“I quit !!!!”
That’s what Britney Spears declared via Instagram today, sparking a world-wide reaction from her fans. Speaking about her oppression, the pop star spoke out about life under a conservatorship — “a legal structure in which a person’s personal, economic, and legal decision-making power is ceded to others”, and an arrangement created for people who are unable to care for themselves.
Among her conservators was her father, Jamie Spears, 69, who has controlled Spears’ spending, communications, and personal decisions since 2008.
“I’m not gonna be performing on any stages anytime soon with my dad handling what I wear, say, do, or think,” Spears said.
“I’ve done that for the past 13 years … I’d much rather share videos YES from my living room instead of onstage in Vegas.”
“I’m not gonna put on heavy makeup and try try try on stage again and not be able to do the real deal with remixes of my songs for years and begging to put my new music in my show for MY fans … so I quit !!!!”
Spears also criticised her younger sister Jamie Lynn, for performing her own songs in 2017 at the Radio Disney Music Awards.
“I don’t like that my sister showed up at an awards show and performed MY SONGS to remixes! My so-called support system hurt me deeply!!!!”
The mother of two went on to express her grave despondency at having her hopes and dreams “killed.”
“This conservatorship killed my dreams … so all I have is hope and hope is the only thing in this world that is very hard to kill … yet people still try! Hope is all I have right now. People try to kill hope because hope is one of the most vulnerable and fragile things there is !”
Since the establishment of Spears’s conservatorship, the 39-year old has released four albums, headlined a global tour which amassed US$131 million, and performed at a Las Vegas residency, which she’s been doing for four years.
In April, Spears requested a hearing in open court to publicly discuss the terms of her conservatorship and on June 23rd, for the first time in years, she was allowed to speak for herself.
“The people who did this to me should not get away,” Spears said. “My dad, and anyone involved in this conservatorship, and my management, who played a huge role in punishing me when I said no. They should be in jail.”
For over twenty minutes, Spears opened up about being isolated, emotionally abused, prescribed medicines and financially exploited.
“I was on tour in 2018, I was forced to do it. My management said if I don’t do this tour I will have to find an attorney and by contract my own management could sue me if I didn’t follow through with the tour.”
“He handed me a sheet of paper as I got off the stage in Vegas and said I had to sign it. It was very threatening and scary and with the conservatorship I couldn’t even get my own attorney, so out of fear I went ahead and I did the tour.”
“It concerns me I’ve been told I’m not allowed to expose the people who did this to me.”
During her testimony, she added, “All I want is to own my money, for this to end, and for my boyfriend to drive me in his f*** car.”
Last Wednesday Spears made a surprise court appearance at a hearing in her case, and made a compelling request to the judge to have the conservatorship lifted.
“I would like to charge my father with conservatorship abuse,” Spears told the court. “I want to press charges against my father today. I want an investigation into my dad … I’m angry and I will go there.”
“If this is not abuse, I don’t know what is.”
Earlier this month, New Yorker writers Jia Tolentino and Ronan Farrow wrote that in the past, according to “Spears’ management, she had to write her Instagram posts and submit them first to CrowdSurf, a company that manages her social media.
“She’s not supposed to discuss the conservatorship,” the team member told the reporters, referring to what the pop star is allowed to reveal in her posts.
Over the weekend, her posts have indicated she has taken control of her own account. She’s now also added “#freebritney to her posts, which has never happened in the past.
“There’s nothing worse than when the people closest to you who never showed up for you post things in regard to your situation whatever it may be and speak righteously for support … there’s nothing worse than that !!!!” she wrote over the weekend.
“How dare the people you love the most say anything at all … did they even put a hand out to even lift me up at the TIME !!!??? How dare you make it public that NOW you CARE … did you put your hand out when I was drowning?”
“Again … NO … so if you’re reading this and you know who you are … and you actually have the nerve to say anything about my situation just to save face for yourself publicly.”