On the night before her appearance in court on June 23, singer Britney Spears called 911 to report herself “as a victim of her administration”. Her team was worried. One of her lawyers tried on the day of the hearing whether the room could not be cleared and the recordings sealed. Spears himself put a stop to it. “Someone tried hard to exploit me. I think this should be a public hearing. They should listen to what I have to say.” What followed was a passionate plea to regain her freedom.
All that – and more – can be read in a study by the renowned magazine The New Yorker. The play is by Ronan Farrow, the son of actress Mia Farrow and director Woody Allen. Farrow, who broke up with his father, brought the #MeToo affair out in 2017 and was awarded a Pulitzer for it. Together with colleague Jia Tolentino, he is now sinking his teeth into the story surrounding Spears’ receivership, which has been in effect since 2008. The duo spoke to an army of people from the area around Spears and her family.
Testimonials show that Spears had been trying to escape her father Jamie’s iron fist from the very beginning of the regime. At the time of the settlement, the singer was hospitalized after having a breakdown. Still, she contacted lawyers from the hospital to prevent her father from staying on as administrator.
According to Jacqueline Butcher, a former friend of the family, the relationship between father and daughter was extremely tense. “He constantly yelled at her, calling her a whore and a terrible mother. “Honey, you’re fat,” he said at one point. “Daddy’s going to put you on a diet and hire a trainer so you can get back in shape.”
In addition, the investigation by Farrow and Tolentino highlights the frantic efforts Britney has been making since 2008 to undo her guardianship. A battle with unequal weapons, since the singer is not allowed to choose her own lawyer. Her father invariably presented his eldest daughter in court as ‘demented’ and ‘incapacitated’. And so, time and again, Spears was assigned a lawyer approved by her father.
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