the roots to our understanding lie behind the slammed doors of the family home.
Britney was not born into a stable home. She was born into a dysfunctional disorder created by a father whose heavy drinking turned him into an alcoholic whose rages primed a family to live on its nerves. This created a bundle of nerves within Britney that others, including her own mother, would then mistake for natural excitement or energy. In fact, it was more likely the reaction of an anxiety-ridden child in need of constant activity to block out the unholy din and drama surrounding her. Though too young to realise it, here was a girl whose need to be perform masked such imperfections, allowing her to escape the distress.
But what isn’t known is that Britney almost wasn’t born at all. Lynne had already given up on her husband and marriage, and filed for divorce in 1980. And it is those legal papers that provide the backdrop to the flip side of Britney’s childhood, offering insights into the adult she would become, and the father who would become her legal guardian under the 2008 conservatorship.
‘Mama, do you want to live like
this for the rest of your life?’
–Britney to Lynne Spears, 2000
Through the Storm was the title of Lynne Spears’ memoir about coping in a world of fame and tabloid headlines. Perhaps it would also be an apt label to sum up the strife and struggle within the household as Britney grew up. Indeed, in the year preceding her conception, it was already evident that Lynne was emotionally and psychologically defeated by her husband’s behaviour.
In her memoir, she admits filing for divorce before Britney’s birth, without detailing why. The clear impression is that her reason was solely because of Jamie’s drinking. Yet this masks the true background; a history that Lynne clearly isn’t keen on forming part of the Britney Spears’ story. Instead, after acknowledging the ‘wrecking balls’ and upset Jamie’s drinking created, she reflected that the first five years of their marriage were ‘an oasis of calm and happiness in our often turbulent life together.’ But that’s not the story contained in the legal papers she served just three years and six months into their union.
Lynne filed for divorce on grounds of adultery. This, perhaps, explains why she had no desire to reveal the finer details, going no further than mentioning gossip about his ‘flirting’ at bars. Intended or otherwise, by not mentioning infidelity as the reason behind her divorce petition, the focus remains on Jamie not her; on his addiction, not her desirability; his irresponsibility and not the humiliation she felt when he chose to have sex with someone else—and in their marital home.
According to the petition, Jamie committed adultery on the evening of Christmas Day, 1979. Heartbroken and livid, Lynne wasted no time in consulting local attorney Lou Sherman. Eight days later, and on the first working day after New Year, she submitted a detailed petition to the courts. It was this stormy prelude that foreshadowed the ‘dysfunctional marriage’ that Britney was born into and, as will become clear, this would prove to be a highly relevant event.
For Lynne, the betrayal followed a prolonged period of enduring her husband’s ‘benders’. In her book, she lays bare his alcoholism and told how he’d gone missing on Christmas Day morning as she and two-year-old Bryan waited to open gifts. When he didn’t show, she packed a bag and went to her mother’s. There must have been a furious row because Jamie clearly realised he’d be spending Christmas alone and that Lynne had deserted him. If she didn’t know what her husband would do, she soon found out.
In her petition, she makes allegations of cheating, and told how Jamie was seen entering one of his regular hangouts, a Kentwood bar called Baby Tate’s. But he went in with a local woman who Lynne named. Inside, it was claimed, he was ‘observed hugging, kissing and fondling this woman throughout their stay’. From there, she writes, they went to the Spears’ trailer, ‘where he committed adultery…during the late evening hours of December 25th and the early morning hours of December 26th.’
And therein lies another truth that has never previously emerged: the origins of the Britney Spears’ story can be traced to a trailer park where the family had their first home. Simpson’s Trailer Park, located off Highway 51 in Kentwood, two minutes from the state line with Mississippi, was where matrimonial life began for Jamie and Lynne. Lot No. 13 housed a cramped but cosy trailer that Lynne had helped fill with appliances and furniture; it was their first purchase as a couple along with a 1979 Chevrolet, a 1978 Dr Lincoln Continental and a 4-wheel drive pick-up truck. One trailer and three vehicles represented their humble beginnings. It was here that the family lived with their only son, and it was here that Jamie was alleged to have marked Christmas with his lover.
A friend who has known the Spears since they married said: ‘Y’all must understand. Miss Lynne is mighty proud. Image and reputation matter, especially since she’s become known as Britney’s mama. She don’t want to be seen as “white trailer-park trash” because that ain’t Miss Lynne. She’s always wanted to be viewed as a lady.’
Just like her English mother, Lillian.
Trailer-park homes and little shacks on the roadside are the norm in Kentwood and no one bats an eyelid over such realities, but perhaps its juxtaposition alongside Britney’s stardom felt uncomfortable for Lynne Spears. Britney wasn’t to spend a single day of her life in a trailer, but if anything, these beginnings further enrich the family history. From a trailer park to ‘Serenity’ is far more inspiring than from ranch-style bungalow to ‘Serenity’. It illustrates how far the Spears have travelled in the past 30 years.
According to the legal papers, the trailer belonged to Lynne. In fact, she was greatly worried that Jamie would damage it, and her furniture, when he learned she was filing for a divorce. She clearly feared his temper and she even alluded to what he was capable of when drunk. In that same petition, her attorney said: ‘She fears the defendant will become angry when served with these papers; that he will harass