Britney Spears was "locked in hotel rooms" and sobbed she "wanted to be normal" during the "dangerous" height of her career, according to a close friend.
The 'Toxic' hitmaker, 41, was receiving death threats and would be banned from leaving her hotel during tours, according to her former make-up artist Julianne Kaye.
She was just 23-years-old when she took on the job of a lifetime, accompanying Britney on tours around the world from Europe to Asia.
She struck up a close, almost sisterly, friendship with the star and saw first-hand the extraordinary pressure she was under after bursting onto the scene with Baby One More Time in 1998.
She recalls vividly a trip to London where her car was mobbed by fans and paparazzi as the two women attempted to head out from their hotel.
Julianne told The Mirror: "She just started crying and she was like, ‘Oh my God, what's going on? I just want to go shopping.
"It just got really crazy. And then it meant her having to be locked into her hotel room because it just was dangerous. It was so crazy."
Britney was always saying she just "wanted to be normal" but her level of fame at the time precluded her from any semblance of normality. She felt, in effect, trapped, says Julianne.
"She really loved entertaining and she really loved performing, she loved that part of the job, but she hated all the other stuff because she wasn't the kind of celebrity that just could walk outside of her hotel room," she says. "It was pretty wild. The fans were crazy. She couldn't do anything."
While on tour, the two women would often sneak out with Britney disguising herself in different-coloured wigs - much to her manager’s disgust.
"Her manager hated that, I'd sneak Britney out and he's like, 'Do you know she has death threats against her?' And I'm like, 'I just want her to have a good time'. She so loved the wigs."
Hotel security were even placed by her door to stop her escaping.
"We literally just ran out. And he's like, 'wait!' And we just ran. I think that was in Vienna. I got in trouble for that with her management," she recalls.
Julianne says she is delighted that Britney has her freedoms back following the end of her conservatorship, and hopes that the newly-married star finally finds peace again.
The make-up artist is now starring in new reality show, "Blowing LA," about the luxury hairstylists behind some of the biggest Hollywood stars, as well as having written a novel - Pop Tart - drawing on her experiences.
Blowing La launches on December 7 on Paramount +
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