Britney Spears’ toxic conservatorship

Spears’ father is finally suspended as her conservator

Megan Valadez / Assistant Opinion Editor / The USD Vista

39-year-old Britney Spears spent the last 13 years living under a conservatorship. A conservatorship is a legal structure in which a person’s personal, economic, and legal decision-making power is ceded to others. Conservatorships are usually for those who are old, ill, or deemed unable to care for themselves. In that time, Spears released four albums, headlined a global tour that grossed $131 million, and held a four-year residency performing in Las Vegas. Her conservators – which include her father and her younger sister, Jamie Spears – have controlled her spending, communications, and personal decisions. 

The #FreeBritney movement gained attention from celebrities and fans all over the world after the release of the Emmy nominated “Framing Britney Spears” documentary. The hashtag became widely used throughout nearly every social media platform to spread awareness of Spears’ unusual situation and to pressure the court to release her from the conservatorship.

This conservatorship is absolutely insane. Imagine being a grown woman and having your parent control 13 years of your life. Imagine not being able to go anywhere, not having access to social media without it being monitored by parental controls, and having cameras all over your house. Imagine not being able to go out with your friends or even walk in the park alone. 

Imagine being forced to have an intrauterine device (IUD) planted inside you against your will, restricting you from having children. In a 2016 court report, Spears articulated that “the conservatorship has become an oppressive and controlling tool against her,” and is “sick of being taken advantage of.”

I’ve followed the Britney Spears case for some time now and as an avid “podcaster,” I listened to many on the conservatorship. On the Sept. 29 episode of the New York Times podcast “The Daily,” a former employee of Spears’ security firm, Alex Vlasov, spoke up about the abuses of the  conservatorship. He said the security team installed software on her phone that was mirrored to an iPad. They used this to read her text messages and even planted recording devices in her bedroom to listen to her conversations. 

One of Spears’ strongest arguments in court was that she successfully performed almost nightly while on tour and during her Las Vegas residency. She choreographed her own dances and taught them to her dancers. She argued that she was clearly mentally, physically, and emotionally stable during that period, and has been for a long time. 

I keep coming back to the idea that Spears was unable to make her own decisions about anything. She was not allowed to choose her own healthcare professionals, she was unable to control the money she made from her career, and she was unable to spend it without supervision or oversight. She couldn’t get married or have a baby if she chose to. 

She was asking for something so simple, to live her life the way she wanted, without the constraints of her conservatorship holding her back. 

Spears was unable to make her own decisions. The decisions we make daily, without thinking twice, are the ones Spears couldn’t even make herself.  The security team that her father hired gave her medication and prescription drugs against her will, was forced into therapy multiple times per week, and also was not allowed to drive a car; for 13 years. 

I think about how constraining the conservatorship was for Spears. All of these years, Mr. Spears argued that he just wanted what was best for his daughter, and in her situation, this was nowhere near acceptable. Spears wanted to sue her father for “conservatorship abuse” and called the arrangement “f—ing cruelty” in court. 

I continue to be amazed at the extent of this conservatorship. I think it fully represents a toxic environment. Mr. Spears was using his daughter’s money, nearly a $60 million fortune, to pay the bills for his lawyer, her own lawyer, and the security company he hired to watch over his daughter. 

Mr. Spears continued to argue that everything he did for her was for her own good. It is unbelievable that Spears’ father was allowed to listen in on every single aspect of her life, even conversations with her own lawyer.

I keep trying to put myself into her shoes and think about how I would feel if I was under a long-term conservatorship, as a grown woman. If I was her, I would go insane with all the toxicity and I would resent my father and every single person involved in the conservatorship. Britney Spears’ conservatorship is toxic, restricting, abusive, and cruel. 

On Sept. 29, supporters outside a Los Angeles Superior Court cheered with signs, celebrating Spears’ freedom from her conservatorship. A judge suspended her father from his role as conservator and he will be replaced by a Certified Public Accountant. We will find out in court if  the  conservatorship will be terminated as a whole in a hearing scheduled for Nov. 12.