Back to This Week in Music History: December 30 - January 5
January 3, 2008: Britney Spears Suffers Mental Breakdown
Kevin Winter, Getty Images
It seems like only yesterday we witnessed a highly publicized series of breakdowns in pop princess Britney Spears' life, but it was over half a decade ago now.
In 2008, a year after Spears shaved her head coming off of a less-than-24 hour stint at a rehab facility, the singer got involved in another public dispute when her ex-husband Kevin Federline's bodyguards came to her home to pick up their children as scheduled.
Spears refused to hand over the kids and even locked herself in a room with the youngest. Police came to the scene, resulting in a standoff with Spears that eventually drew in firetrucks, ambulances, a police helicopter and members of the media.
Spears was hospitalized as a "special needs" patient and her visitation rights were suspended, granting Federline the sole custody to their kids. By the end of January, she was committed to the psychiatric ward of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.











