Britney Spears speaks out about conservatorship in new candid video

She spoke about her life during the conservatorship and how she is doing now.

August 29, 2022, 12:49 PM

Britney Spears is opening up about life during her conservatorship.

On Sunday, the 40-year-old pop star shared a 22-minute audio clip to YouTube where she spoke about life during her 13-year conservatorship, which ended in November 2021. The YouTube video containing the bombshell claims has since been set to private.

In the audio clip, Spears began by saying, "I've had tons of opportunities -- Oprah, interviews -- to go on a platform and share hardships and, or just really anything going on my mind."

"I feel like it's kind of silly," she said of why she's chosen not to do interviews.

She then explained why she was making the video, saying that she's in a place now where she is "a little more confident."

"I'm here honestly just to open myself to others and try to shed a light on -- if anyone out there has ever gone through hardships or whatever it is, just to put a light on it and so that person doesn't feel alone, because I really know what that feels like," Spears said.

The singer also said she hasn't spoken freely due to public opinion.

"I've always been scared of the judgment and definitely the embarrassment of just -- of the whole thing," she said. "And the skepticism and the cynical people of what -- and their opinions, of what people actually think."

PHOTO: Britney Spears arrives for the premiere of "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., July 22, 2019.
Britney Spears arrives for the premiere of "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., July 22, 2019.
Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images, FILE

Spears went on to describe her experience during the conservatorship, which was in place from 2008 until it was terminated in 2021.

Speaking on the beginning of her conservatorship, she said, "I was extremely young ... honestly still to this day I don't know what really I did. ... I literally spoke in a British accent to a doctor to prescribe my medication and three days later there was a SWAT team in my home. ... None of it made sense."

"GMA" has reached out to Jamie Spears' lawyer for comment. In June 2021, when Britney Spears made similar allegations in court against her father, Jamie Spears' lawyer read a statement, saying, "He is sorry to hear his daughter in so much pain. Mr. Spears loves his daughter and misses her very much."

Spears claimed that due to being under the conservatorship, her performances onstage "were horrible."

"I didn't give a f--- anymore because I couldn't go where I wanted to go, I couldn't have the nannies that I wanted to have, I couldn't have cash. And it was just demoralizing," she said.

"You also have to understand it was like 15 years of touring and doing shows and I'm 30 years old under my dad's rules," she shared.

The "Circus" singer also expressed confusion about her mother Lynn and sister Jamie Lynn Spears' actions after the #FreeBritney movement gained traction in 2017.

"The whole thing that makes it really confusing for me is people are on the street fighting for me but my sister and my mother aren't doing anything," she said. "I think that was the main thing that hurt me. I couldn't process how my family went along with it for so long. ... And their only response was 'we didn't know.'"

PHOTO: Britney Spears arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," on July 22, 2019.
Britney Spears arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," on July 22, 2019.
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, FILE

Overnight, Lynn Spears shared a note on her Instagram, directly addressing Britney.

"Britney, your whole life I have tried my best to support your dreams and wishes!" she wrote. "And also, I have tried my best to help you out of hardships! I have never and will never turn my back on you! Your rejections to the countless times I have flown out and calls make me feel hopeless! I have tried everything. I love you so much, but this talk is for you and me only, eye to eye, in private."

In an interview with ABC News' Juju Chang in January, Jamie Lynn said she was "happy" when her sister's conservatorship ended.

"When it was put into place I was 17 years old. I was about to have a baby, so I didn't understand what was happening. Nor was I focused on that. I was focused on the fact that I was a 17-year-old about to have a baby. I understand just as little about it then as I do now."

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