FREEING BRITNEY
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE SINGER’S CONSERVATORSHIP AND HER BATTLE TO BREAK FREE
Inside her toxic life
Take one look at the comments on her Instagram page and it’s clear that Britney Spears’ fans are concerned. While the 38-year-old’s social media posts have become increasingly perplexing over the past few years, Spears' mental health has now been called into question again – her bizarre ramblings and odd videos prompting the #FreeBritney to start trending again. Having been under a strict conservatorship since 2008, many fans are now convinced the ‘Toxic’ singer is sending them secret coded messages asking for help. We look at the star’s bizarre life out of the spotlight and the movement to ‘free’ her.
CONTROLLED BY CONSERVATORSHIP
For 12 years, Spears’ life has been controlled and monitored by her father, Jamie Spears, 68. Under the strict conservatorship that was put in place in 2008 after multiple mental breakdowns, the singer hasn’t been allowed to leave her home, drive a car, have access to her own money, get married, or see her kids without permission from her father. She also can’t use social media or her phone unmonitored, do interviews that aren’t scripted or have any control over her career.
The conservatorship was deemed necessary after she was admitted into a psychiatric ward for the second time, just months after her infamous head-shaving incident in 2007.
But more than a decade later – having released four albums, done three worldwide tours, a four-year Vegas residency and making upwards of $197 million a year – fans wonder if there could be more to the conservatorship than meets the eye.
OVERPROTECTED
With her hit songs like ‘Lucky’, ‘Overprotected’, ‘My Prerogative’ and ‘Circus’ all talking about feeling controlled and being treated like a puppet, fans are convinced Spears has been trying to tell us something all these years. The #FreeBritney social media campaign first started in early 2019 when Spears was checked into a mental health facility, allegedly against her will, after reportedly refusing to take
"Her videos have prompted the #FreeBritney hashtag"
prescribed medication and for driving to In-N-Out with her boyfriend, Sam Asghari, without Jamie’s permission.
In April, after no sign of the singer online or in person for three months, a paralegal who worked with Spears when she was contesting her conservatorship claimed on the podcast, Britney’s Gram, that she had stopped taking her medication while rehearsing for her new Vegas residency Domination. Her father had allegedly demanded his daughter go back on them and when she refused, he cancelled the residency – though Spears shared online at the time that she was cancelling due to her father’s poor health – and placed her in a treatment facility.
While the singer later tried to dismiss the whispers by telling fans not to “believe everything you read and hear”, her mother Lynne was caught liking comments saying that Spears was being held against her will and also filed a legal motion in May 2019 so that she could be a part of the singer’s medical decisions.
“Her mum has tried at different points over the years to have some sort of say,” a source told Entertainment Tonight.
The next month, Spears and her family went to court for the annual reassessment of her conservatorship where she allegedly asked the judge to “consider ending it”. However it remained in place.
THE BATTLE FOR BRITNEY
Those closest to the star have tried to dismiss talk that she is being controlled. “The conservatorship is not a jail,” her manager, Larry Rudolph, told The Washington Post last year. “It helps Britney make business decisions and manage her life in ways she can’t do on her own right now.” Her attorney also insisted to the Los Angeles Times Spears is a part of the decision-making process and has a say over her career.
Still, fans remain anxious and understandably so. In January, the singer made another plea to the courts to have her conservatorship lifted only for the hearing to be delayed due to COVID-19. In early March, Spears’ son Jayden – whose brother Sean had an altercation with his grandfather Jamie last year and has since been granted a restraining order against him – responded to a fan during an Instagram Live who asked him to “help your mum break free”. The 13-year-old responded, “That’s what I’m trying to do”.
The singer has been keeping fans updated during quarantine by posting Instagram and TikTok videos – but with each one as strange as the next, concerns over her wellbeing and safety have only heightened. So much so, a group of diehard fans now believe her Instagram contains secret messages asking for their help (see breakout). “I love you britney we’re gonna get u out,” one wrote.
A petition asking for Spears to have the right to hire her own lawyer to help her get out of the agreement has, at the time of going to print, garnered more than 210,000 signatures from across the globe.
And with a new hearing to discuss the conservatorship set for July 22, fans are hoping their latest efforts will finally pay off.
With speculation at an all-time high, there’s no denying the singer's’ situation looks messy. And while her camp are doing everything to keep details private, it seems er loyal fans won’t rest until they #FreeBritney.
“The conservatorship is not a jail”
— BRITNEY'S MANAGER