Britney Spears And Her Fight To Free Herself
Chris Farina/Corbis/Getty ImagesBritney Spears with her father Jamie in 2006.
Like her peers Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears began her career on Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club variety show for kids. She later became a multi-platinum record-winning pop star with a slew of tabloid escapades to match.
When Spears was placed on a psychiatric hold in early 2008 following a very public breakdown, her father and celebrity parent Jamie Spears talked the Los Angeles County Supreme Court into giving him emergency conservatorship over her and her estate.
While the order was meant to be temporary, it has remained in place for 13 years. The singer addressed her situation for the first time in 2016, claiming, “I’ve been under this conservatorship for three years and I felt like a lot of decisions were made for me.”
It wasn’t long before conspiracy theories about Spears’ relationship with her celebrity parents began to emerge.
Wikimedia Commons#FreeBritney protestors in Washington, D.C. in July 2021.
Rampant speculation on social media saw fans theorize that Spears had become a mere workhorse for her father’s benefit. With a nightly residency in Las Vegas earning her estate $350,000 per concert, it certainly appeared so. When the #FreeBritney movement gained traction, Spears herself confirmed as much.
In June 2021, Spears detailed her struggles with her mental health, the loss of agency over her life, and how her father forced her to work during a live-streamed court proceeding on her conservatorship. She reportedly spent $1.1 million in legal and conservator fees in 2018 alone.
While not a stage mother or celebrity parent, Jamie Spears has ranked highly on the list of conniving relatives who domineered over the lives of their famous children. Though the singer’s brother Bryan claimed his father has “done the best he could,” Jamie announced in March 2021 that he wanted to end the conservatorship, too.
