For Release: Wednesday, March 25, 2015 Contact

For Release: Wednesday, March 25, 2015
4-6-15 Issue: On Newsstands Friday, March 27, 2015
Contact: Caitlin Faford, 212 522 5148
Julie Farin, 212 522 8130
‘PEOPLE’ EXCLUSIVE COVER STORY
AT HOME WITH BRITNEY SPEARS
“I Would Love to Have More Kids,” Spears tells PEOPLE
“I Would Love a Mini-Me”
(NEW YORK) – After more than 15 years as a pop star, multi-platinum singer Britney Spears is on a roll – her long-running Las
Vegas residency has grossed nearly $50 million in ticket sales in little more than a year. But while she loves performing, Spears’ true
passion is being a mother to sons Sean Preston, 9, and Jayden James, 8. In this week’s cover story, Spears opens up to PEOPLE
in an exclusive interview about raising her sons, date nights with her boyfriend of six months, producer Charlie Ebersol, and why
she’s happier than ever.
PEOPLE: What’s a normal day at home like?
Britney: “After school sometimes they’ll go to gymnastics, which they love. Or I take them to the skate park. They’re obsessed…
They go to a really hard school, and this week we had three hours of homework [a night]. Some of it is hard for me. Next year when
[Preston’s] in fifth grade, he’s going to be doing pre-algebra, and I’m taking classes so I know how to do it!”
PEOPLE: Would you ever get married again?
Britney: “I would love to. I believe in the fairy tale... Love is a hard one. I don’t really understand love as far as relationships. With
my kids it’s just unconditional, and that’s hard to find. It takes two people just loving each other a lot.”
PEOPLE: Are you open to having more kids?
Britney: I would like to have one more. I am very satisfied with my two boys, but maybe in the future. I would love a mini-me. That
would be fun!”
(Cover story, p. 44)
CELINE DION FACING HER HUSBAND’S HEALTH CRISIS: “WE’RE LIVING EACH DAY TO THE FULLEST”
With the support of her husband Rene Angelil, who is fighting cancer for a third time, the Celine Dion prepares for her return to the
stage for the first time since her abrupt hiatus last year. The singer has been working overtime to ensure her family’s well-being,
leaving her Las Vegas residency indefinitely in August to be with Angelil, 73, and their three sons, Rene-Charles, 14, and twins Eddy
and Nelson, 4 ½. But after some months at home, they began planning her comeback before finding out Angelil’s cancer had come
back for a third time. Yet they decided to move forward with her return – kicking off Aug. 27 – at the urging of Angelil. Says Dion,
tearing up: “He wants me to sing again, and I want to do this with him.” Today, Angelil remains unable to speak due to his extensive
throat surgery, has difficulty hearing because of past radiation treatments, and eats through a feeding tube. “We don’t know what the
future will bring, so we decided to just go for it.” Envisioning that opening night in August, the singer takes a deep breath. “Rene will
be in the audience,” she says. “I promise there will be high, happy notes, but it’s going to be very emotional for me. Music is my
passion, and my family is my life.”
(p. 58)
JENNIFER LAWRENCE’S NEXT MOVES: “I THINK SHE’S THE BEST THERE IS,” SAYS BRADLEY COOPER
Jennifer Lawrence is having one busy spring. There’s being Bradley Cooper’s “work wife” (they’re filming their fourth movie
together), prepping to shoot X-Men: Apocalypse, making a deal to play war photographer Lynsey Addario for director Steven
Spielberg… and keeping everyone guessing about her love life. She and rocker Chris Martin haven’t been spotted together since
Jan. 31, but the pair “communicate daily,” a Lawrence source tells PEOPLE. “They see each other when they can, yet each continues
to do their own thing,” says a Martin source. Martin, 38, has mostly stayed in L.A. with Apple, 10, and Moses, 8, his children with ex
Gwyneth Paltrow. Lawrence, 24, has been in Boston filming Joy, a biopic about Home Shopping Network whiz Joy Mangano. The
Oscar winner enjoyed a rare night out March 21, reuniting with Cooper for the Cinema Society premiere of their drama Serena in
N.Y.C. “I think she’s the best there is. And I just learn from her,” says Cooper, 40. PEOPLE confirms Cooper and model-actress
Suki Waterhouse, 23, ended their two-year relationship before the Oscars. But Cooper and Lawrence scoffed at rumors of an offscreen romance. A source close to her says they’re “great friends” – nothing more.”
(p. 21)
-more-
MORE NEWS
THE UNSTOPPABLE DOLLY PARTON: “THERE’S A BRAIN UNDER THE WIG AND A HEART BENEATH THE BOOBS”
In 1985, against the advice of naysayers, Dolly Parton partnered with the owners of a theme park in Tennessee’s Great Smoky
Mountains and created Dollywood. “When we first opened, I was so scared,” she tells PEOLE. “I was just thinking, ‘Oh, please. Let
the people come.’” They came by the carload. Thirty years later Parton is expanding her empire with a resort, DreamMore, this
summer – and has no plans to slow down. “I don’t intend to ever retire unless I get sick or my husband gets sick,” she says. “I want
to work until I fall over dead!” She’s also developing a series of TV movies for NBC based on “stories from my life and songs that I’ve
written.” And having a cosmetic line is on her bucket list. “I’m in my own class, but it’s mostly low,” she jokes. “I have my makeup on
every day. It’s how I feel comfortable.” And what does she want people to celebrate most about her? “There’s a brain under the wig
and a heart beneath the boobs,” she says. “I may look artificial, but inside I’m totally real.”
