Britney Spears’s mom, Lynne Spears, has responded to the pop star’s latest string of claims about her infamous conservatorship.
Britney’s life and finances were tightly controlled by her father, Jamie Spears, and a group of lawyers under the constrictive legal arrangement, which was in place from 2008 until November 2021.
The singer publicly testified that under the conservatorship, she was forced to have an IUD in order to prevent her from having more children and wasn’t allowed to get married, among other claims. She also said that she received no support from her family during this time, and that she wanted Jamie to be punished and jailed for his “abuse.”
Ever since the conservatorship was terminated in court following the strenuous battle, Britney has been increasingly vocal about her incredibly strained relationship with her parents and sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, often sharing and swiftly deleting Instagram and Twitter posts calling them out.
But on Sunday, the pop star took things up a notch and released a shocking 22-minute-long video on her YouTube page detailing several of her hardships from the past 13 years.
And in the video, which was deleted shortly after it was posted, Britney shares more details about what she endured under the conservatorship, particularly drawing attention toward her mom Lynne, who she claims “made it all happen.”
“A woman introduced the idea [of the conservatorship] to my dad, and my mom actually helped him follow through and made it all happen,” Britney says in the video. “There [were] no drugs in my system, no alcohol, nothing — it was pure abuse.”
“The main thing I do remember when I first started was my 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,’ and I’m like, ‘Alrighty then,’” she recalls.
“I think when my mom gave him the idea for the conservatorship and his friend, I think he just really like regrouped it and made such a really, really overhauling big deal out of it and it was just really too much,” she goes on. “All I do remember is I had to do what I was told. ... They made me feel like nothing. And I went along with it because I was scared and fearful.”
Britney then says she was held in a mental health facility against her will, which she’s previously been vocal about. Just last month, in fact, she claimed that she got “no response” from her mom after expressing fear that her doctors there were “trying to kill” her.
Now shedding further light on what actually went down at this time, Britney claims in the video that she was hastily “sent away” after she “said ‘No’ to a dance” during tour rehearsals.
“I went to one rehearsal and I said ‘No’ to a dance, and it was like, ‘No can we do that? I want to do this,’” she recalls. “And then I just remember everything got really weird and quiet and all the directors and producers went in the back room and just spoke. And that was it. And I was like, Well, I don’t know what’s going on.”
“The next day, I was told that I [had] to be sent away to a facility and that I was supposed to say on my Instagram the reason why is because my dad is sick, and I need treatment which was [not true], I didn’t want to ever go there,” she says.
“I remember my dad calling me on the phone and I was crying. And I was like, ‘Why are you guys doing this? Like, what?’ And I just remember him saying, ‘It’s— You have to listen to the doctors, the doctors are going to tell you what to do, I can’t help you now,’” she goes on.
“And I remember his last words were, ‘Now you don’t have to go. But if you don’t go, we’re going to go to court, and there'll be a big trial, and you’re going to lose. I have way more people on my side than you. You don’t even have a lawyer,’” Britney recounts.
“So I did it, I went to the place, I was scared out of my mind,” she says. “And none of it again made any sense of what they were doing to me. And again, I haven’t wanted to share this because it’s unbelievably offensive, sad, abusive. And honestly, would anybody believe me?”
“I was a fucking machine. Not even human, almost. It was insane how hard I worked. And the one time I speak up and say no in rehearsals, to a fucking dance move, they got pissed,” she says of her family.
Britney adds that while she felt completely “helpless” in the facility, her family were allegedly out in Destin, Florida, relaxing at her million-dollar condo.
“I remember the main thing of when I was in that place was that my heart felt like it was frozen, like it was stuck inside. I wanted to scream and I wanted to get out,” she says. “I felt like I was in a state of shock, almost like when an old person feels helpless.”
“Sitting down, drawing six galls of blood every week,” she says. “Weak as hell. And then my family is in Destin at my beach house. It didn’t make sense.”
A reminder to some of you who may have gotten what I said confused … it was 6 small vials of blood not 6 gallons !!!
“I was so, so weak and my family’s at my beach house,” she says. “I’m sharing this because I want people to know I’m only human. I do feel victimized after these experiences and how can I mend this if I don’t talk about it?”
Going on to discuss how Jamie “had to let [her] go” when the #FreeBritney campaign gained immense popularity, Britney detailed that she was “angry” at her mom for not stepping in sooner to put an end to the conservatorship.
“The whole thing that made it really confusing for me was these people are on the street fighting for me, but my sister and my mother aren’t doing anything. It was like they secretly honestly liked me being the bad one, like I was messed up... Otherwise, why weren’t they outside my doorstep saying, ‘Baby girl, get in the car, let’s go?’” she asks.
“I couldn’t process how my family went along with it for so long, and their only response was, ‘We didn’t know.’ I’m like, ‘I’m on the phone telling you right now. I’m here. Please,’” she says, adding that it felt like her family “threw” her away.
Britney continues, “I’m honestly more angry at my mom because I heard when reporters would call her at the time and ask questions of what was going on. She would go innocently, innocently hide in the house and she wouldn’t speak up. It was always like ‘I don’t know what to say. I just don’t want to say the wrong thing. We’re praying for her.’"
“I feel like she could have gotten me a lawyer in literally two seconds. My friend helped me get one in the end. But every time I made contact with a firm, my phone was tapped, and they would take my phone away from me,” Britney says in the video.
Shortly after Britney’s now-deleted video gained huge traction online, her mom, Lynne, hit back at the claims with a message shared to her Instagram page.
Sharing a photo of herself and Britney to the platform, Lynne — who has her comments disabled — wrote that she’s tried her “best” to help the singer “out of hardships” throughout her entire life.
“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!” she began.
“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!” she continued, before going on to claim that she’s “tried everything.”
“I have tried everything. I love you so much, but this talk is for you and me only, eye to eye, in private,” Lynne concluded.
