Britney Spears was quietly smuggled out of the hospital today just over 24 hours after cops strapped her to a gurney and forced her to get help following a three-hour custody standoff.
Spears was secretly taken out of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center via underground tunnel, according to the Web site of the TV show “Entertainment Tonight.”
While there, she was visited by talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw, according to the reports.
Spears’ release comes as new and disturbing details emerged about the star’s massive meltdown on Thursday, which began when she barricaded herself in a bedroom and ended when she was hauled away to the hospital psychiatric ward early Friday. Later that day, she lost custody of her two kids to her ex, Kevin Federline.
The latest revelations include:
* Spears will check herself into a private loony bin to deal with her mental problems.
* Before she was released, the troubled “Toxic” singer was freaking out in her Cedars-Sinai Hospital room, demanding to be sent home, screaming at the staff, and even pulling out her IV, according to TMZ.com.
* Her mother, Lynn Spears, reportedly believes her troubled spawn deserved to lose custody of her two sons.
* The pop tart did nothing to soothe her panic-stricken, sobbing toddler while she kept him locked in her bedroom during Thursday’s three-hour standoff with cops.
The drama began when a member of K-Fed’s camp showed up at Spears’ home to pick up the kids.
Almost immediately, the unstable superstar went into “total meltdown,” a source who was inside Spears’ home at the time told the Chicago Sun-Times.
That source told the paper Spears “had been drinking, which wasn’t a good idea since she was on [prescription] medications. . . . As soon as Kevin’s guy got to the house she started screaming, then ran to her bedroom and locked and bolted the door.”
Most disturbingly, she brought her year-old son, Jayden James, with her.
“He started screaming . . and continued crying for just about the whole time she was in there. She did nothing to calm him down,” the source told the Sun-Times.
Cops were called, and the chaos inside the house escalated.
Finally, a restrained and whacked-out-looking Spears – at times smiling and laughing – was carried out of her Studio City, Calif., house on a stretcher.
Her mother Lynn Spears – who has publicly feuded with her wayward daughter – is devastated at the turn of events.
Mama Spears said the authorities should remove the kids permanently from Britney’s care, the Sun-Times source quoted her as saying.
The source – identified only as a Spears staffer – said: “It’s not just the drugs and booze, though . . I really believe she is having a total mental and emotional breakdown.”
LOONY TUNES: Britney Spears is strapped to a stretcher on her way to a hospital, 24 hours before she was let go yesterday. A court order (inset) bars her from seeing her kids.