‘I am traumatised’: Britney Spears speaks out against conservatorship

For the first time ever, Britney Spears opened up about the conservatorship she’s lived under for 13 years saying that she is traumatised.

Britney Spears Speaks out

The pop star sounded off before a Los Angeles probate judge Brenda Penny on Wednesday, 23 June saying that she wants to sue her family and that she was “abused” by a previous therapist, among multiple other accusations.

“I’ve been in shock. I am traumatised,” she said, during the hearing that was live-streamed to the media by the court. “I just want my life back.” She said she wants the conservatorship, which she feels is “abusive,” to end “without having to be evaluated.”

The hearing comes after years of near-silence on the issue from Britney, although the New York Times published a report earlier this week citing private legal documents that state she has been trying to end the conservatorship for several years, citing mismanagement by her father and the extreme legal costs involved.

Key takeaways

According to Variety, who posted the full court transcript, Britney was forced to do a tour in 2018.

“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.”

Britney also states that when she said no to one dance move into rehearsals, it was as if she “planted a huge bomb somewhere”.

“Ma’am, I’m not here to be anyone’s slave. I can say no to a dance move. I was told by my at-the-time therapist, Dr. Benson — who died [in 2019] — that my manager called him and then that moment and told him I wasn’t cooperating or following the guidelines in rehearsals.”

Forced to take Lithium

Britney also said that she was forced to take a drug named Lithium.

After saying no to another Vegas residency, Britney says her therapist prescribed Lithium “out of nowhere”.

“He took me off my normal meds I’ve been on for five years. And lithium is a very, very strong and completely different medication compared to what I was used to. You can go mentally impaired if you take too much, if you stay on it longer than five months. But he put me on that and I felt drunk. I really couldn’t even take up for myself. I couldn’t even have a conversation with my mom or dad really about anything.”

Her dad was all for it

Britney says her family did not do anything, and that her father was “all for it”.

“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.”

Britney says she was sent to a small home in Beverly Hills to do “a small rehab programme” for which she had to pay $60 000.

“I cried on the phone for an hour and he loved every minute of it. The control he had over someone as powerful as me — he loved the control to hurt his own daughter 100 000%. He loved it. I packed my bags and went to that place.”

Britney also said that she worked seven days a week, with no days off and compared it to sex trafficking as they made her work against her will and took all of her possessions away including her credit card, cash, phone, passport.

She is not ok

Britney told the court that she lied and told the whole world ‘I’m ok and I’m happy’.

“I thought I just maybe if I said that enough maybe I might become happy, because I’ve been in denial. I’ve been in shock. I am traumatised. You know, fake it till you make it. But now I’m telling you the truth, ok? I’m not happy. I can’t sleep. I’m so angry it’s insane. And I’m depressed. I cry every day.”

She also said that she shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if she can work and provide money.

“The laws need to change. What state allows people to own another person’s money and account and threaten them and saying, ‘You can’t spend your money unless you do what we want you to do’. And I’m paying them.”

Britney believes that they’re making me feel like she lives in a rehab programme.

“This is my home. I’d like for my boyfriend to be able to drive me in his car. And I want to meet with a therapist once a week, not twice a week.”

Not allowed to get married or have a baby

Probably one of the biggest reveals was when she said she would like to get married – presumably to her long-time boyfriend Sam Asghari – and have a baby.

“I was told right now in the conservatorship, I’m not able to get married or have a baby, I have a (IUD) inside of myself right now so I don’t get pregnant. I wanted to take the (IUD) out so I could start trying to have another baby. But this so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out because they don’t want me to have children – any more children. So basically, this conservatorship is doing me way more harm than good.”

Forever on the phone

Britney says she wished she could stay on the phone forever – in fear of being bullied and feeling alone.

“But I wish I could stay with you on the phone forever, because when I get off the phone with you, all of a sudden all I hear all these no’s — no, no, no. And then all of a sudden I get I feel ganged up on and I feel bullied and I feel left out and alone. And I’m tired of feeling alone. I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does, by having a child, a family, any of those things, and more so.”