It ain’t over till Britney Spears sings! In a new interview, the Princess of Pop’s ex-husband Jason Alexander denied rumors that her indefinite work hiatus is actually a permanent break.
“I know she wants to perform. That must be a lie,” Alexander, 38, exclusively told Us Weekly while attending a #FreeBritney protest in Los Angeles on Wednesday, August 19. “That’s not what she told me. She misses performing.”
Alexander said that he and Spears, also 38, recently reconnected after being married for a mere 55 hours in January 2004. He claimed they “stay in contact pretty regularly” these days and even texted the night before a court hearing in her conservatorship case on Wednesday.
“Either way, whatever happens today, she’s gotta go back to work from what she told me, so she’ll be performing,” he told Us. “She has to. She’s under contract. She has another album, I believe. She’s got to fulfill that obligation, and I say she just goes independent. F–k Hollywood.”
Spears announced in January 2019 that she was taking a break from her career and canceling her planned second Las Vegas residency, Britney: Domination. She subsequently sought treatment at a mental health facility and has yet to unveil plans to return to work.
“Britney is in no rush to start recording music again,” a source exclusively told Us in March. “The thought barely crosses her mind.”
The Grammy winner has not released an album since August 2016, marking her longest period without new music since she launched her career in 1998. She last performed on stage in October 2018, when she wrapped up her Piece of Me tour in Austin, Texas.
“These past few months [have] been a welcome break because she truly had been working nonstop,” a second insider told Us in March. “Don’t expect her to resume an active career anytime soon.”
Spears’ longtime manager, Larry Rudolph, said in a May 2019 interview with TMZ that “she clearly doesn’t want to perform” and may never again. While he later clarified that he was “not sure,” the “Toxic” singer’s son Jayden, 13, seemed to confirm Rudolph’s suspicions, saying on Instagram Live in March that Spears once told him she “might just quit.”
The Crossroads star shares Jayden and Preston, 14, with her ex-husband Kevin Federline. She has been dating personal trainer Sam Asghari since 2016.
With reporting by Marjorie Hernandez
