With her ex-husband Kevin Federline inching closer to permanent sole custody of Sean Preston and Jayden James, her cousin Alli Sims and her new manager Sam Lufti are trying to ensure one of them is always with her - a plan they call 'suicide watch'.

Britney's demise from megastar to drink and drug-addled train wreck has shocked the world, but it comes as no surprise to her relatives who say tragedy is in her blood.

The second of three children, Britney was born on December 2, 1981, and as her great uncle Earnest admits: 'She didn't have a hope of turning out normal.'

Her mother Lynne had married her dad Jamie two weeks after he divorced his first wife, and Jamie was already a heavy drinker. Family say his wild ways were a result of the trauma he had when his mum committed suicide by shooting herself while lying across the grave of his brother who'd died in infancy.

It's easy to see the parallels between Britney's behaviour and that of her dad, who became an alcoholic and cheated on his wife. Lynne would often flee to Britney's aunt Chandra McGovern, taking the terrified Britney with her.

Chandra admits it was only her help that kept Lynne and Britney safe. 'Jamie was always drunk - there were many times when Britney and Lynne came to stay,' she says.

Britney learnt to sing and dance to cheer up her mother and distract her from an abusive and unfaithful drunken husband.

In 1990, Lynne saw a chance for a better life for Britney, and she drove her eight-year-old daughter nearly 1000km to audition for The Mickey Mouse Club TV show.

Lynne was devastated when casting agent Matt Casella told her that Britney was too young, and she begged him to find Britney an agent. He referred her to New York talent agent Nancy Carson who remembers Lynne as a pushy mother, but is quick to add: 'Make no doubt about it, Britney wanted this!'

During the next three years Britney worked on Broadway and in TV, before making it on to The Mickey Mouse Club TV show, where she'd appear alongside fellow future stars Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera.

Already earning more than $1000 a week, Britney seemed to have escaped the failure that had engulfed her family. But just as Britney seemed set to find fame and the freedom that comes with it - she experienced heartbreak for the first time.

At 16, Britney signed a lucrative record deal with Jive Records and her breakout single ... Baby One More Time was only a year away. But unbeknown to the world, Britney was also in love with her boyfriend Reg Jones.

While the whole world thinks of Justin Timberlake as being Britney's first boyfriend, New Idea reveals she first found love with Reg, who says: 'It seemed like the happiest time. We'd go to church. We'd talked about marriage, but she went on to stardom and I was pushed out without a reason why.'

The reason was, of course, that Britney's advisers didn't want her carefully cultivated image - a mix of virginal, innocent schoolgirl and lingerie-clad sex symbol - ruined by the presence of a high school sweetheart.

Reg explains: 'People around us pushed us apart. At her concerts everyone would say I was just a friend of Britney's and that was when we'd been dating for three years and they'd only known her for six months.'

Britney did as she was told and broke off with Reg, but she was heartbroken and her parents would soon compound her misery by guiding her into a pattern of behaviour that would eventually lead to her demise.

Both Lynne and Jamie encouraged her to find happiness through alcohol.

Four years before Britney could legally buy herself a drink, she told Rolling Stone magazine: 'Me and my mum will have a glass of wine - I know how to drink!'

Soon her dad was ordering spirits and cocktails for his teenage daughter - once buying eight Long Island iced teas to be divided among her and her friends.

In 2004 Jamie entered rehab for his substance abuse and has since criticised Britney for not taking her rehab seriously.

But for those who know the Spears family best, watching Britney disintegrate into a drink and drug addict with little idea of how to be a parent seemed inevitable.

As a pal puts it: 'Her mum was pushy, her dad was a drunk, her grandma shot herself, her uncle lives in his car because he's a drunk and a felon, and she was a child star - how did you think things would turn out?'

Do you think that Britney is responsible for her own actions or are her parents partly or completely to blame? Share your opinions with other New Idea readers

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