Britney Spears explains why she decided to post 11 nude photos on Instagram in an hour

Britney Spears has explained why she decided to share several racy snaps of herself on online.

The pop icon posted the images, which featured her cupping her breasts and laying on her bed wearing nothing but a thong, to her Instagram last July.

At the time, fans were floored by the posts and became increasingly concerned for the star.

One replied: "You are so fab but I just don't understand the need for these posts all the time."

Another commented: "Just stop with these kind of videos and posts. You are free now. Live your wonderful life not the one on social media."

But now, in her tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me, Britney has addressed some of the reasons why she decided to post the images to her feed.

Instagram/@britneyspears

In an excerpt from her book, obtained by the Daily Mail, Britney goes into some depth about what motivates her to post pictures like these to her social media.

In the passage, she explains that being able to photograph herself and pose in a way which makes her feel sexy rather than in a way which has been meticulously choreographed by someone else.

Britney wrote: “I know that a lot of people don't understand why I love taking pictures of myself naked or in new dresses.

"But I think if they'd been photographed by other people thousands of times, prodded and posed for other people's approval, they'd understand that I get a lot of joy from posing the way I feel sexy and taking my own picture."

In fairness, at the level of fame that Britney had when she was at her pinnacle, it's difficult to see how much autonomy she would have had over how her image was presented, if any.

Getty/Lester Cohen/BBMA2016 / Contributor

This is just one of the many revelations that has come out after The Woman in Me hit shelves earlier this week (24 October).

Some of them have already begun to emerge, including previously unknown details about her relationship with Justin Timberlake and her claiming to have an abortion aged 19.

She wrote: "It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated.

"He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young. I’m sure people will hate me for this, but I agreed not to have the baby.

"I don’t know if that was the right decision. If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father."