What was it like to be on Exhale during 2006/2007/2008?

[thesimplelife]

13 hours ago, --- said:

media outlets were constantly writing obituaries for britney, perez was consistently trashing her and using his windows paint skills to write over top of every paparazzi outing. we saw her *******, we saw her period stains. we heard every rumor and every blind item, while giving it life due to having zero idea of what was actually happening on a larger scale.

God I hate Perez so much, I can’t believe he still has a career with everything he’s done. I honestly don’t know how he can live with himself 

[TTrouble]

10 hours ago, BUWYGF said:

It was honestly horrible, I remember I was only a teenager back then. I was like 15-16 years old and everyone on Exhale was horrified every day because we genuinely thought we'd wake up with the news she has died. So many media were predicting she might join the club 27, which was so insane. The world was against her and all Britney stans were laughed at. It was basically something to be ashamed of, so a lot of fans decided to basically abandon her. 

Everyone kept saying she was crazy, a d**ug addict, a horrible mother, etc. Every day there was a new thread on Exhale about some new chaos surrounding her. It was exhausting and very anxiety inducing ngl. 

I'm getting PTSD-symptoms after reading that 

[TTrouble]

10 hours ago, BUWYGF said:

It was honestly horrible, I remember I was only a teenager back then. I was like 15-16 years old and everyone on Exhale was horrified every day because we genuinely thought we'd wake up with the news she has died. So many media were predicting she might join the club 27, which was so insane. The world was against her and all Britney stans were laughed at. It was basically something to be ashamed of, so a lot of fans decided to basically abandon her. 

Everyone kept saying she was crazy, a d**ug addict, a horrible mother, etc. Every day there was a new thread on Exhale about some new chaos surrounding her. It was exhausting and very anxiety inducing ngl. 

I'm getting PTSD-symptoms after reading that 

[everybodygoesdown]

17 hours ago, kgid said:

I remember coming home from work on the day(s) she was forced to go to cedars'. 

Didn't have internet on my Razr flip phone and someone told me s.hit was going down.  

I'm not gonna lie, the leaving kfed was like ... "Cool, we're gonna get Britney back" then the Cris Angel stuff and the VMAs, the rumors about the album and just so much uncertainty.

There were a lot of folks that thought she was going to be unalive.  I think NYT or something like that had actually published that they had written her obituary.  Amy winehouse passed.... It was truly intense.  

When the album came out and gimme more video, it was ... Weird.  There wasn't that cult following of it - Blackout wasn't released with the usual fanfare and everyone was just... Everywhere.

When the conservatorship started, there was (don't come for me) relief.  Sam was ostracized and ... Just a lot.  

When HIMYM episodes came out, more relief.  For the record - the return to the VMAs... Happiness.  The tour that followed, was just really reassuring.  

When the undertones of the conservatorship began coming to the surface, there was a lot of the beginnings of what became #freebritney but it got shut down on so many levels that it stayed quiet - as we all know - for way too long.  

 

Summary, it was wild, intense, emotional and way to invasive to the woman.  I, personally, regret how much I watched and waited for the next pap shots/video.  

So if she does lurk - I am genuinely sorry.  It should have been a moment for her to fortify her family and she got absolutely torn apart instead.  

As a woman and a mother - it was too much for anyone person to handle. It's a g.od.amn miracle she survived.

This is the best description of that time.
I wasn’t active on exhale but I read the comments during those years.

You could be on here for hours. Every other day there were like 100 new paparazzi pics and videos. New articles daily. And just like today there was a lot of criticism of Britney, due to people not understanding what she was going through or not being empathetic with her.

After the conservatorship so many people were praising her dad, it was sick. Jordan was critical of the conservatorship (I think he had some sort of connection to Britney through Sam Lutfi, but he never clarified) and got a lot of flack for that from people here. He also was threatened by Jamie Spears, which was wild.

It was hundreds of pages of comments on really serious stuff daily and just like today opinions were divided between compassionate/powerless and critical/judgemental

[J2thB]

17 hours ago, thesimplelife said:

she was single-handedly keeping tabloids, TMZ, and X17 alive

 

17 hours ago, J2thB said:

It was such a crazy time to be a fan! Breaking News on a daily basis! The amount of money photogs and media made off her could feed a small country! Maybe even a big one 😂

There were so many crazy moments but the one that really changed everything imo was when she locked herself in the bathroom with her son and eventually taken away by ambulance and hospitalized. It was so heartbreaking to watch! The police es***t, the paprazzi, helicopters.. to this day I’ve NEVER seen anything like it.

[Alio]

1 hour ago, thesimplelife said:

I agree about Britney having fun with it, even if she was going through some of the darkest moments in her life, it was the first time she was “free”. She was signed at 15 and from there it was years and years of nonstop work so it must’ve been liberating in some strange way. 

Exactly ! that's what I meant by "let's not rewrite History" because back then she was still the young, cheerful and beautiful Britney and like you said it was the first time she was free to be herself so...you know, a lot of things have been brand new for her and for us the past few years before the meltdown. Her hair was black and then brown and then blond and then black. And then she's pregnant again etc...

It was like a very "who knows what's going to happen tomorrow" kind of feeling since 2005. And for a very long time even during 2007 it left that way. 

The huge majority of us just hoped we would wake up one morning and she would be back to being professional and give us an amazing performance on TV etc.. How can we be blamed ? That's the Britney we've always known and Blackout was fantatsic so...

But yeah things got darker and darker as days went by. The rest was kinda scary to be honest.

 

1 hour ago, thesimplelife said:

Thank you so much

[Barmy86]

Chaotic 

It was a family rooting for Britney only to feel insane

[BUWYGF]

12 hours ago, TTrouble said:

I'm getting PTSD-symptoms after reading that 

I still have it sis

[BritBreakitDown20]

On 9/18/2024 at 2:44 AM, PerfectLover. said:

I wasn't here in those years but I found this page. This is from 2007.

https://web.archive.org/web/20071006042417/https://breatheheavy.com/

And this from 2004.

https://web.archive.org/web/20040606124150/https://www.breatheheavy.com/

"you wanna see Britney Live" Onyx hotel tour ad 

yes ***** i would