Britney Spears says she suffered a “panic attack” after bumping into her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards shortly before she went on stage at the ceremony and gave a performance that was brutally savaged by critics.
Writing in her new memoir The Woman in Me, Spears explained how her appearance—the first to be broadcast in three years after a series of personal struggles—turned into a disaster before it had even started.
The now-41-year-old said the VMAs snafu started with an anxiety-inducing encounter with Timberlake just before she went on stage to perform her single “Gimme More.”
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“It had been a while since I’d seen him,” she wrote in the book. She went on to explain: “Everything was going great in his world,” adding: “He was at the top of his game in every way, and he had a lot of swagger. I was having a panic attack. I hadn’t rehearsed enough. I hated the way I looked. I knew it was going to be bad.”
Spears also said “nothing was going right” backstage at the show, with her performance coming seven months after she shaved her hair off in full view of paparazzi.
“There was a problem with my costume and with my hair extensions,” she wrote. “I hadn’t slept the night before. I was dizzy. It was less than a year since I’d had my second baby in two years but everyone was acting like my not having six-pack abs was offensive.”
She said she “couldn’t believe I was going to have to go out onstage feeling the way I felt,” but nevertheless “went out there and did the best I could at that moment in time.” “I could see myself on video throughout the auditorium while I performed; it was like looking at myself in a fun-house mirror.”
Timberlake, now 42, had an incredible night, scooping four awards including Male Artist of the Year. He also performed at the ceremony, with Spears saying he “glided down the runway.” “He was flirting with girls in the audience, including one who turned around and arched her back, shaking her breasts as he sang to her,” she wrote.
The reaction to Spears’ botched comeback performance was scathing from fans and critics. A New York Times report called it a “fiasco” and “listless,” while a source told People that Spears was “just plain nervous because of all the hype and she’s embarrassed.”
Comedian Sarah Silverman delivered a monologue at the VMAs after Spears’ performance saying that, at 25, Spears had “already accomplished everything she’s gonna accomplish” and referred to Spears’ children as “the most adorable mistakes you will ever see.” (Silverman said years later she wished she “could delete” the roast, but can’t.)
It wasn’t the first nightmare Spears had at the VMAs. She also recounted in her book that her 2001 performance at the ceremony—in which she danced with a python—was “terrifying.”
