THE BLUFFER'S GUIDE TO BRITNEY

■ This Saturday marks a whole year since the end of her conservatorship agony, so here are some facts on the Toxic star.

❑ Britney Jean Spears was born in McComb, Mississippi, on December 2, 1981, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana.

❑ Her maternal grandfather Barney Bridges was a GI who was stationed in London and married Lillian Portell, an electrician’s daughter, from East Finchley. He had three daughters and died in 1978.

❑ Brit’s paternal grandfather was called June Spears and known to the family as Papaw June.

❑ Her first press coverage came in the Kentwood News when she was “Baby of the Week”.

❑ As a child, Britney tried gymnastics and was briefly coached by Béla Károlyi who worked with Olympic legend Nadia Comaneci before defecting to the US in 1981.

❑ One of her biographers described her as “not especially bright”. Her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake said: “Even when she doesn’t understand, she understands that she doesn’t understand.”

❑ In April 1993, Spears joined The Mickey Mouse Club on TV and her home town declared April 24 as “Britney Spears Day” in her honour. Other Mouseketeers were Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera.

❑ In November 1998, she was the support for NSYNC on tour and began dating Timberlake.

❑ In February 1999, she became the youngest solo performer to have a number one single and album in America and a million-selling song in Baby One More Time.

❑ In March 2003, she won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for her film Crossroads. She shared the honour with Madonna.

❑ In September 2003, she confessed to having slept with Justin Timberlake – but only because she thought they were going to be married.

❑ Spears wed Jason Alexander in Las Vegas on January 3, 2004. The marriage lasted 55 hours before it was annulled.

❑ Eight months later, on September 18, she married Kevin Federline, inset, in her wedding planner’s garden.

❑ On February 1, 2008, Spears was placed in an involuntary conservatorship under the guardianship of her dad, Jamie, and her lawyer.

❑ The terms were so strict, she was not even allowed to remove her contraceptive device without permission.

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When it ended after 13 years, nine months and 11 days, she “celebrated” by posting nude photographs of herself on the internet.