Britney Spears has released a lengthy audio message concerning the controversial guardianship that kept her primarily under her father's control for more than 13 years.
In November 2021, a Los Angeles judge dissolved the conservatorship long overseen by Spears' father, Jamie Spears.
The audio message was originally tweeted by Spears without comment, but the link was then deleted. The 22 minutes of audio of Spears' voice remain available online, however.
"I woke up this morning and I realised there's a lot going on in my head that I haven't shared with anyone," Spears says in the raw, emotional recording.
She then details the conservatorship, echoing what she told a California court in a bombshell hearing last summer.
The 40-year-old alleges being forced to work and tour and being barred from seeing friends or driving her own car.
Spears alleges that her phone was tapped, and she felt unsafe asking for help.
"They made me feel like nothing, and I went along with it," Spears says, alleging fat-shaming.
"It was demoralising," she says.
"You also have to understand, it was, like, 15 years of touring and doing shows. And I'm 30-years-old, living under my dad's rules."
Spears rocketed to fame in her teens on hits like ...Baby One More Time, becoming one of the world's reigning pop stars.
But she suffered a highly publicised 2007 breakdown, which included attacking a paparazzo's car at a filling station.
The conservatorship began in 2008. It did not formally end until November 2021, after Jamie Spears was removed from his position in charge of her finances and estate at a hearing in September.
Since gaining her freedom, Spears has married her fiancé, Sam Asghari.
On Friday, she released her first new music in six years, a duet with Elton John called Hold Me Closer, a dance-inflected take on John's ballad Tiny Dancer.
Source: AFP
