Every Celebrity Britney Spears Mentions in ‘The Woman in Me’

Britney Spears’ highly-anticipated memoir, The Woman in Me, was released on Tuesday, and it includes mentions of an extensive list of Hollywood celebrities.

In the book, the pop star, 41, opens up on a number of areas of her personal and professional life that had been speculated on in the decades since she rose to fame. She has also spilled on incidents that were not previously known to the public.

Among the topics covered was her controversial 13-year conservatorship, during which her personal and financial decisions were taken out of her hands. The arrangement, which began in 2008 amid mental health concerns, was dissolved by a judge in November 2021.

In the leadup to the conservatorship being dissolved, a #FreeBritney campaign was launched by fans. It also led to public desire for a deeper insight into Spears’ experiences behind the scenes as one of the music world’s most famous stars.

Included in the memoir are Spears’ encounters with several celebrities, an expected addition, given her more than two decades as an A-list star herself.

Newsweek has taken a look at all of the celebrities mentioned in The Woman in Me.

Justin Timberlake

Given her high-profile romance with Justin Timberlake, his inclusion in the memoir was all but inevitable. And Spears had much to say about her time with him.

Ahead of the book’s release, it was revealed Spears wrote in the memoir that she became pregnant in the early 2000s during her high-profile relationship with then NSYNC singer Timberlake, now 42.

Spears wrote in her memoir that, while she was happy about the pregnancy, Timberlake was not ready to be a father. In the excerpt, Spears described the abortion as “one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”

“It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy,” Spears said of the unplanned pregnancy. “I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated.

“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy,” she said. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.

“I agreed not to have the baby. I don’t know if that was the right decision,” Spears wrote. “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”

The “Toxic” hitmaker also accused Timberlake of cheating on her during their relationship in the book—while also admitting to infidelity on her part.

In her book, Spears came clean after two decades of rumors and speculation when she said that she cheated on Timberlake with choreographer Wade Robson during a night out.

Timberlake and Spears went their separate ways in 2002. He is now married to actor Jessica Biel, with whom he shares sons Silas, 8, and Phineas, 3.

Spears wed dancer Kevin Federline in 2004 and had sons Sean Preston, 18, and Jayden James, 17, with him before the couple divorced in 2007. She tied the knot with model and personal trainer Sam Asghari in 2022. They separated 14 months later.

Colin Farrell

Staying with the realm of romance, Spears also wrote about her brief relationship with Irish actor Colin Farrell back in 2003.

As she rebounded from her split with Timberlake and observed how quickly he had purportedly moved on, Spears wrote that she saw “a guy who I thought was handsome, and a club promoter friend said I had good taste.”

The friend, she said, informed her that the man who had caught her eye was Farrell, now 47. Taking matters into her own hands, Spears said that she drove to the set of his action movie S.W.A.T. in pursuit of the screen star.

“There was no security or anything, so I went straight onto the soundstage, where they were doing a set piece in a house. When the director saw me, he said, ‘Come sit in my chair!'”

She inevitably captured the attention of Farrell, who approached her and asked if she had “any pointers” for what he should be doing in his screen role. The ice breaker marked the start of what Spears described as a passionate encounter.

“We wound up having a two-week brawl,” she wrote. “Brawl is the only word for it—we were all over each other, grappling so passionately it was like we were in a street fight.”

The two also attended the premiere of Farrell’s movie The Recruit, which featured Al Pacino among its cast. “Colin’s whole family was there, and they were so warm to me,” Spears recalled.

But it didn’t last long: “As I had [done] before when I’d felt too attached to a man, I tried to convince myself in every way that it was not a big deal, that we were just having fun, that in this case I was vulnerable because I wasn’t over Justin yet. But for a brief moment in time I did think there could be something there,” she said.

Natalie Portman

Oscar-winning actor Natalie Portman also got a mention in the book, while Spears discussed how she dealt with the aftermath of romantic relationships that had come to an end.

“The disappointments in my romantic life were just one part of how isolated I became,” she wrote. “I felt so awkward.”

“I did try to be social. Natalie Portman—who I’d known since we were little girls in the New York theater circuit—and I even hosted a New Year’s Eve party together.”

Spears’ efforts did little to abate the social anxiety that she felt at the time, writing that she “veered between being very social and being incredibly isolated.”

Earlier in the book, Portman, now 42, is mentioned when Louisiana-raised Spears recalls working in New York City as a young girl.

Writing about being offered a role as an understudy as a “sociopathic child star” in the off-Broadway musical Ruthless!, Spears wrote that the “other understudy was a talented young actress named Natalie Portman.”

Christina Aguilera

Spears recounted how she and Christina Aguilera first met as child performers on The Mickey Mouse Club in the 1990s, revealing how they shared a dressing room with another co-star.

However, it was well documented over the years that the two had a period of not being the best of friends. In her book, Spears made it known that she was far from impressed with Aguilera’s Rolling Stone cover alongside her then recent ex Timberlake.

“While the news about me was often not all that friendly, the entertainment press was full of positive stories about Justin and Christina Aguilera,” Spears wrote.

“They were together on the cover of Rolling Stone, him in a black tank top, looking at her with sexy eyes, her looking out at the camera, wearing a lace-up black shirt.

