In 2007, the pop princess fell off the loop: a difficult divorce from Kevin Federline, the death of her aunt and alcohol and drug addiction led Britney to the Crossroads rehabilitation center, and from there to the nearest beauty salon, where she shaved her bald head on her own. After a series of hospitalizations in 2008, the court transferred custody of the singer to her father James until the end of the year. Soon the decision was revised, and custody dragged on indefinitely. For 12 years now, the star of the 2000s has not had the right to dispose of his own finances, property, negotiate, make decisions, see children and give birth to new ones, drive a car, hire a lawyer and, in general, control life.
Britney Spears' hospitalization on January 3, 2008 © DTD / BuzzFoto.com / Getty
The events did not cause much concern to fans until early 2019. In January, Spears wrote on Instagram about being forced to reschedule several dates on her Britney: Domination tour due to her father's dire condition. The singer disappeared from radar until April. TMZ reported that she is being treated in a psychiatric clinic due to the stress of James's health condition. Two weeks later, the Britney's Gram podcast was released, in which a lawyer who previously worked with the family (according to him) reported that James Spears forced his daughter to go to the clinic because she refused to take prescribed medications.
Britney Spears spent three months under the supervision of doctors. During this time, the hashtag #freebritney gained momentum on social networks: many began to suspect that Britney never needed legal custody, but simply became a victim of her father. The post on the diet_prada account reflects all the claims of the fans: Spears has been the object of manipulation by adults and a well-selling brand since childhood (they say, just listen to the tracks "My Prerogative", "Gimme More" and "Overprotected", in which the girl simply shouted about the infringement of her rights) … The post also said that the producers did not like Britney's real voice, which was not inferior in range to Christina Aguilera's vocals, and they forcibly retrained her. In addition, the authors asked how a mentally ill and incapacitated person was able to skate three world tours, release four albums,put on stream a line of perfumes and lingerie and become the mentor of The X Factor show.
Fans demand a revision of the custody decision.
The singer's mother, Lynn Spears, is not silent either: in the spring of 2019, she posted on Instagram an image with the caption: "When the Lord's soldiers kneel, the war does not end, but only begins," and wrote comments about her daughter being held hostage.
Then Britney urged fans not to believe everything they read and see.
In July 2020, Lynn filed a request to the Los Angeles court to gain control over Britney's last "free" money, more precisely, over the Revocable Trust SJB, which the artist created back in 2004 to save money and transfer inheritance to her sons. This is the only asset to which the guardian has no rights. #FreeBritney activists did not approve of this step: many felt that the mother, under the guise of kindness and care, wants to get control over the singer's life and money.
In July, the concerned began to search for secret signs on Britney's Instagram and TikTok. Top comments posted requests to wear a certain color if the singer really needs help. The matching yellow and black clothing scared some fans. In addition, Spears published a post on Instagram with a reference to Arundati Roy, an Indian writer, author of the novel "God of Little Things", whose heroine is trying to escape from an oppressive father. Fans recorded the post as evidence.
And in mid-July, photographer Andrew Galleri, with whom the pop princess worked after 2008, filmed a video on TikTok in which he read a copy of Britney's letter from 2009 (the original, according to him, was destroyed by the guardian). In the letter, the singer reports from a third person that she was forced to divorce Kevin Federline, transfer custody of her sons to him, and she herself was deceitfully declared incapacitated. The singer also admitted that she was scared to talk about it in public.
Celebrities began to join the #FreeBritney movement. Miley Cyrus yelled at the concert: "Free Britney!"
Fans published an official petition on the White House website demanding that the singer be provided with a lawyer. In a few days, the number of signatories exceeded 100 thousand people - now the US authorities are obliged to give an official answer. Several petitions have been published on the change.org website, the most massive of which has 256,000 signatures.
In early August, 68-year-old James Spears, furious with the move to free his daughter from custody, said in an interview: “All of these conspiracy theorists know nothing. The world has no idea … A California court has to decide what's best for my daughter. This does not apply to the rest. This is our own business."
On August 18, it became known that Britney intends to seek the termination of guardianship in the future, but for now she demands that her manager Jodie Montgomery take her father's place, and so took over the duties of a guardian at the time of Jamie's illness. On August 26, the court rejected this desire: the father will remain the guardian until February 2021, then there will be a new meeting. Nevertheless, Britney's younger sister Jamie Lynn will be engaged in financial affairs. She has been appointed the sole trustee of the SJB Revocable Trust, and in the event of Britney's death, she will be able to single-handedly manage the funds and provide for her two nephews. Cher stood up for the singer: “She worked for wear and tear, earned money, was a hen that lays golden eggs, and when she got sick, she turned into a cash cow. Does any of her money-divers even want Britney to get well? And someone was wonderingDo they treat her at all? " - she wrote on Twitter.
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