Britney "still a real girl" deep down, says her former publicist

Washington, Jan 11 : Britney Spears' former publicist Lizzie Grubman says that there is "still a real girl" in the troubled singer.

Grubman was shocked at the recent events in the life of the 26-year-old star and couldn't believe that it was the same girl she met at first.

"Never in a million years would I have believed it would go this way! When I first started working with her she was this humble, sweet little girl," Usmagazine.com quoted Grubman, as saying.

Grubman said that the former teenage icon has problems now because she never had a childhood.

Britney "didn't have a childhood which made everything worse. There is still a real girl in there, but she's shutting people out and doesn't want to trust anybody. It's all very tragic and sad how it turned out," she said.

ANI