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Doug Peters/EMPICS Entertainment

'I just want my life back': Britney Spears asks court to end her 'abusive' conservatorship

She said she ‘deserves to have a life’ uncontrolled by others and that the arrangement was ‘doing more harm than good’.

BRITNEY SPEARS HAS urged a judge to end a controversial guardianship that has given her father control of her affairs since 2008 during a court hearing today.

“I just want my life back. It’s been 13 years and it’s enough,” Spears said in the 20-minute
address via videolink as diehard fans chanted their support outside the courtroom.

The 39-year-old star’s finances and personal life have been largely managed by Jamie Spears since her highly public breakdown more than a decade ago, leading some fans to launch a  FreeBritney online campaign in recent years.

In an empassioned speech where Spears barely stopped to catch her breath and swore twice, the star said the legal arrangement had left her “traumatised” and “depressed.”

“I’m not happy. I can’t sleep. I’m so angry. It’s insane,” she said, adding that she cries every day.

“I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive. I want changes, I deserve changes,” Spears pleaded to Judge Brenda Penny.

The singer has rarely spoken directly about the guardianship but her lawyer Samuel Ingham said in April that Spears wanted to directly address the court, resulting in today’s
hearing.

Spears has long had a difficult relationship with her father Jamie Spears.

Last year, she filed to remove him from the conservatorship and give sole power over her estate to a financial institution. Her court-appointed lawyer said she was “afraid” of her father.

‘Too, too much!’ 

Devoted Spears fans have long scoured her social media accounts for hints about her well- being, and any signs that she may be eager to throw off the guardianship.

Confidential records published Tuesday by the New York Times say Spears told a court investigator that the conservatorship had “become an oppressive and controlling tool against her” as far back as 2016.

Spears reportedly said the guardianship system had “too much control… Too, too much!” and was prevented from making her own decisions on friendships, dating, spending and even the colour of her kitchen cabinets.

According to the report, Spears told the investigator that she wanted the conservatorship
terminated as soon as possible, and that she is “sick of being taken advantage of.”

Spears is currently responsible for footing the legal bills for both sides – including the hefty fees charged by the attorneys opposing her in the case.

‘Embarrassed’ 

The controversy surrounding Spears’ legal case exploded following the February release of the documentary Framing Britney Spears, which chronicled her initial breakdown and her father’s ensuing appointment as her guardian.

Spears said she was “embarrassed” by her portrayal in the documentary, in which fans say she is essentially being held prisoner and claim she has been sending coded pleas for help.

Following her 2006 divorce from Kevin Federline, and the loss of custody of her children the following year, Spears was snapped by paparazzi barefoot at a gas station, and notoriously shaved her head.

Under her father’s guardianship, Spears swiftly returned to performing. She released three albums, appeared on various television shows and even took up a Las Vegas residency.

But in January 2019 she abruptly announced she was suspending her performances until
further notice.

She said her father and associates regularly threaten her.

“If I don’t do this, what they tell me to do, enslave me to do, they’re gonna punish me,” she said.

Spears said doctors forcefully put her on medications that made her feel “drunk” and that she isn’t even allowed to get changed in privacy or drive her own car.

Jamie Spears’ lawyers say he has done an excellent job of managing his daughter’s finances. But a judge ruled in February that both Spears’ father and Bessemer Trust would oversee the pop star’s finances, denying Jamie Spears’ bid to keep sole power to delegate investments.

In a statement read in court, a lawyer for Jamie said he was “sorry to hear her in so much
pain” and that he loved his daughter “very much.”

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    Mute SmallbutMighty
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    Jun 24th 2021, 12:32 AM

    Court backed coercive control

    421
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    Mute John kane
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    Jun 24th 2021, 2:03 AM

    @SmallbutMighty: Yes. Freee Britnaay lahinch beach. Yes maaaam

    23
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    Mute Mary Nugent
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    Jun 24th 2021, 1:09 AM

    I hope she gets her freedom.

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    Mute Paul Gorry
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    Jun 24th 2021, 1:42 AM

    @Mary Nugent: Britney spears will never get her freedom mary ,even if she wins this case. The sewer rats media will make sure of that.

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    Mute John kane
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    Jun 24th 2021, 2:06 AM

    @Paul Gorry: ah give over ya giblet. You sound as though you have been coerced?

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    Mute Paul Gorry
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    Jun 24th 2021, 2:21 AM

    @John kane: Hungry troll I’ll call you in future John. Ye not fooling anyone.

    34
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    Mute ed w
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    Jun 24th 2021, 12:53 PM

    @Mary Nugent: not a hope too many people making a lot of money off her for that to happen. sad but true.
    it’s pretty rare for a us court to overturn one of these orders.

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    Mute Sean
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    Jun 25th 2021, 5:49 AM

    @Paul Gorry: like they did Lady Diana

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    Mute Paul Gorry
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    Jun 24th 2021, 12:53 AM

    She’s 39 and taking daddy to court to get imo what she has earned. Daddy in his final statement says he loves his daughter. This family are so fluck ed up it doesn’t even make sense anymore.

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    Jun 24th 2021, 12:57 AM

    @Paul Gorry: That’s the reality of fame really. Money creates monster!

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    Mute Patricia O'Reilly
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    Jun 24th 2021, 1:58 AM

    @Paul Gorry: daddy loves her money.. clearly not poor Britney.

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    Mute Mickety Dee
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    Jun 24th 2021, 6:58 AM

    @Paul Gorry: No one knows the real details. Courts in the US don’t setup conservatorships without strong reasons to do so

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    Mute Ivor O'Sullivan
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    Jun 24th 2021, 7:03 AM

    Britney told the court her loneliness is killing me, yet her father still said,
    “I must confess I still believe, I’m right.
    He also confessed to Britney, “When I’m not with you, I lose my mind” and asked her to “Give me a sign”  but Britney was having none of it claiming, she felt humiliaed and recalled the time her mother had intervened during a fight, warning her husband “don’t hit me baby, one more time”.

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    Mute Kevin Arnold
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    Jun 24th 2021, 7:20 AM

    @Ivor O’Sullivan: Toxic.

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    Mute Daniel Finucane
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    Jun 24th 2021, 11:22 AM

    @Ivor O’Sullivan: god Ivor that was awful.

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    Mute hawk
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    Jun 24th 2021, 7:08 AM

    Has anyone else seen the way she talks and acts these days.shes clearly not well in the head,Louis Walsh claims she was on so much medication on xfactor she struggled to sit up straight.

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    Mute Niamh Ní Caiside
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    Jun 24th 2021, 7:46 AM

    @hawk: medication she says she is forced to take and that she doesn’t like the way it makes her feel.

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    Mute hawk
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    Jun 24th 2021, 9:39 AM

    @Niamh Ní Caiside: if she doesn’t take the medication then she will end up in a mental institution where she will have absolutely no freedom and be institutionalized forever.not unless she can prove to both the judge and medical staff that she is capable of living her own life without been influenced by people willing to take advantage of her well she’s not going to see an outcome that she will be happy with

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    Mute Eilish
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    Jun 24th 2021, 7:41 AM

    This article has mixed up the details of Britneys statement , I. E. Saying ‘she isn’t allowed to get changed in private’ is in reference to when she was put in a facility and how she was treated there

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    Mute Sean Mc Cabe
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    Jun 24th 2021, 8:02 AM

    Let her loose. She be only fans next week

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    Mute barney rock
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    Jun 24th 2021, 5:49 PM

    I won’t be able to sleep tonight,poor Britney.

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