The #FreeBritney BREAKDOWN
Armed with a hashtag, fans of superstar Britney Spears insist her life is ‘Toxic’
The battle of Britney Spears continues. Last year, the pop star made headlines when she suddenly canceled her Las Vegas residency and a few months later reportedly checked into a mental health facility. Rumors spread that the stay wasn’t voluntary, and a #FreeBritney online campaign went viral.
Spears has been in a conservatorship since early 2008 after suffering a very public breakdown, meaning a court-supervised arrangement gave a guardian control over her personal decisions and finances. In Spears’ case, her father is in charge of her $47 million estate, according to documents obtained last year.
This summer, observers became concerned again after Spears posted several odd Instagram videos and photos, and some fans started speculating that she was sending coded messages asking for help. #FreeBritney took off again.
On Aug. 18, Spears’ attorney submitted a court filing asking that the conservatorship be “substantially” changed — and said that Spears “strongly opposes” her father, Jamie Spears, in the role of conservator. But a California judge extended the conservatorship (which was set to expire Aug. 22) until February and, according to the Blast, asked that Spears’ attorneys file their petition to remove Jamie Spears by Sept. 18.
How did it get to this point, with even the American Civil Liberties Union offering to help Spears get out of her conservatorship? Here is a brief guide:
#FreeBritney beginnings and the conservatorship
Spears, one of the biggest pop artists of the 1990s, has a legion of fiercely loyal fans who follow her every move. The phrase “Free Britney” first appeared on a fan site in 2009, shortly after Spears entered into a conservatorship controlled by her father and an attorney. Spears entered the arrangement not long after a series of alarming public acts, including shaving her head and hitting a paparazzo’s car with her umbrella. She made multiple trips to rehab and lost custody of two sons she had with ex-husband Kevin Federline. (They now share custody.) But Spears was back in the studio about six months
after the legal agreement started.
Last year, the #FreeBritney campaign caught on after a wave of people and a Spears-centered podcast, “Britney’s Gram,” speculated that she was unwillingly forced back into treatment and started lobbying for her conservatorship to end. The campaign argued that a pop star who spent the past decade releasing albums, touring and headlining a Las Vegas residency shouldn’t be held under a legal structure designed to protect the elderly and seriously ill.
But some in Spears’ inner circle pushed back on this, as we reported last year: “Sources close to the singer are pushing back on the #FreeBritney narrative, emphasizing that Spears is in the conservatorship for a reason — longterm mental health issues that they would not specify. They know #FreeBritney is born out of fans’ love for her, they say, but insist that fans don’t understand the details of Spears’ condition and the logistics of the legal arrangement, which is monitored closely by medical professionals and the courts.”
Instagram posts
In July, the #FreeBritney movement went viral again when fans theorized that certain Instagram and TikTok posts by Spears were secret calls for help. In one example, fans spotted people in the comments saying things like, “If you need help wear yellow in your next video.” They saw her posts in a yellow crop top in July and August as a sign. Public statements by Spears’ family
The pop star’s family almost never publicly talks about her, but recently there have been a few exceptions. When Jamie Spears asked to temporarily step down as conservator last fall because of health problems, the court appointed Jodi Montgomery, Spears’ care manager, to take over. At the beginning of August, the same month Montgomery’s role was supposed to end, Jamie Spears gave a rare interview to the New York Post, saying that the #FreeBritney movement had led to death threats and stalkers.
“All these conspiracy theorists don’t know anything. The world don’t have a clue. It’s up to the court of California to decide what’s best for my daughter. It’s no one else’s business,” he told the Post, and shot down claims that he has skimmed money from his daughter’s estate: “I have to report every nickel and dime spent to the court every year.” The tabloid reported that he grew “emotional” talking about Britney: “I love my daughter. I love all my kids. But this is our business. It’s private.”
Her mother, Lynne Spears, has not been involved in the conservatorship, but she “liked” online comments last year about the #FreeBritney movement. In July, she reportedly filed documents asking the courts to be involved with Spears’ finances.
The pop artist’s brother, Bryan Spears, went on the “As NOT Seen on TV” podcast in July and said that while the conservatorship has been a positive thing for the family, his sister had always wanted to rid herself of the restrictions. (In an interview in 2008, she compared it to being in jail, except without a set release date.)
“She’s been in this thing for quite some time now. Obviously there was a need for it in the beginning; I assume everyone knows the issues that were going on,” Bryan Spears said, adding, “Having someone constantly tell you to do something has got to be frustrating. So yeah, she’s wanted to get out of it for quite some time. What level of that is the reality? Who knows, you know?”
Around the same time, her sister, Jamie-Lynn Spears, fired back at an Instagram commenter who criticized her for never speaking out about Britney’s “OBVIOUS mental illness.” “You have no right to assume anything about my sister. And I have no right to speak about HER health and personal matters,” Jamie-Lynn Spears wrote. “She is a strong … unstoppable woman, and that’s the only thing that is OBVIOUS.”
The 55-hour husband speaks out
Jason Alexander (not the actor of “Seinfeld” fame) Spears’ childhood friend to whom she was famously married for 55 hours when they eloped in Las Vegas in 2004, made a surprise appearance at a #FreeBritney protest outside a Los Angeles courthouse last week, the day of her conservatorship hearing.
“I’m here to show support for the #FreeBritney movement and Britney,” he told Us Weekly. “This is an unfortunate situation that’s been in her life for a long time. It’s affected me and her, and that makes me part of it. I’ve been quiet for 10 years, and I feel (like) what a good time to come forward now with the movement making noise and the conservatorship hearings going on.”
The current legal battle
Last year, Jamie Spears said during a hearing that he and his daughter have a “strained” relationship. Now, Britney Spears’ attorneys say the singer “strongly prefers” that Montgomery, her care manager, permanently remain in the role instead of her father.
“We are now at a point where the conservatorship must be changed substantially in order to reflect the major changes in her current lifestyle and her stated wishes. Without in any way waiving her right to seek termination of this conservatorship in the future, Britney would like Ms. Montgomery’s appointment as conservator of her person to be made permanent,” Spears’ attorney, Samuel D. Ingham, wrote in a court filing, according to People.
Shortly after, the ACLU weighed in with its support for Spears: “People with disabilities have a right to lead self-directed lives and retain their civil rights,” the organization tweeted. “If Britney Spears wants to regain her civil liberties and get out of her conservatorship, we are here to help her.”
Spears’ reaction
In spring 2019, when #FreeBritney hit its peak, Spears took to Instagram and asked fans to give her “a little bit of privacy to deal with all the hard things” that life was throwing her way.
“I wanted to say hi, because things that are being said have just gotten out of control!!! Wow!!! There’s rumors, death threats to my family and my team, and just so many things crazy things being said … Don’t believe everything you read and hear,” she wrote. “My situation is unique, but I promise I’m doing what’s best at this moment. You may not know this about me, but I am strong, and stand up for what I want!”
Spears hasn’t directly addressed any of the current updates, leaving fans to read between the lines once again.
“I feel like we will look back at this time in quarantine as a huge transitional stage in our lives … we don’t know when things will go back to normal but we are staying positive and learning so much about ourselves !!!! ” she wrote Aug. 20, thanking her fans. “I can feel your hearts and I know you can feel mine … thank you for your support !!!”