(Britney's ex bodyguard shares what her life is really like)"There was a time when I thought she was going to hurt the kids," he confirms rubbing the dark eyes behind the spectacles.
"She sent the nanny home. She sent her best friend and personal assistant, Alli Sims, home. Britney hates to be alone, so this was worrying.
"One of the bodyguards who had been with her longest said she was beginning to shut down as she had just before she shaved her head.
"He said she'd been talking about suicide then, and this was the same. Britney was sobbing. She screamed."
Sensing danger, his colleague said: "I'm worried about the kids. Don't let her go swimming with them."
"Shocked, I asked, 'Is she going to drown them?' He said, 'I don't know.' I started to cry. How am I supposed to protect someone like that?"
"She always seemed concerned about her look," says Barretto. "We always took pictures of her before she went out every day.
"She'd ask, 'Do I look nice, y'all?' We didn't want to put her down. Even though she looked terrible, we'd say she looked great."
She tolerates the paparazzi, as long as they would put gas in her car, buy her Starbucks, and feed her parking meters. Her bodyguards must always have a cigarette and lighter ready for her. "She smokes a lot, but one day she opened the door to the green room at one concert and gave me her cigarettes and lighter. She said, 'Can you take these for me, honey? I'm quitting smoking.' An hour later she had somebody digging through the trash to get them back."
She was always screaming and crying, especially at night. When we would drive her around, she would scream out the windows, "I'm a Rock Star!" at passing cars. We did take her to the DMV to get her drivers license, and she took the test in a private room. She didn't pass, getting only 3 right out of 35. She said she would never take it again.
The weirdness began for Barretto when he was given the Spears House Rules on the day he was hired. The first rule was, "she must not be disgusted by your breath!"
"Never look at her butt," he says.
"She doesn't wear underwear, and sometimes getting out of the car she's exposed – though I know she owns underwear, because I've seen it.
"I was briefed on how to react when I saw her nude, because she often walks around the house naked. I was told to act coy and shy, because if you look like you enjoy it, you're a pervert."
Before joining Britney, Barretto worked as a bounty hunter for a bail bonds service, but has also done some "celebrity protection" he says.
For all his tough-man image, Barretto is slightly hard of hearing, as he had explained to Britney from the beginning. But it was a weakness that led to his eventual dismissal.
On May 17, he was fired, for failing to pick up a hat Britney dropped, after she asked him three times.
"I didn't hear her the first time," he explains.
"The second, I only heard 'Pick it up,' but couldn't see it. She got mad. I picked it up and handed it to her.
"When we returned home I wasn't allowed on the property," he says sadly.
"I had to wait outside, my belongings were brought out to me, and I was given a check."
