RICHARD Madeley was accused of boasting today about the time he met Britney Spears as Good Morning Britain shared her pregnancy news.
The TV host said he got the chance to interview the pop star years ago and allowed his daughter Chloe the day off school to meet her idol.
Richard, 65, was hosting Tuesday's Good Morning Britain alongside Ranvir Singh when he shared the sweet memory.
He held up his phone to show an old photo of him and his daughter Chloe, now 34, and said: "This is Chloe my daughter when she was about 10, and this is when she was at the apex of her fandom of Britney."
He continued: "And we interviewed Britney Spears on one of our shows and we obviously had to give Chloe the morning off school.
"So she came in and Britney Spears comes on the floor of the studio in the commercial break and by arrangement came up to Chloe and said, 'Hello Chloe, really nice to meet you'… she's so sweet
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"I'm not making this up, Chloe didn't speak for the rest of the day! She lost the power of speech for the rest of the day until bed time, and cried, tears just constantly running down her cheek."
Proud dad Richard added: "Britney was clearly well used to this kind of reaction. And now my daughter's expecting as well so there you go, the circle of life!"
Ranvir said: "That's actually lovely isn't it?" but Britney's fans were not as happy, saying Richard managed to make her news all about him.
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One grumpy fan moaned: "Has Richard got a daughter? He's never mentioned it."
Another said: "Did Richard Madeley just make Britney Spears' pregnancy about him?"
A third ranted: "Is there a subject that Richard Madeley won’t make about himself? I’m quite surprised he hasn’t managed to link the war in Ukraine to himself yet."
A fourth chimed: "Suggest Britney rings Richard"
Britney on Monday announced she is pregnant with her third child, six months after a judge ended the controversial guardianship the pop icon said barred her from having more children.
"I got a pregnancy test... and uhhhhh well... I am having a baby," the 40-year-old said on Instagram.
A Los Angeles judge in November dissolved the conservatorship long overseen by her father -- an arrangement the singer said had prevented her from having a contraceptive IUD removed despite her desire for more kids.
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Britney shared the news on Instagram, saying that her 28-year-old partner Sam Asghari, whom she has started referring to online as her "husband," speculated she was "food pregnant."
She added: "I thought 'Geez... what happened to my stomach???'
"It's growing !!! If 2 are in there... I might just loose it."
After a highly public 2007 breakdown, when Britney attacked a paparazzo's car at a gas station, the star was placed under a conservatorship headed by her father Jamie Spears, which lasted nearly 14 years.
Fans had long sounded alarm that the "...Baby One More Time" singer was unhappy with her father as guardian, and in June 2021 she asked a Los Angeles judge to end the legal arrangement that had left her "traumatized."
Britney Spears said Monday that she "won't be going out as much" to avoid trailing paparazzi.
She is already mother to two teen sons, Sean and Jayden, with her ex-husband Kevin Federline.
She met Asghari in 2016 when they co-starred in a music video for her single "Slumber Party."
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Britney announced their engagement on social media in September 2021, but has yet to divulge a date for the nuptials.
Asked by entertainment tabloid TMZ in December about the couple's holiday plans, Asghari was frank: "Baby making. A lot of baby making!"