Inside Britney Spears’ troubled past with ‘stalker’ ex Jason Alexander after childhood pals split 55 hours after wedding
BRITNEY Spears has finally found lasting love after a turbulent few decades – but she can’t seem to escape her past.
The pop princess, 40, wed her 28-year-old beau Sam Asghari on Thursday in an intimate ceremony in California – but it wasn’t without drama, as one of her ex-husbands gate-crashed.
Britney said ‘I do’ just seven months after being freed from a conservatorship that prevented her from getting married.
But in a bizarre twist, Britney’s ex Jason Allen Alexander turned up at the nuptials, breaking into the grounds of her home, and streamed a video on Instagram Live before being tackled by security.
He was then arrested, with Ventura County Sheriff’s Department saying he has been charged with trespassing, battery and vandalism.
But what is Britney and Alexander’s history and why did he become known as her ‘stalker’ ex?
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Old friends
Britney and Alexander were childhood friends, both hailing from Kentwood, Louisiana.
The pair are around the same age, with Jason born on October 16, 1981 and Britney born two months later on December 2.
Alexander once claimed the pair were friends “with benefits” while she was dating Justin Timberlake between 1999 and 2002.
Britney and Alexander later developed a romance and decided to get married on a whim during a trip to Las Vegas in January 2004.
Divorce attorney Mark Goldberg, 80, told the Daily Mail last year: “This wasn’t a stranger she’d just picked up. They had known each other for years.”
Vegas wedding
Britney and Alexander, both 22, wed in Sin City, where they partied into the night.
The singer had just released her hit album In the Zone, while Alexander was a student at Southeastern Louisiana University.
The pair apparently planned their impromptu wedding in Ghostbar, part of the Palms Casino Hotel.
They tied the knot in the early hours of the morning at Little White Chapel, with Britney wearing torn jeans and a baseball cap.
The wedding chapel’s owner Charlotte Richards insisted the two were sober at the time, saying: “We do not marry anybody who is inebriated.”
Divorce lawyer Goldberg later said: “Britney had called [Alexander] to come to Las Vegas. She was there with friends as I recall, and she paid for his airfare to come.
“As I remember it, it was Britney’s idea to get married. He said they hadn’t been drinking or doing drugs ‒ or at least they weren’t drunk.”
However, Alexander himself said in 2012: “Alcohol is a drug. Coffee is a drug. Cigarette is a drug. Yeah, we were doing drugs.”
55-hour marriage
Britney and Alexander were married for just 55 hours before it was annulled.
An annulment dissolves a marriage as if it never happened – unlike a divorce.
The pair filed a petition which read: “Plaintiff Spears lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage.”
Both Britney and Alexander signed annulment papers in the presence of lawyers.
It was me being silly, being rebellious, and not really taking responsibility of what I was doing, you know?
Britney Spears in 2006
At the time, Britney’s record label said they had taken a “joke too far”.
Talking to Access Hollywood after the annulment, Alexander said: “It was just crazy, man.
“We were just looking at each other and said, ‘Let’s do something wild, crazy. Let’s go get married, just for the hell of it’.”
In 2006, Britney said: “It was me being silly, being rebellious, and not really taking responsibility of what I was doing, you know?”
‘They lied to us’
Alexander later claimed they were forced to annul their marriage by Britney’s mother Lynne and her management.
He told the Daily Mail last year: “We didn’t want to annul it. They lied to us. It was always about controlling Britney and controlling her money.”
Alexander claimed everything went downhill after Britney called her mother to tell her the news.
He told ABC News in 2012 that “everyone went crazy because there was no prenup”.
Goldberg claimed Alexander was “emotional and upset”, adding: “Jason was confused because he loved Britney and he didn’t want to hurt her, but he was very afraid of her mother and management.”
Jason told the Toxic: The Britney Spears Story podcast that when he signed the annulment papers, he had been under the assumption that they would be able to continue their relationship and have a proper wedding down the line.
They told me if I would sign the contracts ‒ the annulment ‒ they would let me and Britney continue our relationship, and if we felt the same way in six months, they would give us a proper marriage
Jason Alexander
He said: “They told me if I would sign the contracts ‒ the annulment ‒ they would let me and Britney continue our relationship, and if we felt the same way in six months, they would give us a proper marriage.
“I had no reason to believe otherwise. I thought that’s what the truth was.”
He said they had phone conversations every day after that, but one day it just stopped.
He said: “Literally the day after, like, the 30 days was up, I remember trying to call the number I had for Britney and it was like, ‘Beep, beep, beep’. I’m like, ‘F*** they got me! Motherf*****s!’ So that was it.”
Later that year Britney married musician and background dancer Kevin Federline, with whom she had two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James.
They divorced in 2007, and a year later she was placed under a conservatorship.
#FreeBritney
On August 19, 2020, Alexander was spotted at a #FreeBritney protest in Los Angeles amid Britney’s conservatorship with her dad, Jamie Spears.
Speaking to UsWeekly, he claimed they had kept in touch and said he would be open to getting back together if she wanted to – despite Britney being in a relationship with Sam.
Alexander said: “I’ve got love for her definitely. I’d love to be back in her life some way or another, but this conservatorship is holding that back from happening.”
He added: “We never were given a shot the first time around.
“If there’s still feeling there, maybe we could see where they go, but that’s not ‒ you know, that’s on her.”
Arrested for stalking
In January last year, Alexander – a loud and proud Donald Trump supporter – was spotted at the US Capitol riots.
Later that same month he was arrested and booked on three charges: driving under the influence, unlawful use of drug paraphernalia and possession or casual exchange of a controlled substance.
Then, almost exactly 18 years after his marriage to Britney was annulled, on January 4 this year, Jason was arrested for stalking.
He was held at the Williamson County Jail in Tennessee, where he was charged with the violation of an order of protection as well as aggravated stalking.
He pleaded guilty to misdemeanour stalking six days later and placed under probation for 11 months and 29 days.
Jason was also told not to have any contact with his victim, who has remained unnamed.
Crashed Britney’s wedding
After trespassing at his ex’s wedding on Thursday, Alexander has been arrested and charged.
An eyewitness told The Sun: “Jason walked up the Los Robles hiking trail next to Britney’s property, it must have taken him the best part of an hour.
“He said he had been coming here for weeks and he was live on Instagram, then he just jumped over the fence.”
Jason was heard saying: “She’s my first wife. My only wife.”
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He went on: “I’m her first husband. I’m here to crash the wedding cause nobody [is] here but Sam. So where the f***’s the family?”
Britney has reportedly been granted an emergency protective order.
