Spears ex-bodyguard opens the lid on her troubled life

London, Sept 23: Britney Spear’s former bodyguard Tony Barretto, who served as a secret witness in the singer’s ongoing custody battle with ex-hubby Kevin Federline, has opened the lid on her troubled life.

After Barretto's testimony last week, Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon declared Britney as a 'habitual, frequent and continuous' user of drink and drugs, and ordered her to undergo random testing to get shared custody of her children.

Talking about his three-month stint as the singer’s bodyguard, Barretto said that within days of starting work with the singer, he realised that his duty was more about taking care of her kids.

“I was surprised to find how much the job involved looking after her kids,” the Daily Mail quoted Barretto as saying.

“She was always passing the kids along to us. If they were happy, she was happy. If they weren't happy, she was passing them on to the nanny or the security staff.

“She'd tell me, “We're going for a tan. Can you take the baby?” And then she'd walk off. She wouldn't really ask me; she'd just leave,” he added.

The 27-year-old also revealed some disturbing traits and bizarre behaviour the singer displayed.

“There was a time when I thought she was going to hurt the kids,” he said.

“She sent the nanny home. She sent her best friend and personal assistant, Alli Sims, home. Britney hates to be alone, so this was worrying. One of the bodyguards who had been with her longest said she was beginning to shut down as she had just before she shaved her head.”

“He said she'd been talking about suicide then, and this was the same. Britney was sobbing. She screamed.”

“(Sensing danger, his colleague said) ‘I'm worried about the kids. Don't let her go swimming with them.”

'Shocked, I asked, “Is she going to drown them?” He said, “I don't know.” I started to cry. How am I supposed to protect someone like that,” he said.

Barretto also spoke about a rehabbed Spears’ habitual drug and alcohol use.

“The first time she was at Teddy's nightclub in Hollywood in April, in a private booth. She asked me to hold the curtains up around it. After 20 minutes I looked over my shoulder, and she was snorting something out of her hand with a straw,” he said.

“One night I opened the restroom door after she'd been in there half an hour, and saw her snorting from a straw again.”

“She'd sneak out of the house on her own without security. Sometimes she'd be gone till the next morning. It was an unspoken subject, just as nobody ever asked her about drugs.”

“She was supposed to be sober after rehab, but she loved her Jack Daniels and Coke.”

“She'd always drink it in a Styrofoam cup, so nobody could see what she was drinking. 'I'd order for her, and the waitress would hand me the drink. Britney would walk upstairs to a private restroom to drink it.”

“She'd have a pint glass filled with Jack Daniels and Coke. I hated it, because we had to go up and down those stairs all night so she could drink in secret.”

An emotional entanglement with rock ‘wildman’ Howie Day, who Britney had met in rehab, also sent her berserk.

“She was, in my opinion, close to an overdose,” said Barretto.

Spears fired Barretto in May this year, for not picking up her hat, after she asked him three times.