Pop star Britney Spears, 39, spoke out in court on Wednesday against her father’s rule, a settlement that has been in effect for 13 years after her mental breakdown in 2008. “I’ve always said I’m happy and okay. But I am not.” She asked for the administration to end and announced that she wanted to sue her family for the “abuse”.
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Since 2008, Jamie Spears, Britney Spears’ father, has managed the pop star’s fortune. That would be estimated at more than 60 million dollars, good for 50 million euros. His supervision also goes further: the singer complies with his rules about driving, clothing, social media, friendships… But that arrangement could now be undone.
Since the start of the regime, the action group #FreeBritney has been asking that the singer should be able to stand on her own two feet. And after it became known this week that Britney has been opposing her father’s control for years behind the scenes and in secret lawsuits, she made the first public appearance in court on Wednesday.
“I want to be able to share my story with the world. I want to be heard. Keeping this in me for so long is not good for my heart,” Spears said. Her lawyer – appointed by the court – would have told her not to let the public know what they were doing to her. She wants to be able to choose her own counselor from now on. “I have the right to use my voice,” the singer said. “They did a good job of exploiting my life. So I think it should be an open hearing and they should listen to what I have to say.”
“The last time I spoke to you, it made me feel like I was dead, like I didn’t matter,” she told the judge. “Like you thought I was lying. I do not lie. I want you to understand the depth and seriousness. I deserve change.”
“I just want my life back. It’s been thirteen years and it’s enough. It all makes no sense. I’m done with it,” Spears said.
“He enjoyed controlling me”
Spears said by phone that she wants to petition to end the administration without the condition of a health evaluation. According to her lawyer, there would have been no official request to do so.
– Photo: REUTERS
“I deserve to have a life,” said Britney Spears. “I lied and told the world I’m happy and okay. If I said that often enough, maybe I’d be happy. But I’m in shock, I’m traumatized. I am not happy. I’m so mad it’s crazy. So angry I can’t sleep. I am depressed and cry every day.”
“It is my wish and dream that this all stops,” said Spears, who feels “a slave” to her father and made the comparison with human and sex trafficking. According to Spears, her father loved the control he had over her and to hurt her. She would once have cried on the phone for an hour and he loved it, enjoyed being in control of someone as powerful as her.
The singer would be forced to tour in 2018 and perform in Las Vegas. After she announced she wanted to take a break, she had to take lithium against her will, Spears said. “It is a strong drug. You can become mentally disturbed if you take it for more than five months. I felt drunk, I couldn’t even have a conversation with my mom or dad about anything. They had me with six different nurses.”
“I am afraid of people. I don’t trust people because of what I’ve been through.” Spears criticized her family’s handling of the administration and responded to her concerns about her concern. “My family hasn’t done a damn thing. Whatever I had to do, my father was the one who approved it all. My whole family did nothing.”
During the poignant testimony, Spears said all claims that she suffers from dementia are false and that she has been on medication for the past eight years. She would be forced to go to therapy in a place where she is harassed by paparazzi and wants to be treated at home. “I deserve privacy.”
“The people who did this to me should not get away with this,” said the singer, who announced she wanted to sue her family.
“Not allowed to have a child”
“I just want my life back.” According to Spears, she wants to marry her boyfriend and have a child with him, but the administration does not allow that. “I was told not to get married. I have a contraceptive IUD in me, but this so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor because they don’t want me to have any more children.” She shouldn’t be alone in a car with her boyfriend. “This curatorship is doing me a lot more harm than good.”
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Photo: REUTERS
“I shouldn’t be able to be in a curatorship. The laws have to change. I’ve been working since I was seventeen. I can’t go anywhere unless I meet someone in an office every week.”
“It’s not okay to force me to do things I don’t want to do. I truly believe this trusteeship is abuse. But there are a thousand trusteeships that are also abusive. I want to end that.”
Britney Spears said she just wants to own her own money and be able to share her story. “I deserve to take a break of two or three years,” Spears concluded. “I feel open and I think it’s okay to talk about this. I feel attacked, bullied, left out and alone. I’m tired of feeling alone. I deserve to have the same rights, to have a child or something like that.”
Spears has two children with her ex-husband Kevin Federline, who has custody of them.
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