LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Britney Spears has completed a month in
rehab and left a luxury Malibu facility with a plea for privacy
while she rebuilds her life with her two young children.
Spears' manager Larry Rudolph said in a statement that the pop
singer was released on Tuesday by the Promises Malibu Treatment
Center "after successfully completing their program."
"We ask that the media respects her privacy as well as those of her
family and friends at this time," the statement said.
Spears, 25, checked into Promises on February 21 after shaving her
own head following weeks of erratic public behavior that coincided
with an escalating divorce battle.
The specific treatment Spears was seeking was not made clear but
the former teen idol was photographed on several occasions making
her way to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings outside the facility
during her stay there.
Some celebrity watchers speculated that she may have been battling
post natal depression after the birth in September 2006 of her
second baby in 12 months.
The minimum stay for most centers is 30 days but Promises founder
Richard Rogg has said the usual stay at his facility is about 45
days. Country star Keith Urban recently spent three months at the
Betty Ford Center for alcohol abuse.
Promises, a celebrity magnet nestled in the mountains overlooking
the Pacific Ocean, offers a tough-love philosophy that requires
patients to perform menial chores in a highly pampered
setting.
In the week leading up to her arrival at Promises, Spears had spent
less than a day at guitarist Eric Clapton's Crossroads rehab center
in Antigua.
She then returned to Los Angeles, where she tearfully shaved her
head in a beauty salon, and then checked in and swiftly out of
Promises before deciding to stay there.
Spears filed for divorce from second husband Kevin Federline in
November after two years of marriage and two children. She was
photographed without panties while hitting the nightclub
circuit.
Celebrity Web site TMZ.com reported that Federline and Spears have
now agreed to share custody of their sons while they finalize their
divorce. Other celebrity Web sites said Federline and the boys had
visited Spears several times while she was at Promises.
Her recording career, meanwhile, is dormant. The singer who shot to
fame as a teenager in 1999 and has sold an estimated 70 million
records, released her last album of new material, "In the Zone," in
2003.
Reuters/Nielsen