Britney Spears desperately wanted a fairy-tale marriage — but ended up being left alone for months on end, according to sources.
The pop princess may have wed Sam Asghari in a dazzling ceremony with a starry guest list, but there were clear signs the union was ill-fated right from the start.
Just three hours before they said “I do” on June 9, 2022, Jason Alexander, Spears’ first husband of just 55 hours, broke into her home while armed with a knife and made it up to her bedroom door.
Spears, 41, was, of course, rattled. One source in the know says, “Tensions were, for sure, high.”
There were fears that the “Toxic” singer, who has made no secret that she has struggled with her mental health, was overwrought on her big day. She was seen by one guest making odd faces while taking her vows, we’re told.
“There were a couple of funny moments when Britney was giggling through the vows,” the source shares. “But it was such a fun wedding. Britney sat with the wedding planner. She wanted a flower wall. She wanted pink. She designed her dress, and Donatella Versace flew out to LA twice. She had a wedding rehearsal the day before. Britney was in charge.”
But this week, the marriage collapsed entirely after just 14 months as Asghari, 29, filed for divorce amid a slew of dramatic reports claiming the “Toxic” singer had attacked him in his sleep and cheated on him with a staffer — while others claimed he was ready to reveal her secrets if she did not pay far more than their prenup would allow.
“S–t happens,” he posted on Instagram.
Pvnew is told Asghari has been living separately from Spears for months, as one insider says, “Britney wanted a fairy-tale, and she didn’t get it. She felt that Sam’s love was not unconditional.
“Of course she feels let down. … Anyone would when your partner is not providing for you in the way you feel you need to be provided for.
“She booked great, high-end vacations and paid for everything. They went everywhere on [a] private jet.
“But he was not super present. You only have to ask, where was he when Britney was filming all her Instagram videos? He would just disappear for months to go filming [for work], and she would be left all alone. There were times when he would just get up and go.”
The insider denies reports that Asghari suspected Spears had cheated on him and that she had attacked him, saying: “There was no cheating. And he’s 6-foot-2 and she’s 5-foot-4, so how could she attack him?
“The honest truth of it is that it’s complicated. This wasn’t a whiplash decision. It’s been in the works for the past month.”
Although Spears remains largely estranged from her family, including dad Jamie, who brought about her strict conservatorship in 2008 at the height of his daughter’s mental health issues, other members of her family have reached out to offer support, we’re told.
She also has the ongoing help of a therapist, friends say, and has hired divorce lawyer to the stars Laura Wasser.
One pal adds: “Britney is strong. She’s feeling like, ‘Whoa’ like you would in any breakup when you’ve been with someone for six years, but she’s very clearheaded. She’s not holed up all alone crying.”
Another tells Pvnew, “I think Britney gets a bad rap. She’s a true artist in the way that she processes things, in the way that she creates. But she’s doing incredibly well under the circumstances.”
The wedding was seen as a milestone in Spears’ newly reclaimed life after the dissolution just six months earlier of her conservatorship.
She and Asghari met in 2016, and he was at her side throughout the #FreeBritney legal battle.
Its harrowing revelations included her telling a judge she had even been forced on birth control and made to perform in Las Vegas by her conservators, who included her father, Jamie. She also revealed she had been put on lithium, most commonly prescribed for bipolar disorder, which made her “feel drunk.”
Spears met Asghari on the set of her “Slumber Party” music video when he was cast as her love interest.
His photo was one of the many that the star had to sift through and select from. She chose him as soon as she laid eyes on him.
“I did not have to audition,” he once said. “It was a direct book.”
A few months later, Spears found his number in her bag.
“I was like, ‘He is really cute. This guy is really cute,” she told a radio host in 2017. “So then I called him, and ever since then … he is just a really fun, funny person.”
She made their relationship Instagram-official on New Year’s Day 2017, posting a photo of them at dinner.
“It was the humbleness that attracted me,” Asghari told GQ. “She was very humble, and she had a beautiful soul.”
Asghari publicly threw his support behind the campaign to end his girlfriend’s conservatorship, posting a selfie wearing a #FreeBritney T-shirt.
His proposal in September 2021 with a four-carat diamond ring gave hope to Spears’ fans that she had finally found her happily ever after.
As the singer wrote on Instagram in August 2022: “The truth is, my spirits are better but I will forever be traumatized by my past experience for life. There is no way to fix me, my emotions and my sensitivity … therapy, all of it !!! I think I will need some sort of miracle for my emotions.”
On the day of the wedding, the star arrived in a horse-drawn carriage straight out of a Disney movie. Her home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., was strewn with pink and white roses.
The 10-minute ceremony took place in a tent draped in blush-colored velvet.
An eclectic list of guests included Madonna; Selena Gomez; Drew Barrymore; Paris Hilton, her husband, Carter Reum, and her mother, Kathy Hilton; Maria Menounos; Ansel Elgort; Will.i.am; and Versace, who designed Spears’ sleek, off-the-shoulder dress with a leg-revealing slit and veil with satin trim.
None of Spears’ family was there, including her two teenage sons, Sean Preston, 17, and Jayden James, 16, by her second husband, Kevin Federline, to whom she was married from 2004 to 2007.
The boys recently moved with their father to Hawaii, where they have been caught up in the trauma of the wildfires.
After Asghari filed for divorce Wednesday, claims emerged that he had accused Spears of leaving him bruised and with a black eye after being attacked while he slept, that she had been filmed naked by a staffer and cheated on him.
Following reports that he plans to fight his “ironclad” prenup, Asghari’s rep, Brandon Cohen, released a statement saying, “There are many claims that Sam is challenging the prenup and threatening to exploit his ex-wife with videos.
“However, all these claims are false, as no negative intention has ever been directed towards her and never will be. Sam has always and will always support her.”
Pvnew has reached out to Spears’ reps. Asghari’s reps declined to comment.
A source who knows the Spears family well tells Pvnew: “Of course, this is what everyone was worried about.
“There was always a concern that Britney would end up isolated and on her own, and that’s what has happened.
“None of this surprises me. And unfortunately, I do believe that where this is all headed is very sad.”
Spears is still planning to release her memoir, “The Woman in Me,” on Oct. 24, and there have been no emergency meetings or issues with holding up publication, we’re told.
She is also setting up a writing workshop to work with new musicians.
“Everyone just piles on,” the pal says, “when really we should let Britney do what she wants to do.”
