Britney Spears' Mom Lynne Spears Denies Calling Columbus Short N-Word in 2003

Britney Spears' mother, Lynne Spears, has denied Columbus Short's claim that she once called him the N-word in a 2003 conversation with her daughter. Lynne told Page Six Thursday after Short recalled the alleged moment in his 2020 autobiography Short Stories, "I want to be very clear. Those terrible words are not remotely in my vocabulary. I would never say that to anyone, much less my daughter. Ever."

In Short's book, he wrote that he overheard either Lynne or her ex-husband, Jamie Spears, using the racist term to describe him after allegedly sleeping with Britney during his time as a backup dancer for the "...Baby One More Time" singer on a trip to Rome. He didn't disclose which parent said it, but wrote, "I was next to [Britney] while she was on the phone with them crying while she had it on speaker," explaining that one of the artist's parents then asked, "Why are you f—ing that n—?" Britney looked at him "so apologetically" in that moment, and he wrote that at the time, "I shook my head and didn't say anything, because what was there to say?"

Britney's father has yet to publicly respond to the story, but a source close to him told Page Six, "Jamie was not there, and not involved. In fact, during this time period, Jamie was not involved in Britney's business at all." Short would go on to discuss the instance further on Jazzie Belle's Inside Hollywood earlier this month. "I wasn't shocked when it happened," he recalled of the alleged incident. "Look where they're from, they're from Louisiana. The way it came out was so effortless. Like, that's how they speak. I wasn't shocked and I wasn't hurt by it. I was just like, 'Wow, this is … OK … I know who I am around here.'"

He made it clear he didn't hold any negative feelings against Britney, whom he called a "really sweet person." The dancer and choreographer added that amid the pop star's conservatorship battle, during which her attorney has stated she is afraid of her father, he always felt she was "tormented in a position on a high level" he likened to that of Princess Diana. "Britney couldn't go nowhere — her world [was] completely controlled in this bubble. There would be times that she would act out, and I don't blame her," he said. "I love Britney to this day. … I feel bad for her. I wish the world knew the Britney I knew."