“In that story, she said she thought Justin and I should get back together, which is just confusing, given how negative she’d been elsewhere.”

Spears went on to describe how she met up with Aguilera while on tour. But due to the restrictions of her conservatorship, Spears said, she was prohibited from drinking alcohol with her onetime co-star and her dancers.

“It would have been nice to have drinks with them, to get rebellious, sassy, fun. I wasn’t allowed to do that because my life had become a Sunday-school Bible church camp under the conservatorship.”

Madonna

Pop icon Madonna was also an inevitable addition to the book, given their headline-making performance (alongside Aguilera) at the MTV Video Music Awards back in 2003.

Spears and Madonna famously kissed onstage, a moment which is described in The Woman in Me as having been impromptu. According to Spears, each time the performance was rehearsed, they “did an air kiss.”

Speaking of the MTV awards show, Spears wrote of the “thrill” of meeting musicians Steven Tyler and Lenny Kravitz. “I thought, Legends! Legends everywhere I look!”

Elsewhere in the book, Spears wrote about her friendship with Madonna, 65. While recovering from her breakup with Timberlake, Spears said that she spent months locked away in a New York City apartment, once lived in by Cher. Spears also said she ran into comedian Robin Williams in an elevator.

“One of my few visitors during that strange, surreal time was Madonna,” Spears recalled of the star.

“Madonna’s supreme confidence helped me see a lot about my situation with fresh eyes. I think she probably had some intuitive sense of what I was going through. I needed a little guidance at that time. I was confused about my life. She tried to mentor me,” Spears said.

“In many ways, Madonna did have a good effect on me.”

Reese Witherspoon

Actor Reese Witherspoon became an inspirational figure for Spears as she grappled with her residency performances in Las Vegas during her conservatorship.

“As I became stronger and entered a new phase of my womanhood, I started to look around for examples of how to wield power in a positive way,” she wrote. “Reese Witherspoon was a great example to me. She’s sweet and she’s nice, and she’s very smart.

“Once you start to see yourself that way—as not just someone who exists to make everyone else happy, but someone who deserves to make their wishes known—that changes everything.”

Mariah Carey

Spears wrote about initiating a meeting with Mariah Carey when they were both on the roster of celebrities at an unnamed awards show. She then recounted having a photo taken together with the star.

“I did everything Mariah Carey told me to do and we took the photo. Of course she was completely right about everything—the photo looked incredible,” Spears wrote.

“I know I won an award that night, but I couldn’t even tell you what it was. The perfect photo with Mariah Carey—that was the real prize.”

Jennifer Lopez

In The Woman in Me, Spears singled out Jennifer Lopez for praise for the perceived ease with which she was able to navigate the cut-throat celebrity world.

“I actually envy the people who know how to make fame work for them, because I hide from it,” Spears said. “I get very shy.

“For example, Jennifer Lopez, from the beginning, struck me as someone who was very good at being famous—at indulging people’s interest in her but knowing where to draw lines. She always handled herself well. She always carried herself with dignity.”

In the same vein, Spears also praised musician Gwen Stefani, alongside Aguilera, for being “really professional on TV,” as she compared their presence to her own.

“When the camera is on them, they thrive. And that’s great,” she wrote, going on to say it was a quality she felt she had lost over the years.

Paris Hilton

Among the vignettes shared in her book, Spears wrote about partying with Paris Hilton in gambling haven Las Vegas back when they were 20-somethings.

“Before I knew it, we got on top of tables, took our shoes off, and ran through the whole club like fairy-dusted idiots,” Spears shared. “No one got hurt, and I had the best time with Paris—we were just playing, and we still do every time we get together.”

Years later, Spears would come to trust Hilton, 42, as somebody she could depend on to feel valued and loved during difficult times.

“One of the people who was kindest to me when I really needed kindness was Paris Hilton,” she wrote. “So much of America dismissed her as a party girl, but I found her elegant.”

“We started hanging out,” she continued of Hilton. “She encouraged me to try to have fun for the first time in a long time. With Paris, I went through my party stage. But let’s be clear: It was never as wild as the press made it out to be. There was a time when I never went out at all.

“Finally, when—with the kids properly supervised at home by capable caregivers—I did leave home for a few hours, stayed out late, and drank like any other 20-something, I heard nothing but that I was the worst mother who’d ever lived and a terrible person, too.

“Do you know what Paris and I did that supposedly crazy night everyone made such a big deal about, when we went out with Lindsay Lohan? We got drunk,” Spears added. “That’s it!”

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling was also one of Spears’ co-stars on The Mickey Mouse Club and is mentioned for it in the book, alongside the likes of Keri Russell.

Spears has revealed that she and Gosling could have been co-stars once again if she hadn’t felt as though the character she portrayed in the 2002 movie Crossroads had temporarily infiltrated her real personality. “I didn’t know how to break out of my character,” she said.

“That was pretty much the beginning and end of my acting career, and I was relieved,” Spears said. “The Notebook casting came down to me and Rachel McAdams, and even though it would have been fun to reconnect with Ryan Gosling after our time on The Mickey Mouse Club, I’m glad I didn’t do it.”