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Toxic? Britney tells of troubles in new memoir

(FILES) US singer Britney Spears arrives for the premiere of Sony Pictures' "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California on July 22, 2019. Two years after being freed from her father's guardianship, Us singer Britney Spears, 41, is about to tell the truth in a long-awaited memoir to be published on October 24, 2032 in around twenty countries, translated into ten languages. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)
 
(FILES) US singer Britney Spears arrives for the premiere of Sony Pictures' "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California on July 22, 2019. Two years after being freed from her father's guardianship, Us singer Britney Spears, 41, is about to tell the truth in a long-awaited memoir to be published on October 24, 2032 in around twenty countries, translated into ten languages. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)
Britney Spears, the dewy-eyed child star who became a global pop phenomenon and then melted down in full view of the world, tells her story Tuesday with the release of her already bestselling memoir.

'The Woman In Me' is the pop princess in her own, unvarnished words, shot through with the anguish of a family she believes has failed her at every step of the way, in an industry that mercilessly devours its talent.

From sharing daiquiris with her mother as a young teenager -- two years after she became a regular on 'The Mickey Mouse Club' -- to the 13 years she spent as an adult in a conservatorship, the memoir details how she struggled to escape the influence of her controlling father.

Until two years ago, when she got out from under the conservatorship legal relationship that she says dictated everything choices to the set list at lucrative Las Vegas gigs.

The book, whose pre-orders catapulted it to the top of the Amazon best-seller list, was produced too early to include that coda with husband Sam Asghari.

But readers will still have plenty to chew on.

The noughties brought fame and notoriety to Spears in equal measure, with a passionate fan base eager for every last scrap of news about her.

That collided with an aggressive paparazzi culture that delighted in capturing her partying alongside hell-raisers like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.

'Pushing forward in my music career is not my focus at the moment,' the now-41-year-old Britney writes.

'It's time for me not to be someone who other people want; it's time to actually find myself.'--AFP