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Who knew that the line “My loneliness is killing me…”, from the main success of Britney Spears, would still make so much sense after more than 20 years?! ‘…Baby One More Time’ was responsible for putting the princess of America on the edge — but what put it down? And how come such a talented artist as Britney passed through so much — and no one did anything?!
You should be aware that Britney Spears has been going through hard stuff over the last decade. In this article, we explain everything that happened in her life that resulted in a lot of physical and emotional damage. Check it out!
ON THE EDGE
In 1998, Britney Spears released “…Baby One More Time”, and made it a true success. Many teens — not only in the US but around the world — wanted to see, meet and even be the sexy high school version of Britney. Right after that, a bunch of other hits, such as “Sometimes”, put the singer on the top of radio parades, and magazine covers. America, although, couldn’t deal with the talent of such a young woman. Suddenly, the subject of the articles was way more about Britney’s life rather than her talent. Pictures of Britney drinking, smoking, at parties — acting like a normal woman — were everything the media wanted.
Paparazzi became a part of Britney’s life, such as singing and dancing. They took pictures of her in the car, in restaurants, at supermarkets. And, like a part of a young woman’s life, she fell in love with her backup dancer, Kevin Federline. They got married in 2005, in a relationship that seemed perfect, and the couple was USA favorite’s fairy tale.
Until 2007 — when they officially got divorced.
THE DIVORCE
Until the official separation of Kevin and Britney, they had two children: Sean and Jay Jaiden. In 2007, through the whole process of divorce, Britney fought — like every mother would — to have full custody of her children. But even though she tried her best of being a present mother, the busy career and touring made Kevin win their custody.
After that, Britney collapsed.
Not only like a mother who would see less of her children, had a broken marriage, and probably a broken heart, Britney got stuck with the image of a princess that freaked out. Paparazzi stalked Britney even more. Like them, the public in the US was obsessed with talking about how Britney has lost her mind.
Deeper than the classic scene of Britney Spears shaving her hair and threatening security and press with an umbrella, the princess of pop had two collapses — and requested psychiatry twice. After that, people who lived around her started questioning her sanity and ability to work. Suddenly, she was at the beginning of what would be the loss of her individuality, choices, and — some would even say — life.
CONSERVATORSHIP
For those who still didn’t get how — and why — the law let Britney’s family control every single part of her life, it’s important to understand what exactly is a conservatorship. Usually, it’s a complicated and legal process where the people who need a tutor are normally elderly and diagnosed with severe health problems — especially mentally. To do that, those people are not able to work, organize their money and have the independence of healthy adults.
A reality different from a pop star that released tons of hits and produced choreographers, backup singers, and dancers by herself.
In 2007, right after the divorce of Kevin and Britney and her collapses — a woman called Louise Taylor got in the press as the spokesperson from Spears family. Live, she added how much Britney’s parents loved her, and how much they deserved recognition. She also asked fans of the singer to pray for the whole family, since they were passing through really hard times.
A few months later, Britney’s father Jamie Spears went legally with a request for the conservatorship of her daughter. He used the argument on how his daughter wasn’t able to take care of her own life and finances during this process of divorce and custody of the kids. Jami also said — with a whole team of lawyers — that this would be temporary, only during the time Britney would recover from the divorce.
But, according to the Judicial Council of California, Conservatorship is, by the end of the day, “a court proceeding in which a probate judge appoints a person to assume legal responsibility for someone who lacks the ability to manage their professional and financial affairs”.
With that, suddenly, without any preparation, Britney Spears was notified that her fortune and her life would be controlled by her father. By the time she was 26, she had 5 days to find a professional lawyer who would take care of it and prevent Jamie Spears from controlling the princess of pop’s life.
How, from the justice perspective, would someone like this be able to choose their lawyer? And, worst: defend themselves from a legal process? In that way, Britney’s lawyer was chosen by the state and, for more than 10 years, she had several requests on choosing her professional team denied.
CAREER, MONEY AND PRISON
In 2008, Britney Spears came back to work in a song that followed a different guideline than the ones that put her on the edge in the past. With lyrics that remained so much more her lack of privacy, the difficulties of how public and silent Britney Spear’s life could be, ‘Circus’ showed a new version of the queen of sexy love songs. Just like an animal in a cage, Britney showed — with art, passion, and a lot of work — how she was about to need a lot of help.
