Justin Timberlake uncovered Spears' alleged affair with Wade Robson when he discovered a note in Spears' room in February 2002, on the night that the two pop stars were scheduled to appear on Saturday Night Live. Spears tried to make amends, but a shaken Timberlake refused to reconcile, and many assumed that his biting solo smash "Cry Me a River" was written about their breakup.

Record executive Clive Davis meets with the recently split Timberlake and Spears at his 27th Annual Pre-Grammy Party in Los Angeles on February 26, 2002. At the Grammy ceremony, Spears' "Overprotected" was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, but she didn't win.

At the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, Spears presented Michael Jackson with a birthday cake, but he misinterpreted Spears' brief introduction and gave an acceptance speech thanking her for proclaiming him "Artist of the Millenium."

In the wake of her split with Timberlake, Spears became a fixture at parties, nightclubs and events. Here, she poses with Donatella Versace at a fashion show in Milan on October 1, 2002.

Spears spent her first New Year's Eve sans Timberlake with actress Natalie Portman; the two hosted a party at New York's Hudson Hotel on December 31, 2002.

As Spears became increasingly disillusioned with the music industry, she turned her focus to her social life, seeking love from Hollywood bad boys such as Colin Farrell. Here, the two attend the premiere of The Recruit in Hollywood on January 28, 2003. Around this time, Spears also had a fling with Fred Durst, which the Limp Bizkit rapper bragged about on The Howard Stern Show.

Spears exits the drive-thru window of a Hollywood In-N-Out Burger on February 27, 2003. Paparazzi photographs of the singer at fast-food restaurants soon became a thriving industry.

Spears hugs younger sister Jamie Lynn at Nickelodeon's 16th Annual Kids' Choice Awards on April 12, 2003, in Santa Monica, California. The younger Spears began appearing on Nick TV shows in 2002 but didn't score true fame (and infamy) until late 2007, when she revealed that she was pregnant at age 16.

Spears demonstrates her feelings toward tabloids and celebrity coverage by rocking a Page Six Six Six shirt at an MTV party in Hollywood on June 28, 2003.

Spears performs with Christina Aguilera and Madonna – Britney's future "Me Against the Music" collaborator – at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York on August 28, 2003. The threesome (plus Missy Elliott) performed Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and "Hollywood."

Spears' 2003 VMAs performance became famous for its two brief kisses. When Madonna lip-locked with Spears, the camera instantly cut to Timberlake for a reaction shot, forcing Aguilera's similar kiss to lose most of its airtime. After the awards, Spears decided that she and Madonna were soul mates and began to look to the elder pop superstar for advice.

Spears performs at the NFL Kickoff Live from the National Mall special in Washington, DC, on September 4, 2003.

Spears poses with Queen's Roger Taylor and Brian May while filming the Pepsi "We Will Rock You" gladiator commercial in Rome on September 22, 2003. The flashy clip also starred Beyoncé, Pink and Enrique Iglesias.

Spears takes the stage at the 31st Annual American Music Awards in Los Angeles on November 16, 2003. The performance was two days before the release of her fourth studio album, In the Zone, which tackled mature topics such as masturbation and hangovers. It featured production by Moby, Diddy and Bloodshy & Avant, as well as more creative input from Spears.

The album debuted at Number One yet sold fewer copies than her prior three records did in their opening weeks; still, it yielded memorable videos for "Me Against the Music," "Toxic" and "Everytime."

Spears receives her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 17, 2003.

During a November 17, 2003, appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, the talk-show host quizzes Spears on marriage and kids. "Right now, I'm just having fun," Spears told Leno after saying that she thought 25 was the ideal age to wed. She was 22 at the time. When Leno said, "In two years, you'll be married with two kids?" Spears made a face and yelled, "Oh, I don't know … no!"

Spears' brother, Bryan, escorts her to the 31st Annual American Music Awards on November 16, 2003. A month later, she returned home to Kentwood to spent the Christmas holidays with her family; she stayed at a small house on her parents' property with a few childhood friends, including onetime crush Jason Alexander. After having a rough year (as she told Rolling Stone in our October 2003 cover story), she was ready to have fun again.

After arguing with her mother during her Christmas vacation, Spears took off for Las Vegas and partied for three straight days. She snorted cocaine in the evenings, Ecstasy in the mornings and Xanax to fall sleep, according to Jason Alexander. At 3:30 a.m. on January 3, 2004, the couple spontaneously took a lime-green limo to Vegas' Little White Chapel and got married.

