Ex-bodyguard: Spears is threat to self, two kids

By JO PIAZZA

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

If Britney Spears’ former bodyguard Tony Barretto can be taken at his word, the embattled popster is nearing her expiration date, and not for her career — for her life.

Barretto, 28, a former bounty hunter turned professional muscle, viewed his job guarding the singer as on the level of Secret Service duty.

The gentle giant, who could just be the guardian angel Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, have been silently begging for, claims he would have taken a bullet for his charges. But the 6-foot-7, 448-pounder said more often than not he was baby-sitting the slurry singer and her children to protect all of them from her unpredictable madness.

Now off the Spears’ payroll for neglecting to pick up one of her wayward fedoras, Barretto is making the media rounds, airing all Spears’ dirty laundry for any media outlet willing to listen, and perhaps pay.

His lawyer, bulldog attorney Gloria Allred, has been standing diligently at his side, as she did Monday morning when Barretto carefully waded through “Today” show host Matt Lauer’s questions about his former employer. Barretto said he was coming forward with claims about Spears’ erratic and shocking behavior only to protect her two children.

But why does he care so much?

The quiet-spoken guard and California native has two kids of his own, and his own mom gave birth to him when she was only 16, leaving him with a soft spot for young mothers in peril.

After only a couple of months with Spears, the period immediately after she completed a stint in the Promises rehab center, Barretto feared she had reached a point where she would either harm herself or her children. His revelations, now in court documents, could publicly push Spears back into rehab and save the kids from Mommie Dearest.

Barretto said Spears’ reckless daily behavior could endanger the children.

“She’d put the kids at risk by driving on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic for no reason at all, along windy roads up in the hills. I was in the car behind, going, ‘Oh my God!’ The kids were in the back seat. She ended up making illegal U-turns, going through red lights. She almost got hit twice on the wrong side of the road,” Barretto said.