Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Emily Richardson | Celebrity | October 13, 2023
Britney Spears’ much-anticipated memoir, The Woman In Me, comes out October 24. And guess who’s narrating the audiobook? Hint: the answer is in the headline of this article. It’s five-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams!
People reports that 41-year-old Britney will record an introduction to the audiobook, and 43-year-old Michelle will cover the rest. Both women gave statements to People. Michelle’s was simple: “I stand with Britney.” Here’s Britney’s:
“This book has been a labor of love and all the emotions that come with it,” Spears says in a statement shared with PEOPLE. “Reliving everything has been exciting, heart-wrenching, and emotional, to say the least. For those reasons, I will only be reading a small part of my audiobook.”Spears adds, “I am so grateful to the amazing Michelle Williams for reading the rest of it.”
Sources tell Page Six that there were lots of female celebrities vying to do the voiceover, but Britney and her team picked Michelle because she possesses a “tremendous amount of class and elegance”, as well as “gravitas”. There’s also the fact that Michelle has her own history of child star/parenting drama:
“There was a mutual attraction from all sides based on Britney’s powerful narrative and what Britney went through and Michelle’s own integrity and history with her own emancipation issues.”
At age 15, Michelle legally emancipated herself from her parents (with their approval) to fully pursue an acting career. Toodle-oo, pesky childhood labor laws! Hello, solo teen living in Burbank, aka Studio City. Michelle says, during that time, she met some “really disgusting people”, ate pizza for every meal, and didn’t see a dentist for years. Then, when she was 17, she booked Dawson’s Creek, and the rest is Hollywood history. Michelle’s parents have since split, and the actress has hinted that she is estranged from her father (same as Brit-Brit!).
I think Michelle is a great choice to narrate Britney’s audiobook. In addition to the whole “being an amazing actress” thing, she can also relate to being a traumatized young mom in the public eye. Earlier this year, Michelle told the Guardian that, after Heath Ledger’s tragic 2008 death, the paparazzi permanently camped outside the Brooklyn home she shared with her then-two-year-old daughter, Matilda:
“That feeling of being watched goes very, very deep,” she says today, “because it cuts you off from living your life. And for a while it felt like such an impediment to being natural and unguarded that my daughter and I moved outside of the city.”
For years, Michelle and Matilda managed to lead “an unobserved life” on a farm in upstate New York. In 2018, the pair moved back to the same Brooklyn neighborhood they once lived in with Heath. Michelle married theater director Thomas Kail in 2020, and the couple welcomed two baby boys during the pandemic. As for little Matilda? She’s about to turn 18. EIGHTEEN. Damn, I’m old. And so are you.
The Woman in Me audiobook will be released simultaneously with the print editions. I’m not one for audiobooks, but I actually might give this one a go. If only to hear Jen Lindley stick it to Justin Timberlake.
