Spears announced the loss on Instagram Saturday in a joint post with her fiance, Sam Asghari. The pop superstar, who gained her freedom from a court conservatorship that controlled her life for more than a decade, said in April that she was expecting a child with Asghari.
“It is with deepest sadness we have to announce that we have lost our miracle baby early in the pregnancy. This is a devastating time for any parent,” the post said.
“Perhaps we should have waited to announce until we were further along however we were overly excited to share the good news.
“Our love for each other is our strength,” the post said. “We will continue trying to expand our beautiful family.”
The 40-year-old Spears has said she longed for a baby with the 28-year-old Asghari, a personal trainer, but also said the nearly 14-year-long conservatorship that a judge ended last year forced her to remain on birth control.
“I want to be able to get married and have a baby,” she told the court last year. “I was told right now in the conservatorship I am not able to get married or have a baby.”
The two met on the set of her Slumber Party video in 2016.
Spears and Asghari became engaged in September last year, days after her father filed a request to end the conservatorship. The singer had told the court that she wanted to marry Asghari, but that under the conservatorship she wasn’t even allowed to drive with him. Spears joked in September that the proposal was “way overdue”.