When Lynne Spears heard the news, she flew to Vegas and had her lawyers arrange an annulment. Alexander, startled by his sudden international fame, cracked under the pressure and dropped out of college.

Spears reunited with her idol, Madonna, during the NRJ awards in France on January 24, 2004. By this point, Spears' handlers were having a hard time making the star perform on command. According to a friend, she was "difficult" on the set of the "Everytime" video shoot, demanding Red Bulls and her doctor.

In early 2004, the increasingly shiftless Spears met dancer Kevin Federline, a 25-year-old high school dropout from Fresno, California, who had one child with his girlfriend and a second baby on the way. Spears became enamored with the club fixture known as "Meat Pole," and invited him to join her on her Onyx Hotel Tour.

While promoting In the Zone in Europe, Spears and her new boyfriend filmed themselves obsessively with video cameras, generating the footage that would later become their reality show Britney & Kevin: Chaotic. Here, she performs in Rotterdam in May 2004.

In June 2004, Spears suffered a knee injury during the shoot for her "Outrageous" video and underwent surgery in New York. She was forced to cancel her remaining tour dates, and Jive announced that her doctors had ordered the star to undergo four months of rest. Here, she begins recovery.

Spears and Federline announced their engagement in the summer of 2004; Spears proposed to Federline, who refused and proposed himself a few minutes later. The two were married in September 2004, and Spears' bridesmaids wore pink Juicy tracksuits for the occasion. After the wedding, Spears fired Larry Rudolph and her mother as her managers and turned to making money from her private life, selling her wedding photos for $1 million.

Spears attends the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas on December 8, 2004. Two months prior, she announced on her website that she would take a brief break from the music business to focus on her new family. "My prerogative right now is to just chill and let all of the other overexposed blondes on the cover of Us Weekly be your entertainment," she wrote. "Good luck, girls!"

In April 2005, Spears – seen here with Federline at a movie premiere – announced that she was expecting her first child. Sean Preston was born in September 2005, and his baby pictures were sold to People for $1 million.

After Spears gave birth to Sean Preston, the paparazzi's attention only heightened and she began to unravel in public. One photographer caught her behind the wheel of her black SUV with her infant son on her lap, rather than secured in a car seat, on February 6, 2006, and the public recoiled with horror at Spears' irresponsible parenting.

Here, during a surprise appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman on May 9, 2006, Spears breaks the news that she is pregnant with her second child. Son Jayden James was born in September 2006, but Spears and Federline didn't reveal any baby photos immediately, holding out for a bigger magazine payday that never came. Though the public craved Spears news and gossip, the singer largely abandoned her recording career; a greatest hits collection came out in November.

Spears loses her grip on Sean Preston while emerging from the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New York on May 18, 2006.

In an emotional and candid interview with Dateline's Matt Lauer in June 2006, Spears addressed the state of her marriage, "mommy mishaps" and how the paparazzi had gone "too far." Despite multiple reports that her marriage to Federline was on the rocks and that he was sleeping in the basement, a pregnant Spears tearfully denied that there was trouble between the pair and asked to be left alone because "we're people." Here, she poses with Lauer.

Despite Spears' protests that her marriage was stable, gossip spread that she was on the prowl for a new boyfriend. Some magazines fingered her bodyguard/nanny Perry Taylor (seen here strolling with Spears on May 30, 2006) as her latest love.

In November 2006, Spears informed Federline via text message that she wanted a divorce. Federline responded by scrawling "Today I'm a free man – Fuck a wife, give me my kids, bitch!" on a nightclub bathroom wall.

After filing for divorce, Spears rehired manager Larry Rudolph but also wanted to explore her new freedom. She hit Los Angeles hotspots with party girls such as Paris Hilton, and was photographed sans underwear three times. The Britney/Paris friendship didn't last long, and Hilton nicknamed Spears "the Animal" because she didn't think before she acted.

As Spears' partying became more frequent and worrysome, her handlers urged her to go to rehab. She spent only one day at Eric Clapton's Crossroads center in Antigua in February 2007 before flying back to Los Angeles. There, she went to Federline's house demanding to see her children but was told that she couldn't unless she checked back into treatment. Spears left in anger and drove around until she found a random hair salon, where she grabbed a pair of clippers and shaved her head.