Britney Spears addresses conservatorship experience a year after its termination

Britney Spears has revealed to the public what her conservatorship was really like through an audio message released via YouTube. According to Variety, the post was initially shared by Spears herself but she deleted it soon after. However, the 22-minute video was immediately uploaded online by her followers. The audio clip contains bombshell claims made by the ‘Toxic’ singer against her family.

The video only features audio. Initially, the video was made available and the link was shared on Spears’ official Twitter account as well as she deactivated her Instagram account and has been active on the micro-blogging site instead.

“I woke up this morning and I realised there’s a lot going on in my head that I haven’t shared with anyone,” Spears says in the video.

In the audio clip, the singer says she has been offered multiple interview opportunities, including one by Oprah Winfrey, but decided that it is best for her to share the story herself. “I’ve had tons of opportunities… but I’m here to open myself to others and shed a light on it. I get nothing out of sharing this… I have offers [for] lots and lots of money… to me, it’s beyond a sit-down, proper interview,” she said.

The singer — who recently collaborated with Elton John for ‘Hold Me Closer’, marking her first musical project after her conservatorship was terminated — explained that she’s been scared of judgement to share her side of the story candidly but now believes that it’s “crucial”.

“Honestly to this day, I don’t know really what I did. But the punishment of my father, I wasn’t able to see anyone or say anything…none of it made sense to me,” said Spears. Her father, Jamie Spears, was her conservator for the 13-year court-ordered arrangement. He was suspended last September and in November, the conservatorship was terminated.

In the audio clip, she revealed that the conservatorship started when she was 25 years old and recalled a time when her friends texted and called to see her but she wasn’t able to meet them because of her father.

She added that she clearly remembers her dad being the controlling one because he loved to control everything she did. Spears said that she had to speak in a British accent for a doctor to prescribe her medicine but three days later there was a SWAT team at her house with three helicopters and none of it made sense. She had asked her mother why people had come over to their place, including a lawyer, but instantly spotted paparazzi outside that multiplied. “There were over 200 paparazzis outside my house, video taping me through a window of an ambulance holding me down on a gurney,” she said.

She explained in the beginning both her mother and father were involved in creating the agreement and she believes it was “pre-meditated.” Spears claims that a woman had introduced the idea to her dad and her mother initially helped him follow through and made it happen.

“It was all basically set up. There were no drugs in my system. No alcohol. No nothing. It was pure abuse and I haven’t even really shared even half of it,” the ‘Baby One More Time’ singer said.

A lot of what she mentioned has previously been made public in her court hearing where she made claims about her father sending her to a facility, forcing her to work and go on tour, and not allowing her to drive or socialise. She also told the court she was monitored by people in her home who forced her to give blood and watched her bare naked. She said that that her phone was tapped so she was never comfortable with the idea of asking for help.

“I was told I was fat every day,” Spears said. “They made me feel like nothing, and I went along with it.”

The singer added, “You also have to understand, it was like 15 years of touring and doing shows. And I’m 30 years old, living under my dad’s rules. And while all of this is going on, my mom’s witnessing this, my brother, my friends — they all go along with it.”

In the video she spoke about her mother and why she is more mad at her than her father because she felt like she could’ve helped her get a lawyer but instead hid when reporters called to inquire about the singer.

“The whole thing that made it really confusing for me is these people are on the street fighting for me, but my sister and my mother aren’t doing anything. To me, it was like they secretly honestly liked me being the bad one — like I was messed up, and they kind of just liked it that way. Otherwise, why weren’t they outside my doorstep, saying, ‘Baby girl, get in the car. Let’s go,’” Spears said.

She added, “I think that’s the main thing that hurt me. I couldn’t process how my family went along with it for so long…their only response was, ‘We didn’t know.’”

Over the years, Spears’ parents have both denied any wrongdoing, stating that they love their daughter.

Talking about her recent release, she said, “I have an amazing song right now with one of the most brilliant men of our time, and I am so grateful,” Spears says. “But if you are a weird, introvert oddball like me, who feels alone… and you needed to hear a story like this so you don’t feel alone, know this: My life has been far from easy and you’re not alone.”

Spears was put under conservatorship in 2008 by her father who acted as the sole conservator for 13 years. It was ended in November 2021. She got married in June to her partner Sam Asghari.