Britney Spears‘ long-awaited memoir is finally on the books. On Tuesday morning (July 11) Simon & Schuster imprint Gallery Books announced the release date for the pop icon’s anticipated tell-all, The Woman in Me, which is due out on Oct. 24.
People magazine was first to report the news on the title that’s described as a “brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith and hope.” The cover features a picture of a topless Spears, 41, wearing silver pants, with her arms covering her breasts.
“Britney’s compelling testimony in open court shook the world, changed laws, and showed her inspiring strength and bravery,” Gallery Books senior VP and publisher Jennifer Bergstrom told the magazine. “I have no doubt her memoir will have a similar impact — and will be the publishing event of the year. We couldn’t be more proud to help her share her story at last.”
On Monday night Spears appeared to tease the big news in one of her signature bikini dance videos, in which she rolled on the group, flipped her hair (and the bird) alongside a caption that read, “Great news coming tomorrow [sneaky eye, shh and speak no evil monkey emoji]… I’m so excited… can’t wait to share this new with you all!!!!”
The Gallery site’s synopsis teased a collection that will pull back the curtain on the interior world of an artist whose private life has long been on display in the tabloids, but whose true feelings and thoughts have trickled out only sporadically through social media posts since the dissolving of her restrictive 13-year conservatorship in Nov. 2021.
“In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court,” it reads in reference to the dramatic testimony Spears gave during the proceedings to dissolve the legal arrangement that gave her estranged father and legal team full control over the singer’s private and professional lives. “The impact of sharing her voice — her truth — was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey — and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.”
The writing in The Woman in Me is described as having “remarkable candor and humor” in a “groundbreaking book” that “illuminates the enduring power of music and love — and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.”
Spears teased the memoir last April in a lengthy Instagram post in which she wrote, “Well I’m writing a book at the moment and as it’s actually healing and therapeutic … it’s also hard bringing up past events in my life … I’ve never been able to express openly !!! I can only imagine that I do sound childish but I was extremely young when those events took place … and addressing it now … I’m sure it seems irrelevant to most and I’m completely aware of that !!!”
At the time, Spears referenced Justin Timberlake‘s public apology to both herself and Janet Jackson in the wake of 2021’s The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears on Hulu, and in advance of the release of The New York Times Presents: Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson in November that same year.
“Instead of using my heart … I’m using the intellectual approach as Justin so respectfully did when he apologized to Janet and me … although he was never bullied or threatened by his family … he took the opportunity to apologize 20 years later !!!” she wrote, also taking the time to throw shade at memoirs written by her then-estranged mother, Lynne Spears, and younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears at a time when she “couldn’t even get a cup of coffee or drive [her] car or really anything” due to the conservatorship.
In March 2022, People reported that the singer had signed a $15 million deal with Simon & Schuster for the tell-all. At press time spokespeople for Spears and Gallery Books had not returned Billboard‘s request for further information on the book.
