Britney Spears Says Las Vegas Wedding to Jason Alexander Was 'Innocent Fun' (original) (raw)

Britney Spears is remembering the day she married childhood friend Jason Alexander in Las Vegas.

In the pop icon’s memoir _The Woman in M_e, out Oct. 24, Spears details the moments that led to her spontaneous Las Vegas wedding — and everything that happened afterward.

It was January 2004 and Spears, now 41, “got s---faced” with Alexander in Sin City.

“I don’t even remember that night at all, but from what I pieced together, he and I lounged around the hotel room and stayed up late watching movies — Mona Lisa Smile and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — then had the brilliant idea of going to A Little White Chapel at three thirty in the morning,” the “Toxic” singer writes.

'The Woman in Me,' by Britney Spears.

In the book, Spears also writes, “People have asked me if I loved him. To be clear: he and I were not in love," she writes. "I was just honestly very drunk — and probably, in a more general sense at that time in my life, very bored."

Spears says her parents Jamie and Lynne were not happy about the impromptu nuptials.

"They made way too big a deal out of innocent fun," she writes. "Everybody has a different perspective on it, but I didn't take it that seriously. I thought a goof-around Vegas wedding was something people might do as a joke. Then my family came and acted like I'd started World War III. I cried the whole rest of the time I was in Las Vegas."

During their visit, Spears’ parents insisted she get the 55-hour marriage annulled.

"My family was so against the wedding that I started to think maybe I'd accidentally committed a brilliant act," she writes. "Because I realized: something about me being under their control and not having a stronger connection to someone else had become very, very important to them... Perhaps it's worth mentioning that, by this point, I was supporting them financially."

Four years after her first marriage, Spears was put under a court-ordered conservatorship, which lasted nearly 14 years before it was terminated in November of 2021.

Britney Spears on the cover of PEOPLE.

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Now, Spears finds joy in everyday moments.

“I’m playing with my dogs … [or] watching episodes of Friends and belly laughing. I love, love to travel and explore,” she tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview done via email. “I am a simple girl.”

Spears is also reclaiming her voice today.

“Over the past 15 years or even at the start of my career, I sat back while people spoke about me and told my story for me,” she added in the email interview. “After getting out of my conservatorship, I was finally free to tell my story without consequences from the people in charge of my life.”

Britney Spears for PEOPLE.

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For more of the exclusive excerpt and interview with Britney Spears, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.