Exclusive: The Real Britney
POP princess Britney Spears has vowed to give her three-week-old son Sean Preston the one thing she never had - a normal childhood.
Born on December 2, 1981, from the age of two Britney's childhood was an endless treadmill of singing lessons, dance classes, auditions, stage shows and filming.
Her ambitious mother dragged her thousands of miles across the US from Louisiana to New York to Florida in the search for showbiz success
Britney tells this month's Elle magazine: "Being an entertainer, especially starting at such a young age, you long to please people and become what they want to see."
And she has told friends she is determined that baby Sean will not be forced down the same route.
She describes her hope that marriage and motherhood will help her "not be influenced so much, or manipulated, which can happen in a huge way".
From the day she enrolled two-year-old Britney in the Renee Donewar school of dance in Kentwood, Louisiana, Lynne Spears has devoted her life to making her daughter a star.
Ever since she has controlled almost every aspect of her daughter's life and career.
And even now that Britney is 23 and has a young family of her own, Lynne has no intention of giving that up.
Not even the star's fledgling marriage of one year escapes her attention.
So keen is she to keep an eye on her investment, Lynne has moved into the £4million Malibu mansion in California that Britney shares with her husband Kevin Federline, 27, and Sean.
Britney was nine when her mother uprooted her from their rural home in Louisiana and took her to New York, desperate to escape the small-town life in the Deep South which Lynne found so stifling.
Britney's New York agent Nancy Carson recalls the ambitious mum, struggling out of the elevator on the seventh floor of her Broadway office block day after day, with Britney's two-month-old sister Jamie-Lynn in a buggy and little Britney trotting by her side.
By the time she turned 10, when most girls her age were playing with Barbie dolls, Britney was treading the boards in an off-Broadway production of the musical Ruthless.
But even then the grind of striving for success was taking its toll on the child.
While appearing in the play in 1992 Britney, aged just 11, broke down in uncontrollable tears at having to spend Christmas in their tiny Manhattan apartment instead of being back home in Kentwood.
Lynne had to call the agent on Christmas Eve and ask her to pull her daughter out of the show. She told Nancy: "Britney misses home and it's time for us to go back."
THE following year Britney landed a spot on Disney's Mickey Mouse Club alongside a young Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera in Florida.
Her tutor Chuck Yerger recalls a particularly well-drilled youngster. He remembers: "She had an unshakeable faith that adults would never steer you wrong and that you should do as you were told."
When the Mickey Mouse Club was cancelled in February 1995, 13-year-old Britney returned to Louisiana. For two years she had her closest experience to life as a normal teenager, going to a local school and finding a boyfriend, Reg. They went steady for three years.
Lynne, however, never gave up her dream of the big time, urging her daughter to continue performing as she sought fresh openings.
A few years later, when the endless song and dance practice was getting her down, Britney confided to Reg: "I'm tired of doing this. My mom is on my back. I just want to live a normal life."
It was a sentiment she was to echo throughout her childhood
One particular area of contention between mum and daughter was smoking.
Britney has always treated smoking as an Olympic sport but Lynne hated it as she was worried it would harm her voice.
Her mother's obsession almost cost both of them their lives. On one occasion they were driving near home when Lynne said she could smell smoke and demanded to smell her daughter's hands.
Reg says: "She grabbed Britney's hand off the wheel. It made the car spin and they spun out of control and were wrecked in a ditch."
Lynne was prepared to make any sacrifice to help propel her daughter to stardom, a dedication that led to her and Britney's building contractor dad Jamie being declared bankrupt shortly before the release of her debut single, One More Time, in 1998.
The sacrifices Britney herself had to make included her first love Reg. Before her first-ever concert in Orlando, Lynne approached the lad and whispered in his ear: "You're not her boyfriend. You're just a friend."
Reg explains: "Miss Lynne had all the control. She told me, 'It's not going to look good for Britney and she's not going to be able to do what she can if she has a boyfriend.'"
Reg was soon left behind as Britney embarked on a glamorous life with Justin Timberlake in late 1998.
The bitter break-up with Justin in 2002 and Britney's subsequent off-the-rails lifestyle, including allegations of sex and drugs, revealed the first cracks in the relationship with her mother.
After Britney's disastrous 55-hour Las Vegas marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander in January 2004, Lynne, say friends, was determined to get back closer to her daughter. "She did not want there to be another Jason Alexander situation," says one family friend. "It made her rethink how she should treat her daughter.
"The first thing she did was to support Britney and Kevin."
Remarkably, when Britney and Kevin secretly got married, Lynne was not in on the surprise - a situation that would have been unthinkable just a few years before.
It was not an experience she relished and she knew she had to make a major effort if she was to regain her hold as the major influence in her daughter's life.
Now back at the helm and living with the couple, Lynne is in the perfect position to keep an eye on her daughter's interests.
And despite Britney's hopes that her newborn son will not be forced down the same topsy-turvy career path as his mother, he will be making one appearance in the limelight - orchestrated by his grandmother of course.
Lynne, who still keeps a very tight rein on the Britney empire, has overseen the million-pound bidding war for the first baby pictures and interview with her daughter.
SHE was furious when the whole deal was almost scuppered by a photographer taking long-range pictures from a helicopter.
With one hand rocking the cradle and another firmly steering her daughter's business interests, Lynne is leaving nothing to chance.
She has been acting as a peace-maker between Britney and Kevin who are said to be bickering since Britney returned home from hospital.
"Lynne knows that having a baby can cause a lot of stress and she has been trying to help Kevin and Britney," says a friend.
"When the couple have an argument Kevin just gets in his Ferrari and drives away to play a round of golf or be with his buddies.
"This makes Britney feel even more isolated and Lynne has been trying to help them communicate more."
But even with her all-powerful mother living with her, Britney is still emotionally fragile.
During a Kabbalah session at her home - the cultish offshoot of Judaism patronised by the likes of Madonna - the singer burst into tears and had to be put into bed by her mother who admitted to the assembled guests that her daughter was suffering from "stress".
The episode is a clear sign that despite her hopes to be free of "manipulation", Britney is still very much her mother's little girl
