It has not gone unnoticed that Britney Spears has recently been spotted with a baby doll as part of her entourage. Arriving in Mexico this week, a man thought to be her bodyguard was seen carrying a toy doll wrapped in a pink blanket as the singer walked behind him in dark glasses and a hooded jumper.

He proceeded to carry the doll as they dismounted their private plane and continued to do so as they walked through the airport. It seems that Spears is in Mexico on holiday, somewhere she has visited several times in recent months, but there is no clear explanation as to why she was travelling with a doll.

The recent sighting has certainly piqued interest, but there are a few reasons why Spears might have a doll by her side. Firstly, she has been known to keep toy dolls in the past and has posted about them on social media before. In 2021, she shared a video of herself dancing with one of her dolls and wrote, ‘I had a baby ya’ll… I will be taking some time off shooting at home every day!!! Her nursery is beautiful and her name is Brennan… we even look alike. My first [girl emoji]!!!’.

Spears has two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden, with her ex-husband Kevin Federline, who she has had a well-documented, tumultuous relationship with over the years. After her public breakdowns in 2007 and 2008, which saw the start of her 13-year conservatorship, Spears lost custody of her two children.

During her conservatorship, she was not allowed to see her sons without approval and, in many ways, she was treated as a child herself. Her father Jamie Spears controlled nearly every aspect of her life, including her finances, her work, her relationships, the meals she ate and whether she was allowed to drive. She was not even able to remove her contraceptive device (IUD) without permission – and when she asked to do so, her request was allegedly denied.

In 2021, after years of campaigning and the birth of an entire #FreeBritney movement, this arrangement finally came to an end and a judge ruled that Spears could make her own decisions again. However, it was not the immediate happy ending fans had hoped for.

In Spears’ 2023 memoir The Woman In Me, which is currently being adapted for film by Jon M Chu, she detailed the lasting damage she claims her conservatorship has caused, and the ways in which it negatively impacted almost every relationship in her life. Spears might have dedicated the book to ‘my boys’ and described them as ‘the loves of my life’, but it is no secret that their relationship has suffered over the years.

With the context of all that Spears has been through in the past two decades, her consistently erratic social media presence and unusual behaviour in public is often a source of concern, with many fans worrying how she is coping with her newfound autonomy.

It’s not just the recent baby doll pictures, either. Last week, Spears was in the headlines with reports that she has broken up with her on-off boyfriend Paul Soliz again. Their relationship has always raised eyebrows given Soliz’s history as a convicted felon, and the fact he used to work as Spears’ housekeeper and was reportedly married to a woman called Nicole Mancilla during the start of their relationship.

According to his ex-mother-in-law, Sandra Smith, Soliz moved three of his children with Mancilla into Spears’ home during their relationship, despite his ex-wife claiming he never paid child support. Not only has Mancilla slammed his as a ‘bad person’ and a ‘deadbeat dad’, but she has petitioned the court for legal and physical custody of their five children.

Last summer, according to Page Six, Spears called things off with Soliz because she felt he ‘had taken advantage of her lifestyle’. Another insider added that the singer was ‘relieved Soliz was out of the picture after a turbulent relationship’.

Despite getting back together after the aforementioned saga, Spears appeared to confirm the news that they have recently broken up again on her Instagram page. She shared a video of the waves on the beach in Mexico and wrote that she was having her kitchen redone in her home in LA to bring ‘a feeling of newness I’ve needed for a while’ and a ‘spiritual cleansing of laughter, tears, insanity and all the emotions that allow my heart to let go and heal’.

While fans hope that Spears is indeed taking the necessary steps to heal and rebuild her life, the latest baby doll pictures have sparked another wave of worry about her health. ‘Why is Britney’s security guard carrying around a baby doll?’ asked one user on X. Another wrote, ‘Why is he carrying the doll like it’s their kid? For a moment I thought it was an actual baby.’ Other have simply called the doll ‘creepy’.

It would be easy to view the baby doll as a metaphor for Spears’ longing to fulfil her role as a mother. It’s clear from her social media posts, and indeed her memoir, that Spears has a lot of love for her children and has struggled with the myriad ways their relationships have suffered. Only last week did she share a video of one of her sons playing the piano with the caption ‘mamas don’t get enough credit at all these days!!! I mean just saying!!!! I made a person!!!’ before adding ‘my boys are so incredibly sweet and charming!!!! I’m so blessed’.

It’s also no secret that Spears played an active role in the lives of Soliz’s children, with three of them reportedly living in her home. Earlier this year she was spotted at a trampoline park with his young children, with sources saying they ‘adore each other’. It’s possible that she is also missing them if the reports that she and Soliz have broken up are true.

However, other fans have been quick to argue that it’s not that serious, pointing out that Britney’s love of baby dolls, or the fact she sometimes likes to travel with dolls and other toys to help with her anxiety, is nothing new – and nothing to worry about. Let’s hope they are right… even if the airport pictures are a little unusual.