(p. 90)
ROB KARDASHIAN: “HE’S SAD, HE’S BITTER, HE’S SINGLE”
When Rob Kardashian, 28, compared his sister Kim to Gone Girls fictional psychopath Amy Dunne on Instagram on March 22, it
revealed a deepening rift between siblings – and brought to light major concerns about his well-being. “The attitude has always been
that when Rob get his act together, starts working out and loses weight, everything will be good and he will be happy,” a production
source on the family’s E! reality show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, tells PEOPLE. “But behind the weight gain is this very
unhealthy mental state that he keeps struggling with.”
Last May, amidst scrutiny of his weight gain, he abruptly changed plans to attend Kim’s wedding. In the months since, he has
studiously avoided the spotlight. “It’s really hard for him that his sisters are so public and he looks like the shut-in,” adds a second
source. “So he has retreated more. He’s sad, he’s bitter, he’s single. He is very depressed and has been.” With Rob not currently
filming KUWTK – “Kris doesn’t want him on the show when he is emotionally unstable,” says the production source – family members
have encouraged him to get help, even staging multiple interventions to no avail. “He is very against therapy and any kind of rehab,”
says the production source. “But his family will continue to push for him to get help until he does.”
(p. 24)
RICKY GERVAIS: WHAT MY CAT KNOWS ABOUT ME
Comedian Ricky Gervais, 53, shares with PEOPLE secrets that only his cat Ollie knows: “She knows a little ‘meow’ can get her
brushed,” he says. “She also knows how to brush herself when I stop. But my favorite thing she knows is that I regularly go to the
kitchen for a beer and have to walk past the stairs,” he adds. She runs up and gets to the stair that’s head height for a little fight with
me through the banister. The saddest thing she knows is a suitcase means I’m leaving her for a few days. She sits in it and follows
me everywhere as if to say, ‘I’m coming with you.’”
(p. 26)
A BABY’S DEATH, A NEW MISSION: SIMON’S FUND PROVIDES FREE HEART SCREENINGS FOR CHILDREN
Ten years ago in Pennsylvania, Phyllis Sudman placed Simon, her bouncy, smiling 3-month-old, in his crib for a nap. “He never
woke up,” says Phyllis, 43. Grief-stricken and wanting answers, she and husband Darren called their doctor, who told them, “You
should get your hearts checked,” Darren, 44, recalls. They learned Phyllis had a congenital heart defect that, untreated, could have
stopped her heart, just as it did Simon’s. “He saved my life,” Phyllis says. The Sudmans, who have a healthy 12-year-old daughter,
Sally, and son, Jaden, 8, have been saving lives ever since. Raising $1 million for their nonprofit Simon’s Fund (simonsfund.org)
Darren and Phyllis – who was named the 2014 L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth National Honoree – have provided free screenings for
nearly 11,000 kids, uncovering treatable heart defects in about 100.
(p. 56)
A TRUST BETRAYED: FOOD NETWORK MURDER MYSTERY
Cristie Schoen Codd, 38, who competed on Food Network Star in 2012 and was expecting her first baby – a girl to be named Skylar
– in July, had found her perfect match in husband J.T., 45. “J.T. was so open and trusting with all kinds of people,” Julia Sachs, a
close friend tells PEOPLE. That trust may have cost the Codds their lives. The day after relatives reported the couple missing on
March 15, police in the tiny North Carolina town of Leicester arrested Robert Jason Owens, a 37-year-old handyman who had been
working on the Codds’ property and had even attended their wedding last October. Owens told police that he “stored and destroyed”
the bodies of Cristie and J.T. at his property a mile from their home.
For friends of the bighearted parents-to-be, the loss is profound. Spending time with the pair “was like being around the sun,” says pal
Perry Sachs. “They had so much love for the world.” The couple hired Owens to help renovate their property and gave him some
$7,000 to set up his own business. “J.T. was always trying to help the guy who was down on his luck,” says Dirk Long, Cristie’s
partner in Tree Hugger Catering. “I said, ‘You can’t do that in the mountains of western North Carolina.’ My opinion is that [Owens]
probably asked for more money and Cristie put her foot down.” Now their loved ones are left to imagine what might have been.
“They had so much to do, so many plans that were unfinished,” says Julia Sachs. Friend Lynne Mishele, adds, “This town was
supposed to be the kind of place that accepted their generosity, where they could sit on the porch and enjoy a quiet cup of coffee.
That was stolen from them – and their baby girl.”
(p. 62)
More stories are featured in the 4.6.15 issue of PEOPLE; on newsstands (and tablets) 3.27.15.

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