MAUREEN CALLAHAN: Britney, the world’s saddest, loneliest star, is on the brink as never before. As family fear the worst, the vile parasites who mocked and exploited her should hang their heads in shame

Britney is on the brink like never before.

Following the explosive news of Spears’ divorce from husband Sam Asghari, sources say Britney is deeply ill, unstable and on her own.

Her mother Lynne Spears, according to an inside source, is “furious” with Asghari for leaving her daughter in such a precarious state and now desperately wants Britney to move in with her.

“Family and friends feel like it’s really life or death,” the source told DailyMail.com. “The last thing anyone wants to do is place her in another conservatorship.”

Because here’s the catch: Britney was released from her controversial conservatorship after nearly 14 years in November 2021. Her case was so important that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law in 2022 enacting new limitations requiring judges to document all the possible alternatives before issuing one.

The implication, this source says, is that things are so serious the family would seek another conservatorship if they could.

To compound Britney’s problems, Asghari is reportedly threatening to release “extraordinarily embarrassing information” unless she renegotiates their prenup.

Long before Asghari posted a cheeky “Sh*t happening,” on Instagram on Thursday, saying he and Brit “will keep the love and respect we have for each other… Always wish him the best “, the leaks had already begun.

Her mother Lynne Spears, according to an inside source, is “furious” with Asghari for leaving her daughter in such a precarious state and now desperately wants Britney to move in with her. “Family and friends feel like it’s really life or death,” the source told DailyMail.com.

Allegations that Britney cheated with a member of the household staff – caught on video – and physically assaulted her husband quickly surfaced.

If Asghari really wishes his troubled wife the best, why not take all the wealth he amassed during this brief marriage and walk away quietly? Why add to his misery?

Britney Spears, 41, once the most famous pop star on the planet, is – with the exception of the house staff – very lonely.

His teenage sons now live with their father in Hawaii.

The recent high-profile reunion with her sister Jamie Lynn may not have been a success. “Britney is still very angry with Jamie Lynn,” a source told Page Six.

DailyMail.com reported on Thursday that they are working on their relationship.

Britney’s mom visited her in May, but it’s notthere’s still a lot of hurt out there,’ the source told Page Six, ‘so they haven’t quite reconciled.’

And, of course, her father Jamie, who oversaw Britney’s guardianship and paid himself $16,000 a month from his daughter’s estate for at least 12 years, is completely estranged.

Has there been a sadder, lonelier star in recent memory?

Asghari, it seems, is just the latest man to take advantage of Spears, who – despite her wealth, fame and good looks – has spent most of her adult life in crisis. Until the #FreeBritney movement, she was the butt of a long, cruel joke: How low can this bimbo go?

She began going public in 2007: shaving her head, attacking a paparazzo’s vehicle with an umbrella, walking barefoot through gas station restrooms, being photographed without her underwear, almost knocking her baby out and later driving with him on his lap.

It all culminated in a confrontation with the police after she barricaded herself and her child in a bathroom, which led to her involuntary hospitalization.

She was only 26 years old, met not compassion but repulsion and mockery.

His mental collapse coincided with the birth and explosion of celebrity blogging, none more popular and mean-spirited than that of Perez Hilton.

When Heath Ledger died in 2008, Hilton – who has since apologized – made t-shirts that read: ‘Why couldn’t it have been Britney?’

Asghari, it seems, is just the latest man to take advantage of Spears, who – despite her wealth, fame and good looks – has spent most of her adult life in crisis. Until the #FreeBritney movement, she was the butt of a long, cruel joke: How low can this bimbo go?

The same year, an episode of “Family Feud” featured a game called “Name Something Britney Spears Has Lost in the Past Year”.

The contestants jumped up: “Her husband”; ‘her hair’; ‘his sanity’.

Cheers and laughter and applause.

“I’ll give you Salt Lake City’s answer,” said a contestant named Mike. “Her virginity.

Other answers: Her career, her underwear, respect, dignity, her children, her weight. His fans.

Truly, America laughed.

Looking at photos of Britney back in the day, bald and miserable, reminds no one more than another complicated and talented star we just lost: Sinéad O’Connor.

But Sinéad’s suffering in his later years was more private. Perhaps that is why his death last month at the age of 56 was such a shock.

Britney’s suffering has almost always been public. It can look like, alternatively, a cry for help and her native way of being – famous for so long that she knows nothing else.

It is perhaps for this reason that his relatives are speaking out, making it clear that they want to help him without institutionalizing him.

The Britney we saw after conservation was a regression: Posting videos on social media in which she is unkempt, barely dressed, dancing on a stripper pole, chasing a new NBA star in the lobby from a Las Vegas hotel and gets run over by its security. Lose his sons.

Now she’s considering a lousy divorce from a 29-year-old showbiz wannabe who, rather than keeping the gory details of her life private, would threaten to bail them out unless he gets a big payout.

No one thinks marrying Britney would be easy. But Asghari had been with her for six years, before and after the conservation. You can’t say he didn’t know what he was getting into.

Now he’s playing the nice guy and it’s all pretty sleazy. Operation. Kicking someone when they are down.

The Britney we saw after conservation was a regression: Posting videos on social media in which she is unkempt, scantily clad, dancing on a stripper pole, chasing a new NBA star in the lobby of a hotel and gets run over by its security. Lose his sons. And now she’s contemplating a horrific divorce from a 29-year-old showbiz wannabe.

“Saving Britney,” a source close to Asghari told DailyMail.com, is now unlikely.

What a terrible thing to say. How proud he is to think he could do it.

“The reality of living with Britney was that it wasn’t fun,” the source said, “and it’s no surprise at all that the marriage didn’t last.”

Of course, it wasn’t fun. Life with a woman, sexualized and commodified at a young age, surrounded by people who always wanted something from her — money, fame, thoughtful fame — was never going to be easy.

Last year, Ashari took to social media to defend Britney. “I respect her privacy and protect her at all times,” he said.

What a hypocrite.

I would like to see Asghari have his life dissected like a corpse, every mistake or embarrassment or family fight or psychiatric illness distributed for entertainment, betrayed by his loved ones, and still muster the resources to survive it. For decades.

A weaker person would have been killed by half of this stuff.

So have a good thought for Britney Jean Spears. She has already escaped. May she start again.