Columbus Short has revealed that during his 2003 fling with Britney Spears, he overheard her parents refer to him as the n-word. As previously reported, the Scandal star worked as a backup dancer and producer years back. According to his 2020 autobiography entitled Short Stories, he revealed that he and Britney slept together after she came on to him during a trip to Rome.
Short said he only slept with Spears once and afterwards, he heard her parents refer to him as a racial slur. He wrote in his book, “I was next to Britney while she was on the phone with them crying while she had it on speaker.” He said that he then heard her parents ask “Why are you f*cking that n*gger?” Short said that afterwards, “Britney looked at me so apologetically, knowing I’d heard it. I shook my head and didn’t say anything, because what was there to say?”
During an interview with Inside Hollywood, Short said that he wasn't surprised about the incident. He explained, “I wasn’t shocked when it happened — look where they’re from. They’re from Louisiana. Just because they’re in Hollywood or just because now they have black bodyguards doesn’t mean that behind closed doors they don’t use that word. I think that was a common thing, and the way it came out was so effortless — like that’s how they speak. I wasn’t shocked, and I wasn’t hurt by it, I was just like, ‘Wow, this is — wow. Okay, I know who I am around here.’ It was a very interesting thing.”
He continued, “After that, I felt like maybe Britney was using me to piss them off for some reason. I’m just saying that but I don’t know. I think maybe I thought that for a second, but I think she is a really sweet person that was tormented — in a position on a high level that I can’t imagine. I liken it to Princess Diana. She was the pop princess of the world. Britney couldn’t go nowhere — her world was completely controlled in this bubble. There would be times that she would act out, and I don’t blame her. She was trying to find something — trying to find her way.”