One of the most scandalous pop culture relics of the 2000s could be yours if the price is right — and if you’re OK with owning something that defined Britney Spears’ darker years. In a new interview with Broadly, Daniel “Dano” Ramos reveals that he’s ready to part with the green umbrella Spears used in 2007 to swing at his Ford Explorer. At the time, the pop star had just left rehab, shaved her head, and was going through a custody battle with Kevin Federline. That Feb. 21 night, Spears, who was outside a Jiffy Lube in California with a relative behind the wheel, proceeded to get out of the vehicle, yell “Fuck You,” and hit Ramos’ car with the umbrella before speeding away. “She knew us already from being out in the streets,” Ramos tells Broadly. “We didn’t know [something was wrong]. We were just going on a daily basis until we figured out what was happening at the time was not good.”
Ramos has had the umbrella all these years (after a fellow photog handed it to him) and at one point, he even put both the car and umbrella up for auction on eBay. “It was a bad moment in her life. Unfortunately it was captured,” he tells Broadly, along with the announcement that he’s putting the umbrella up for auction again and plans to donate half the proceeds to a charity of the pop star’s choice.
As fans may recall, Spears issued an apology on her website five months later, noting that she was “preparing my character for a role in a movie where the husband never plays his part so they switch places accidentally.” She explained that she took “all my roles very seriously and got a little carried away. Unfortunately I didn’t get the part.” She was placed on two 5150 psychiatric holds the following year while her father Jamie was given sole conservatorship of the singer and her estate. (As a 2016 New York Times article revealed, Jamie is still the conservator, which means that Britney is unable to “make key decisions, personal or financial” without his approval).
Read the full Broadly interview with Dano Ramos here.
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