To date Britney Spears, you must possess three qualifications: a fierce love of Cheetos products, an ability to erase the year 2007 from memory, and a fierce refusal to star in a UPN reality show about your life together. (R.I.P. “Britney and Kevin: Chaotic.” Gone far too soon.)
Spears, just like the rest of us, is tasked with suffering sub-par dates to find her next Federline (circa 2004). But when we get nervous before forced conversation between movie previews, we eat our weight in expired Valentine’s Day chocolate. Spears loses six pounds.
As the cover star of Marie Claire’s fall fashion issue, Brit spilled the tea on what it’s like dating in the public eye (not easy) and how even she gets rejected from time to time (not fun).
“I had a really bad date. I mean, it was really bad. I’ve been single for ages and had a date with a guy I liked,” she told the magazine. “I was getting anxious, worrying he wouldn’t like me. In the evening, I got on the scales and I had lost six pounds. We went to the movies, but I could tell right away it wasn’t working. It was sort of awkward. So after the movie I came home and that was it. It just didn’t work [...] He just wasn’t that into me. I liked him. He knew that. But he definitely didn’t feel the same. It happens to everybody. Being famous doesn’t make you any different.”
Certainly being one of the most recognizable women on planet Earth has its drawbacks. Spears admitted that living under a media microscope, especially early on in her career, magnified her insecurities and warped her sense of self.
“I moved to Los Angeles when I was very young,” she said, “I was so under scrutiny. If a hair was out of place, I’d be so anxious. I would get very anxious about so many things.”
It wasn’t until the birth of her two sons ― Jayden, now 9, Sean Preston, now 10 ― that she stopped obsessing over her public image and learned to love herself almost as much as her fans love “Glory.”
“Becoming a mother and being with my boys has made me so much more accepting of myself. I’m their mom, whatever,” Spears added. “That has been a really big thing for me over these last few years.”
Read the full interview with Spears in Marie Claire’s October issue, on newsstands now.
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