Britney Spears: Life in pictures

2000: Spears releases her second album, ““Oops’…I Did It Again.”” The album sells more than 1 million units in the first week. At the MTV music awards that year, she makes headlines by donning a nude-colored, crystal-adorned outfit.

2001: Spears ups the spectacle ante at the MTV music awards by performing “I’’m a Slave 4 U” with an albino python. (PETA is predictably outraged.) She also releases her third album, “Britney”” which debuts at No. 1 but does not sell as well as her first two albums.   (Suzanne Plunkett / AP)

2003: After a year of lying low, Spears creates a sensation at the MTV music awards (yet again) by sharing the stage and an open-mouthed kiss with Madonna. Her fourth album, “In the Zone,” is released along with singles such as “Toxic.”  (Scott Gries / Getty Images)

2004: The first hint of an unruly Spears emerges when the star marries her childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander in a joke wedding in Las Vegas. The marriage is promptly annulled after less than three days. Later that year, her fourth world tour is canceled midway through when the singer injures her knee. The injury does not stop the singer, now 22 years old, from marrying Kevin Federline. At the time, Federline’s former girlfriend was pregnant with their second child.  (Eric Jamison / Associated Press)

Nov. 6, 2006: Britney files for divorce from Kevin Federline. Hopeful Spears fans claim this is Step 1 in the singer’s comeback.

December 2006: Now free of Federline, Britney is frequently photographed hitting the town with Paris Hilton, and gossip monger Perez Hilton insinuates the two superstars may be lovers. But the pop star can’t handle the heiress’ pace: She collapses on New Year’s Eve.   (Jason Szenes / EPA)

February 2007: After a month of manic partying — dancing on tables, getting dirty with pole dancers, allowing her lady parts to be photographed by the paparazzi and going in and out of rehab, Britney shocks the world by shaving her head at a salon in Tarzana because, she claimed at the time, her extensions were giving her a headache. The general public grows concerned for her welfare, and she finally enters, and stays, in rehab.

March 2007: Britney is released from rehab and her managers say she is fully recovered.  (AFP / Getty Images)

August 2007: Following her stints in rehab and her head-shaving incident, Britney attempted to get back on stage and move ahead, but her lead-off performance at the MTV Video Music Awards did more to hurt her career. Looking out of it and barely lip-synching to the music, Britney shuffled through her moves looking out of shape and wearing a blonde wig. Speculation ran rampant that Spears’ career may be over.   (KEVIN WINTER, AFP/Getty Images)

January 2009: Spears and her manager father obtain a restraining order against her former manager, Sam Lufti, ex-boyfriend Adnan Ghalib and attorney Jon Eardley, all of whom are accused of attempting to gain control of Spears’ business affairs.

March 2009: Britney embarks on a tour in support of “Circus,” her sixth studio album. The tour will go on to be the fifth highest-grossing tour of the year.  (Matt Sayles / Associated Press)