Again, the hits of the newest album ended on the top parades — and millions of copies were sold around the world. But even with a gain of more than US$ 3 billion, Britney only had access to US$ 8 thousand per month. Her father gave her that money as an “allowance” — and part of the conservatorship that controlled her money. However, documents released on the Netflix documentary “Britney X Spears” showed that he used at least US$ 2 million on a team of lawyers to maintain the conservatorship from all the money Jamie could get from his daughter’s career.
More than that, the film also showed that Jamie Spears got over US$ 1 million of benefit from the Circus Tour — a series of shows that, until these days, are considered the most lucrative in history. How come a person that is not allowed to work and, because of that, needs a conservatorship, is producing so much and gaining so much money?!
Britney was not only starring in a full stadium with thousands of people — but she was also choreographing dancers, backup singers, and the whole production of her set. She knew what she was doing — just like she did all over her career, putting herself on the top of parades by her talent. Britney Spears, just like any other diva in pop, was doing her job.
With a career that wouldn’t stop growing any time sooner, Britney was almost 3 years on a roll on the road. Right after the world tour of ‘Circus’, Britney extended her work to a show in Vegas — where she worked from Thursdays through Sundays — with meetings, rehearsals, and a lot of training in between. Britney had no break — and was getting richer and richer. Well, at least her father was.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Right after the beginning of the Las Vegas shows, Britney suddenly disappeared from the media. The princess of magazine covers suddenly had nothing to say. From 2013 to 2015, Britney’s social life entered a dark place, where no one knew anything about her friends and close people.
She stayed in a relationship with Jason Trawick from 2011 to 2013. From that moment, they tried hard that the conservatorship went from Jamie Spears to Jason — with no success. In 2013, Jamie agreed on dividing the custody of his daughter with her fiancée but, a few months after that, Britney and Jason split up.
A total mystery began. Britney continued with the shows. Her social media were nothing but covers of magazines and promotion of the newest performances. In 2019, Britney appeared in the release of her new show in Vegas. On a red carpet of her own, she showed a happy, charismatic and healthy Britney. How could people notice something wrong in her successful, full of family and money life?
A few weeks later, the beginning of what would be the movement of #FreeBritney began. In her social media, she canceled the release of her show in Vegas — the one she went to the red carpet — claiming her family was passing through health problems and, therefore, she had to stay with them.
In 2020, with the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, all shows and events around the world were fully canceled. Therefore, the spectacle of Britney’s “craziness” got more and more followers on Instagram — where she started posting some really strange things.
The same picture over and over, videos of lazy and empty eyes while she made a bizarre choreography, and even registers of Britney looking lost and said to the camera: the fans were freaked out with a new broken version of the pop princess. The comments were all “Is she okay?” and “Britney, say something if you need help”.
#FREEBRITNEY
Spectators started getting concerned about how toxic this conservatorship truly was — and how Britney’s family has been taking care of her so far. On Twitter, the hashtag “FreeBritney” got on the trending topics, and millions of fans started protesting in favor of the artist.
Finally, on June 23, 2021, Britney was, for the first time, heard by a judge. And her statements shocked the whole world, exposing a family that couldn’t care less about her health. On the court, she opened up about how doctors changed her usual medicine to lithium — which is way harsher than any other drug. She told the truth about her not being able to control her money; how much she worked inhumanly; and the nightmare her life has become. She couldn’t have kids, as she couldn’t stop taking contraceptives.
“I’ve been in shock. I am traumatized”, she said. “The people who did this to me should not be able to walk away so easily. Not only did my family not do a goddamn thing, my dad was all for it. Anything that happened to me had to be approved by my dad…The control he had over someone as powerful as me — he loved the control to hurt his own daughter 100,000%. He loved it”.
In a 20 minutes Zoom meeting, Britney Spears talked about 13 years of psychological and physical abuse. She kept her statement on how much she thought no one would believe her. Even though, she spoke about all the times she was obligated to work, to remain on tour, and to keep sustaining her family, her father, and all his lawyer team.
After this event, support movements for the end of conservatorship became stronger. On September 29, 2021, in a new audience, Jamie Spears was finally suspended, and Britney Spears was free of the abusive control, after 13 years in total prison.