Britney’s Ex-Bodyguard Speaks Out On “Today”

Britney Spears’ ex-bodyguard, Tony Barretto, flanked by attorney Gloria Allred, appeared on NBC’s “Today” show this morning to speak about his reasons for coming forward with abuse allegations against the pop singer.

Barretto was employed by Spears for two months, and submitted a declaration in court last week describing Spears’ erratic behavior. He told Matt Lauer this morning that he wants, “to make sure that the public and the court and her fans know the truth.”

“You say you saw Britney Spears using drugs on two occasions,” Lauer asked Barretto.

“One–they were both at nightclub–a nightclub in Los Angeles,” Barretto answered.

“One was at her table, the incident happened at her table. And she had me hold a curtain to make her area private and at one point it was getting kind of hard to continue to hold the curtain for such a long period of time, so I re–the attempt was to look over and to get her approval to let go of the curtain, at which point I noticed what she was doing.”

”And what was the other occasion?”, Lauer asked.

”The other occasion is when we escorted her to a private restroom upstairs, which we secured for her. And she was in there for some time alone, and I was there waiting for her outside the door, again, for some time. And I thought it would be appropriate to check on her and I knocked and peeked in and I observed this behavior.”

Barretto added, however, that he never saw Britney use drugs in the presence of her
children.

Lauer asked Barretto if it’s possible that he just had an axe to grind with Spears for having been fired after only two months of employment.

Barretto assures that this is not the case, and that he is simply a concerned parent, with two young children of his own.

“I’m not here to destroy Britney,” Barretto assured Lauer.

“I’m here for the kids, I’m here to speak out on their behalf because of my frustrations at the time when I worked for her on not being able to protect them from her, and I have accomplished that now.”