I worried Britney Spears would drown sons, says former bodyguard

Further his claims that Britney Spears frequently takes drugs including around her children, her former bodyguard Tony Barretto has now said he is worried that she will hurt the two baby boys.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Tony explained that he was surprised at how much of the security role included looking after Sean and Jayden, who turned 2 and 1 respectively earlier this month.

Tony told the newspaper: “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.

“We were the only family around her. She’d call a doctor to come out if they cried too much. She’d say: ‘Can you grab the baby, honey?’ She always called me ‘baby’ or ‘honey’. I don’t think she ever learned my name.”

“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.”

But perhaps that was for the best: “There was a time when I thought she was going to hurt the kids. 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.”

Tony recalls that his colleague then told him: “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?”

“She’s unpredictable. No one knows what she’ll do next. That’s what scared me. I don’t know what caused her screaming, whether it was drugs or mental instability. She’d be wailing, making no sense.”

“It was worse at night. She’d scream and guards would run to check on her, just in case it was a snake or an intruder. I’d ask how she was, and she’d say, ‘I’m OK.’ Sometimes the baby was in the room when she screamed, and the guards would grab him.”

“We had a security room beside the main house, with a couch and TV, and she’d frequently bring the kids in there to hang out with us. We’d say, ‘We’re not bodyguarding; we’re babysitting.’ But we were babysitting Britney, as well as her kids.”

“There were times when she spent very little time with them, some days less than an hour. And she’s not very good at knowing whether they eat or need changing. I don’t think I ever saw her feed her kids at home. Once she took the kids to the dance studio and didn’t bring any food for them. She sent someone out to get them soup and crackers.”

“In my opinion, it was a child taking care of children. I wouldn’t have her as a babysitter. The harder it was to comfort them, the likelier we’d end up with the children. She had a low attention span. She’d become bored with anything.”

Tony, who worked for Britney for two months earlier this year, added that he doesn’t think she’s beyond redemption: “I think she has a mental problem. I think and I pray she can be helped. I’m an optimist.”

“She needs her family back, someone who loves her. She needs to be loved and guided in the right direction. She’s immature. She has been babied so much, she doesn’t accept responsibility because she’s had everything so easy.”

“I think perhaps she’s scared. She likes to think she’s invincible - ‘I’m Britney, bitch! I can do what I want!’ - but that could be a façade. She cares about her career, but she has a problem that she can’t control.”