Report: Britney Grew Up In A Violent House

It was a traumatic scene that no child should ever have to see, but one that was replayed over and over again in the young life of Britney Spears.

Her father Jamie was shouting, her mother Lynne lay crumpled in a heap on the kitchen floor. Then, her dad begging for forgiveness at her feet, Lynne would give him yet another chance.

Such distressing, emotionally-charged episodes were all too familiar during Britney's childhood.

Her fans saw a beautiful, smiling girl who told sugar-coated tales of an idyllic childhood. But her close family knew that the reality was, sadly and starkly, very different.

Britney Jean Spears was not born into a stable home. She was born into a dysfunctional disordered one because of her father's alcoholic rages.

The rows and fights she witnessed left her a bundle of nerves that others, including her own mother, would mistake for natural excitement or energy.

Her Uncle Willie - Jamie's brother - bore witness to some of the ugly incidents.

He says: "One time Jamie was drunk and tried to drive off with Britney in the car. She was no more than five years old.

"I tried to stop him, so I reached into the truck to grab the keys from the ignition and he punched me. We got right into it there by the car, fighting in front of her.

"Britney was jumping up and down, crying. Lynne had to run out to get her inside.

"We Spears men are known for fighting.

If Britney happened to be there, so be it.

"Another time I was at the house and Jamie walked in drunk and called Lynne a bad name. She was in the kitchen drinking water and he grabbed the glass, walked into the lounge and just hurled it. It was rough, but the sad thing is that it became normal life.

"At first, Britney was a scared child and you'd catch her crying but she reached the stage when she just walked off, as if it wasn't happening. And as she got older, she would scream and curse at her parents, trying to get them to stop fighting."

When yet another row erupted at their modest three-bedroom bungalow in Kentwood, Louisiana, Britney would seek refuge in her aunt Chanda's trailer, parked nearby.

Chanda recalls Britney as sweet but timid. A girl made quiet and withdrawn by all the hollering and verbal abuse - until she had to perform.

Britney's need to perform allowed her to escape the pain and anxiety of home.

Although she is prone to over-analysing and appointing self-blame for her past troubles, her parents had their problems long before she was born.

In fact, her mother filed for divorce in 1980, a year before Britney was even conceived. Those legal papers reveal the flip side of Britney's childhood, offering insights into the adult she would turn into and the father who would become her legal guardian in 2008.

Lynne's divorce application was on the grounds of adultery. According to the petition, Jamie cheated on Christmas Day, 1979.

Source: Mirror.co.uk