“To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”
2023 was a major year for celebrity memoirs with massive stars like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton putting pen to paper and telling all. These stars didn’t hold back when it came to the most personal details about their lives — opening up about everything from secret pregnancies to abusive marriages. Many of these revelations came as a huge shock to fans, who now know more than ever about their favorite stars.
Here are some of the most shocking revelations from the biggest celebrity memoirs of the year…
Britney Spears got pregnant with Justin Timberlake but had an abortion
In Britney’s tell-all memoir, The Woman In Me, she revealed that she got pregnant while she was dating Justin Timberlake. Back in 2000, the couple learned that they were expecting, and while Britney admits she was “conflicted” about the situation, she truly wanted to keep the baby. Meanwhile, Justin believed they weren’t ready for children. In the end, they decided to move forward with an abortion.
“It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated,” she wrote of the pregnancy, via PEOPLE. “But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”
Of the abortion, she added, “I don’t know if that was the right decision. If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father. To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”
Britney and Justin went on to call it quits in 2002.
Getty
Matthew Perry Died from ‘Acute Effects of Ketamine,’ Which He Wrote About In His Memoir
View Story
Jada Pinkett Smith turned down a marriage proposal from Tupac
In Jada Pinkett Smith’s memoir, Worthy, she opened up about her relationship with the late Tupac Shakur. After meeting during her sophomore year at Baltimore School of the Arts, the pair went on to have a close friendship through the years. While Jada had said that there was no romantic chemistry between the pair, she admits that at one point, Tupac asked her for her hand in marriage.
While Tupac was serving time at Rikers for a sexual abuse conviction, Jada says he wrote her a letter saying he came “to realize the friend, lover and soulmate was there all the time,” and wanted to marry her. He even asked her mother for permission. While she admits that she considered saying yes, she said she ultimately turned him down after realizing he expected conjugal visits.
“I couldn’t do it. It took some difficult conversations, but eventually Pac and I got to a place of acceptance,” Jada wrote in the book.
When Tupac was released from jail, their relationship changed, leading to a blowout fight between the pair. Jada hadn’t spoken to Tupac for a year before he was shot in Las Vegas in 1996 and passed away.
Paris Hilton was taken advantage of by her middle school teacher
Paris Hilton went through some pretty traumatic events as a teenager, much of it stemming from her enrollment at an abusive boarding school called Provo Canyon School. But while she was still attending a local middle school, she says she had an inappropriate relationship with her eighth grade teacher.
Reflecting on the situation in Paris: The Memoir, she says she recalls all the girls having a crush on a “handsome young teacher” who looked like an Abercrombie model. One day, “Mr. Abercrombie” confessed to Paris that he had a crush on her and asked for her phone number.
“Mr. Abercrombie called me almost every night, and we talked for hours about how amazingly mature, beautiful, and intelligent I was, how sensual, misunderstood, and special,” she wrote. “He reminded me that Princess Diana was thirteen years younger than Prince Charles. And Priscilla Presley was my age when Elvis fell in love with her.”
Their secret relationship continued to escalate until Mr. Abercrombie came to visit Paris one night when her parents weren’t home. He lured her into his car and “pulled me into his arms and kissed me.” Eventually Paris’ parents returned home and caught them in the car — and the teacher blamed the entire situation on Paris.
“It took decades for me to actually speak the word pedophile,” Paris shared of unpacking the trauma. “Casting him in the role of child molester meant casting myself in the role of victim, and I just couldn’t go there.”
Getty
The Situation Details MVP Orgies, Drug-Fueled Sex Parties In Book — Yes, Costars Knew It Was Coming (Exclusive)
View Story
Kanye West asked Julia Fox to be his girlfriend the day after they met
In Julia Fox’s memoir, Down the Drain, she opened up about her whirlwind romance with Kanye West. Looking back, Julia says she first spoke to Kanye after he asked a friend of a friend for her number. Their relationship started on the phone with the pair having hours-long phone calls before meeting in person in Miami over New Year’s Eve in 2021.
The day after they met, he invited her to dinner where he bluntly asked her to be his girlfriend. He added, “How would you feel about taking the relationship public?” Julia said she shot down the idea at first but said he told her, “If you’re worried about me embarrassing you, I wouldn’t do that. You have a son, and my mom was a single mom.”
The pair began dating and Julia says Kanye quickly became comfortable around her. But as time went on, she says the relationship became equal parts passion and pretend. She admits she felt like a “show monkey” each time the rapper dressed her up to his liking, just to parade her around for the paparazzi. Reflecting on their romance, Julia recalled feeling like everything was a publicity stunt and she was a pawn in his divorce from Kim Kardashian, writing, “I feel like he’s using me in some weird, twisted game. It makes me feel dirty.”
The couple eventually broke up and Kanye attempted to get her to sign an NDA, which she refused.
Getty
Biggest Bombshells From Julia Fox’s Memoir ‘Down the Drain’
View Story
Jana Kramer almost died at the hands of her first husband
Jana Kramer has been open about the abuse she experienced in her first marriage to Michael Gambino but in her memoir, The Next Chapter, she reflected on the experience in painful detail. At one point, she says that Michael choked her so severely that he thought he killed her.
“I had my head bashed into bathroom mirrors countless times and was choked and shoved on a weekly basis. Almost every morning around three o’clock, he would throw me out of bed after coming home from a rager at a club,” Jana wrote in the book. “Toward the end of our, let’s just call it, courtship, I was his rag doll. I was so depressed and scared, and all I wanted was an out, but I was trapped.”
He was later arrested and sentenced to six years in prison for attempted murder. He died by suicide in 2012.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages; Calls are confidential and toll-free.
