Britney Spears, in Incendiary Hearing Remarks, Calls for End of Conservatorship

Britney Spears made rare public remarks at an incendiary hearing today regarding her court-ordered conservatorship controlled by her father Jamie Spears. While outlining what’s happened over the past 13 years, Spears made it clear that she wants the conservatorship to end and said that she wants to sue her family. 

“I’ve been in denial. I’ve been in shock. I am traumatized. I just want my life back,” Spears said, according to The New York Times. “I want to end the conservatorship without having to be evaluated. I shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if I can work. The laws need to change. I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive.” 

Spears told the court that she wasn’t aware that she could petition to end the conservatorship. “It’s embarrassing and demoralizing what I’ve been through, and that’s the main reason I didn’t say it openly,” she said. “I didn’t think anybody would believe me.”

“I haven’t been back to court in a long time because I don’t feel like I was heard on any level,” she said, according to NBC News. Spears also claimed that many statements she’s made on her personal Instagram have been disingenuous: “After I’ve lied and told the whole world I’m OK and I’m happy … I’m not OK, I’m not happy, I can’t sleep.”

She also opened up about the ways a conservatorship has impeded her plans for her own life, saying she wants to have more children but can’t get permission to go to a doctor and have her IUD taken out, Rolling Stone reports. She also said she’s been given lithium in the last eight years and likened her situation to forced work and sex trafficking. “All I want is to own my money, and for this to end, and for my boyfriend to be able to fucking drive me in his car,” Spears said. 

Jamie Spears’ lawyer Vivian Lee Thoreen read this statement in response: “He is sorry to see his daughter suffering and in so much pain. Mr. Spears loves his daughter, and he misses her very much.” Read the full transcript of Britney Spears’ statement today on Variety.

Spears was placed under the court-ordered conservatorship in 2008. The conservatorship was the subject of the Framing Britney Spears documentary earlier this year. Today’s hearing has been widely anticipated by those following the case since Judge Brenda Penny granted Spears’ request in April. A new report in The New York Times published yesterday indicated that Britney has been pushing back on her father’s role as conservator behind-the-scenes for years. 

This article was originally published on June 23 at 4:41 p.m. Central. It was last updated on June 23 at 6:00 p.m. Central.