THE uncle of tormented BRITNEY SPEARS today reveals the shocking truth about the star’s drink and drug-addled childhood for the first time.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, William Spears, 49, lays bare the troubled early life of the former Pop Princess.
He says Brit, 26, started DRINKING when she was a 13-year-old Mickey Mouse Club presenter and dabbled with DRUGS from the age of 14.
She is also terrified she will mimic her tragic grandmother Emma Jean, who committed suicide aged 31.
(Road Kill Willie ... Brit's uncle in his van)
We tracked William - known as Willie - down to his camper van home near Britney’s childhood town of Kentwood, Louisiana.
After her turbulent early years, Willie says she went “buck-wild” on turning 18, snorting cocaine on her birthday, adding: “She has tried just about everything - cocaine, crystal meth, ecstasy.”
Willie, a welder, decided to speak out after seeing Britney’s capitulation since losing full-time access to sons SEAN PRESTON, two, and JAYDEN JAMES, one, in her bitter custody row with Kevin Federline.
Willie claims her recent meltdown can be traced back to her difficult past.
(Not so innocent
... Brit on Disney)
He says: “I’m not just a family friend or someone who claims to know them. I was there every day, working with them. I have seen all the terrible things happen.”
Willie says his niece’s battle with the bottle started when she was just 13.
On one occasion, he was invited to a Florida wrap party for Disney kids’ TV show Mickey Mouse Club - which Britney fronted alongside JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE and CHRISTINA AGUILERA.
He says: “The kids were definitely drinking that night. While the adults talked, they were somewhere else, up to no good.
“They had a bottle of gin and slipped away to the bathroom to drink it. I saw them going.”
But Willie is certain Britney was exposed to drink and drugs long before she hit the big time.
“Her brother Bryan was the star of the high school football team. They went to all the best parties where there were drugs and alcohol - a lot.”
He believes her drug-taking started at 14 with marijuana but adds: “It got worse when she got famous and she found out that people would do what she wanted them to.
‘ She's tried just about everything ’
“She wanted to drink, party and go where she wanted to go.
“She is a ruthless little thing, make no mistake. Nobody controls her. She bosses everyone around her.”
Willie says his brother JAMIE - Britney’s dad - must take a large chunk of responsibility for her boozy lifestyle.
“Just about everyone in the Spears family is a drunk and Britney’s dad Jamie was one of the worst.
“He would drink from daylight to night. Britney saw him drunk all the time.”
Jamie went into rehab in 2004 to overcome an addiction to alcohol and painkillers - but the damage to his family was already done.
Willie continues: “Britney grew up thinking it was alright to drink and that you can live with a drinking problem.”
Willie is a recovering drug addict and has been clean for more than four years. But sensationally he admits taking drugs with Britney in the past.
He says: “I know she did cocaine on her 18th birthday - I was there.
“We were at a party in an apartment and I spotted her doing a line just before I did one. We smoked pot together too.”
Despite playing his part in her troubled past, Willie has also been called on to rescue Brit from desperate situations.
“One time I happened to be in New Orleans when Jamie called me.
“Britney was only 18 but she could drink where she wanted.
“Britney had passed out in the VIP area of a club and someone needed to get her. She just drank too much.
“I got there and she was out cold. I carried her out the back door and put her in the car. She got a telling off but she never listened. The drug use went up overnight when she moved to LA to pursue her career.
“The drugs and the alcohol helped her cope with the pressure - helped her to escape from reality.
“We thought maybe getting married and having kids would help her settle down but it was quite the opposite.”
Willie says rows, violent outbursts and heavy drinking were all regular features of Britney’s formative years.
Rough
Her parents Jamie and Lynne divorced in 2002 but Brit was exposed to their hell-raising rows when she was growing up.
(Tragic ... Britney's uncle Austin)
Willie explains: “A few times, Britney called saying, ‘They are fighting again, please come and get me’. It was rough - and the sad thing is it became normal. Once I was over at their house and Jamie walked in drunk and called Lynne a name.
“She was in the kitchen drinking water and just grabbed the glass, walked into the lounge and hit him right between the eyes with it.
“At first Britney was a scared child. You would catch her crying when people were fighting.
“But by that stage she just walked away, as if it wasn’t happening.
“As she got older it started to rub off on her and she would scream and curse at them and try desperately to get them to stop fighting.”
He adds: “The Spears men are known for fighting. We would fight any time, about anything, in front of anybody - and if Britney happened to be there, so be it.”
‘ The drugs and the alcohol helped her cope with the pressure - helped her to escape from reality. ’
Willie breaks down in tears as he tells of one dramatic incident. “Jamie was drunk at a barbecue and he tried to drive off with Britney in the car.
“She was no more than five years old. I tried to stop him, so I reached in to grab the keys out of the ignition and he punched me. We got into it right there by the car, fighting in front of her.
“Britney was jumping up and down, crying. Lynne had to run out to get her inside.”
Willie believes Jamie’s problems stem from the brothers’ own violent childhood.
Their father - Britney’s grandad - ruled with an iron fist when they were growing up.
He explains: “Our daddy was in the army and the police force. He whacked us all around but Jamie got most of it.
“It affected all of us. We both left home when we were young.”
Willie also believes his mother’s suicide has plagued Britney’s life.
Her grandmother Emma Jean Spears shot herself in the chest after losing her three-day-old son to cot death in 1966, aged just 31.
Britney shares the same middle name as her tragic gran and the meltdown after losing full-time custody of her kids has got the family concerned she will meet the same fate.
Cursed
Willie says: “She used to talk about how she couldn’t believe she was named after her grandmother who killed herself.
(Grave situation ... tombstone of Brit's grandmother Emma)
“We think it has definitely affected her. She seems to think she is cursed. Now we are worried the same will happen to her.”
Willie himself has led a troubled life. He is dubbed “Road Kill Willie” after cooking and eating animals that had been hit by cars when he was living rough.
He is now battling lung cancer and says he last spoke to Britney - who is currently dating paparazzo ADNAN GHALIB - in November.
He says: “Britney is in an unstable state of mind now and there is nothing anyone can do about it. She is not listening to anybody.
“She has fired all the people around her who cared because she simply doesn’t want people to tell her to stop doing the things she is doing.”
Willie believes Britney’s demise was inevitable.
He adds: “She was a sweet young girl but as she grew up and saw the violence, the alcohol and everything, she became what she saw - as mean and hard-drinking as the rest of the family.
“That kind of childhood would make anyone unstable. It did with me.
“If people think she has reached the bottom, they are very wrong. Suicide is the bottom line for Britney.”
