Britney Spears’ former assistant Sean Phillip has recalled supporting the star through some of her toughest times as she releases her shocking new memoir The Woman In Me.
Sean, who lived with the pop singer, now 41, for a time, described her as being a ‘sad person’ as he discussed her infamous 2007 head shaving incident.
Speaking on Tuesday’s GMB he said: ‘For me personally, I did see a sad person… I was worried for her, I felt protective of her at the time. It wasn’t a job anymore, it was protection in a friendship kind of way’.
Sean told hosts Richard Madeley and Kate Garraway how he had tried to persuade the star to get professional help by driving her to a facility following the head shaving incident.
‘We were told that she was being sued by her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, and that we had to take her to a facility and she agreed to go to a facility and we went’.
Speaking out: Britney Spears ‘ former assistant Sean Phillip has recalled supporting the star through some of her toughest
Tough times: Sean, who lived with the pop singer for a time, described her as being a ‘sad person’ as he discussed her infamous 2007 head shaving incident (pictured)
He continued, ‘But she had to check herself in voluntarily and when we got there, she didn’t want to do it and nobody could make her do it.’
‘He came over and we had a long discussion, a very emotional discussion between herself, her father and a few other people. That was basically the last time I saw her
Sean went on: ‘She walked out of the front door with her father, turned around, said, ‘I love you’ and ‘Goodbye’. I felt a certain kind of way, I felt like that was a goodbye.
‘I had no idea what was going to happen after that, no information about the legal things that were going on and what was to come after that. Things got a little worse, a lot worse, after that.’
He then revealed how Britney would often approach strangers, recalling one incident with group of surfers in Malibu, saying she ‘just wanted friends’.
‘The problem with Britney having friends is a lot of people wanted to be friends with Britney for the wrong reasons. Those particular people on that day were nice gentlemen who took care of her, they called me and I picked her up.’
Adding: ‘I would see things on the news and see her with people I didn’t know, who I’d never met. It worried me that people would be taking advantage of her.’
Pals: Speaking on Tuesday’s GMB he said: ‘For me personally, I did see a sad person… I was worried for her, I felt protective of her at the time. It wasn’t a job anymore, it was protection in a friendship kind of way’ (Sean and Britney pictured together in 2006)
Helping: Sean told hosts Richard Madeley and Kate Garraway how he had tried to persuade the star to get professional help by driving her to a facility following the head shaving incident
Honest: Sean said that when Britney refused they drove home and feeling helpless they called her father, Jamie Spears, which eventually sparked the beginning of the controversial 13-year conservatorship over the star
Richard then asked about Mel Gibson reportedly calling to offer Britney help, with saying saying: ‘He wanted to provide her guidance of some sort.’
On receiving phone calls offering help after the head shaving incident, he told the hosts: ‘I got a lot of interesting phone calls during that time. There were a lot of people who wanted to help, their hearts were in the right place but it was too chaotic…’All I need is five minutes with her’.’
Sean went on to say he doesn’t know if he’ll read Britney’s new book but says it’s ‘a good thing’ she can tell her own story.
It comes after Britney has finally revealed why she shaved her head during her infamous 2007 downward spiral.
The pop megastar got candid about the incident and the reasoning behind it in an excerpt from her highly-anticipated memoir The Woman In Me obtained by People magazine on Tuesday.
Shock: Britney was put under a court-ordered conservatorship in 2008 which granted her father Jamie and a lawyer total control over her financial and personal affairs
Candid: It comes after Britney has finally revealed why she shaved her head during her infamous 2007 downward spiral in her new memoir
As she was in the midst of going through a painful divorce with Kevin Federline and was constantly in the public eye, the mother-of-two opened up on what led her to that moment.
She wrote: ‘I’d been eyeballed so much growing up. I’d been looked up and down, had people telling me what they thought of my body, since I was a teenager.
‘Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back.’
As a result, a year later she was put under a court-ordered conservatorship in 2008 which granted her father Jamie Spears and a lawyer total control over her financial and personal affairs.
Britney also revealed that due to the conservatorship she was prohibited from keeping the look as she wrote: ‘Under the conservatorship I was made to understand that those days were now over.
‘I had to grow my hair out and get back into shape. I had to go to bed early and take whatever medication they told me to take.’
Britney also spoke out about that 13-year conservatorship as she detailed how her father ‘controlled her body and her money’ and ‘hurt’ her with ‘fat’ jibes.