Britney and her family lived in Kentwood, Louisiana. Everyone in town knew each other. Social lives revolved around church and backyard parties; kids wore matching outfits, and everyone knew how to shoot a gun. Britney's family had a small brick house with green-striped wallpaper and wood paneling. Yet, like most families, Britney's family also experienced a tragedy that affected her childhood.

Britney's middle name comes from the name of her father's mother, Emma Jean Spears, who was called Jean. In the photos, they had the same blonde hair and the same smile. Britney's grandfather, June Spears Sr., was a brutal man. Jean experienced the loss of a child when he was only three days old. June sent Jean to Southeast Louisiana Hospital, by all accounts, a horrible asylum in Mandeville, where she was put on lithium. In 1966, when she was thirty-one years old, Jean shot herself with a shotgun at her baby son's grave, a little more than eight years after his death.

Jean was not the only wife that June sent to the Mandeville psychiatric hospital. He sent his second wife there as well. One of Britney's father's half-sisters said that June sexually abused her from the age of eleven until she ran away at sixteen.

Britney's father, Jamie, was thirteen when Jean died on that grave. This trauma partly explains why her father was the way he was with his children and why nothing was ever good enough for him. June made him work so ridiculously hard, so Jamie was unbelievably talented at sports. Later on, Jamie would drink until he lost the ability to think. He would disappear for days at a time. When he drank, he was furious.

Britney’s father’s world and mother’s world were opposite to each other. Lynne, Britney’s mother, grew up with what you might consider real money, especially in rural Louisiana. She was gorgeous as a teenager, with her black hair worn short. Jamie, Britney’s father, took an interest in her. By all accounts, their relationship was born of mutual attraction and a sense of adventure. But the honeymoon was over long before Britney came along.