Britney Spears appeared to open up about her conservatorship this week, sharing new details in an alleged voice note posted to Twitter that was quickly made private. The 22-minute-long audio, however, was captured by several online publications.
In the recording, Spears says she has been offered several opportunities, including an interview with Oprah, to share her story. But she said that she hasn’t shared openly because she was “scared of the judgment.”
“I do think I’m in a place now where I’m a little bit more confident, that I can be willing to share more openly my thoughts and what I’ve been through,” she said.
The arrangement, which put her father, Jamie Spears, and outside parties in control of her financial and health decisions, began in 2008 after the then-25-year-old Spears purportedly began struggling with mental health issues.
She began her legal battle to end the conservatorship in 2020. Speaking in court, Spears made the case against the conservatorship, saying it was abusive, and she was forced to work. She also made other allegations, like that her conservators prevented her from getting pregnant by forcing her to use an IUD for contraception.
In 2021, a judge allowed her to hire her own legal counsel. After hiring attorney Mathew Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor, her father was removed as conservator. When Jamie Spears was suspended from the conservatorship in September 2021, his attorney said in a statement that “Mr. Spears loves his daughter” and was doing what was in her best interests, “whether as a conservator or her father.”
“For Mr. Spears, this also meant biting his tongue and not responding to all the false, speculative, and unsubstantiated attacks on him by certain members of the public, media, or more recently, Britney’s own attorney,” the statement continued.
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The conservatorship was terminated in 2021, giving her freedom over her medical decisions, estate and finances for the first time in over a decade. Spears has posted frequently about the situation on social media, and has also spoken negatively about her family members and their involvement in the conservatorship.
Spears said in the recording she didn’t know what she did to deserve this punishment. “You have to understand none of it made sense to me,” she said.
She said the conservatorship started after she spoke to a doctor in a British accent as he was prescribing medication to her.
Her mom told her people were coming over to her house to talk to her and they should go to a hotel, she said, but she didn’t know what that meant.
She claimed a SWAT team came into her home, with helicopters circling above, and she was taken away on a gurney.
“Then four hours later, there were over 200 paparazzi outside my house videotaping me through a window of an ambulance, holding me down on a gurney,” Spears alleged. “I know now it was all premeditated.”
“There were no drugs in my system, no alcohol, nothing. It was pure abuse. And I haven’t even really shared even half of it.”
She said the main thing she remembers when the conservatorship started was her dad’s control. “He loved to control everything I did. I remember the first day he said, ‘I’m Britney Spears and I’m calling the shots,'” she said.
In the recording, Spears alleged that she was forced to work, something she also alleged in court when fighting to end the conservatorship. She put out several albums, tours and started doing a residency in Las Vegas. She said in the recording her performances were “horrible” and she was like a “robot.”
“I was told I was fat every day, I had to go to the gym. I was so demoralized. And they made me feel like nothing. And I went along with it because I was scared.”
“I couldn’t go where I wanted to go, I couldn’t have the nannies I wanted to have, I couldn’t have cash,” she said. “It was just demoralizing. I was kind of like in this conspiracy thing claiming and treating me like a superstar, and yet, they treated me like nothing.”
She got a “spark” back when she was recording her 2016 album “Glory,” she said, getting more confidence and “with confidence comes enlightenment, which makes you think better,” she said. “And that’s the last thing they wanted for me.”
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In 2019, there were reports Spears had canceled a Las Vegas show to check into a health facility for 30 days while her dad was sick, but Spears said she was sent there against her will.
The social media movement #FreeBritney raised concerns for Spears and the state of her conservatorship. Supporters attended protests and showed up to Spears’ court dates during her legal battle to end the conservatorship.
Spears said it confused her why people were fighting for her on the street, but her sister and mom weren’t doing anything to help her.
She said eventually she got a lawyer and he helped her through the end of the conservatorship.
“I felt like my family threw me away … I was a machine. Not even human.”
Spears spoke about how she feared her dad, but was more angry at her mom, for not speaking up.
Hours after Spears posted the recording on Twitter, her mom, Lynne Spears, posted a message about her daughter on Instagram. “Britney, your whole life I have tried my best to support your dreams and wishes! And also, I have tried my best to help you out of hardships!” Lynne Spears wrote.
“I have never and will never turn my back on you! Your rejections to the countless times I have flown out and calls make me feel hopeless! I have tried everything. I love you so much, but this talk is for you and me only , eye to eye, in private,” she wrote in the public posting.
At the end of the recording, Spears asks: “How did they f*** did they get away with it?” She also asks: “How can I mend this if I don’t talk about this?”
“If you’re a weird, introvert, oddball like me, who feels alone a lot of the time, and you needed to hear a story like this today so you don’t feel alone, know this: My life has been far from easy, and you’re not alone,” she said.
