Did the Princess of Pop almost become a real royal? Biographer Christopher Andersen alleged that Prince William connected with Britney Spears and Lauren Bush prior to his marriage to Duchess Kate.
The author made the claim in his new book, Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry and Meghan, which was released on Tuesday, November 30.
“[William and Spears] tried to get together back when they were young, and he also had a kind of similar cyber relationship with Lauren Bush, the model and the niece of President [George W.] Bush,” Andersen exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday.
The journalist claimed that while the Duke of Cambridge, now 39, and the pop star, also 39, were in contact, their relationship never escalated. “There may have been phone conversations, but I don’t recall that they ever actually managed to get together during that period,” he said.
The “Toxic” songstress divulged during a 2002 interview with ITV1’s Frank Skinner Show that the twosome “exchanged emails for a little bit, and he was supposed to come and see [her] somewhere but it didn’t work out.”
Prior to his alleged friendship with Spears, William set his sights on another celebrity. “William had a huge crush on Cindy Crawford. I think it’s very cute,” Andersen shared. “So [Princess] Diana, being the kind of person she [was], she arranged for a meeting with him when he was, like, 14.”
Although the prince did not end up with an A-lister, his marriage to Kate, 39, makes perfect sense.
“He pretty much had his pick as he grew up of women to date … and there was always hope that he’d link up with somebody from another foreign noble family or something,” Andersen told Us. “I think it’s very telling that both William and [Prince] Harry married commoners. I mean, Kate, her mom was a flight attendant who grew up in public housing. Meghan [Markle] obviously has working class roots, and she’s American and divorced and biracial — all those things that you would never expect in a million years. But I think that those are things that Diana would have loved — the fact that they stepped outside of everybody’s comfort zone.”
William and Kate began dating in 2003 after meeting as students at the University of St Andrews in Scotland in 2001. They announced their engagement in November 2010 and exchanged vows in April 2011. The pair have since welcomed son Prince George, 8, daughter Princess Charlotte, 6, and son Prince Louis, 3.
Spears, for her part, was briefly married to Jason Alexander in 2004 and to Kevin Federline — with whom she shares sons Preston, 16, and Jayden, 15 — from 2004 to 2007. She confirmed her engagement to Sam Asghari in September after nearly five years of dating. The singer was notably under a conservatorship from 2008 until November.
Brothers and Wives is available now.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
