The holidays may be two months away, but for celebrity lovers, it feels like Christmas morning: Britney Spears' highly anticipated memoir, The Woman in Me, is out today to great acclaim, and while the book's 288 pages of anecdotes are too numerous to list, this one is compelling. Over the weekend, Marie Claire magazine detailed how, in 2002, Spears broke up with her boyfriend of three years, Justin Timberlake, in a two-word email while filming a music video in LA. Five years later, in 2007, "Entertainment Tonight" reported that Spears had been married and divorced twice and was fragile as she prepared to perform at the MTV Video Music Awards.

It certainly wasn't Spears' first time on stage at the VMAs, but much had happened since the last time, including a head-shaving incident. A veteran performer, Spears did not look like herself in her performance of "Gimme More," which is probably why she ran into Timberlake backstage before going onstage.

"It had been a long time since I had seen him," Spears wrote. 'All was well in his world. He was on top of his game in every way and had a lot of swagger. I was having a panic attack. I wasn't rehearsing enough. I hated the way I looked. I knew I couldn't go on like this."

Regarding her widely criticized performance, Spears said, "There were problems with my costume and hair extensions. I couldn't sleep the night before, I was dizzy. I was dizzy...I had not yet had my second baby in two years, and everyone acted as if it was offensive that I did not have six-pack abs."[7 Spears continued that she "couldn't believe" that she was forced to go on stage.

"While I was performing, there were video projections of myself everywhere in the audience, and it was like looking at my reflection in a mansion mirror."

That same night, Timberlake performed with Nelly Furtado and Timbaland, who won Male Artist of the Year. 'Justin was gliding down the runway. He flirted with the girls in the audience, one of whom turned around, rolled onto his back, and sang while shaking his chest."

"Woman in Me," filled with revelations about Spears' life, is available now.