THE MELTDOWN
Flashback to 2007 and Britney was in the throes of a nasty custody battle with her ex-husband Kevin Federline for their sons, Sean and Jayden.
In February of that year the Oops! . . . I Did It Again hitmaker, who was reportedly battling a drug problem and mental health issues, paid a now-infamous visit to a California hair salon where she was photographed shaving her head.
“I don’t want anyone touching me,” she declared. “I’m tired of everybody touching me.”
After a short stint in rehab – her second that year – the then 25-year-old found her way to Kevin’s house and begged him to let her see her sons.
He turned her away – and, brandishing a green umbrella, Britney took her fury out on the car in which a paparazzo had been following her.
A plethora of pastel wigs, a panned MTV Video Music Awards performance and total chaos ensued in the 11 months that followed – and the paparazzi were there to document every heartbreaking fiasco.
“In some way we did that to her, all of us,” an insider told E! Online. “She’d worked so hard and yet she had nothing to show for it – no husband, no access to her kids, a fractured relationship with her family and what she felt was no say in her life. She felt worthless.”
In January 2008 things went from bad to worse. Britney refused to allow Kevin to see Sean and Jayden and all hell broke loose.
The authorities were called and an ambulance was sent for. Britney, wild-eyed and dishevelled, was strapped to a gurney and sent to a psychiatric hospital.