‘They made me feel like nothing’: Britney Spears opens up

The popstar has released a lengthy audio message concerning the guardianship that kept her under her father’s control for 13 years.

Britney Spears and Elton John have collaborated on Hold Me Closer, a new version of Tiny Dancer. Picture: Elton John AIDS Foundation

Britney Spears has released a lengthy audio message concerning the guardianship that kept her primarily under her father’s control for 13 years.

A Los Angeles judge in November 2021 dissolved the conservatorship long overseen by Jamie Spears – an arrangement the singer said had prevented her from having a contraceptive IUD removed despite her desire for more kids.

The audio message was originally tweeted by Spears on Sunday without comment but the link was then deleted. The 22 minutes of audio of Spears’ voice remain available online, however. “I woke up this morning and I realised there’s a lot going on in my head that I haven’t shared with anyone,” she says in the raw, emotional recording.

She then details the conservatorship, echoing what she told a California court last year. The now 40-year-old describes being forced to work and tour, and barred from seeing friends or driving her own car. Spears says that her phone was tapped, and she felt unsafe asking for help. “They made me feel like nothing, and I went along with it,” Spears says, describing being fat-shamed. “It was demoralising.

“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.”

The conservatorship began in 2008. It did not formally end until November 2021, after Jamie Spears was removed from his position in charge of her finances and estate at a hearing in September. Since gaining her freedom, Spears has married boyfriend Sam Asghari. On Friday she released her first new music in six years, a duet with Elton John called Hold Me Closer, a dance-inflected take on his Tiny Dancer.

AFP