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The #FreeBritney movement started in 2017, described by Rolling Stone as “a pop-music version of Watergate” that has resurfaced on and off over the years.

Fans have been very concerned about Britney Spears’ life behind the scenes since her father took over a conservatorship, controlling her life and money since 2008.

When Britney tried to convince her followers on Instagram that she was fine, asking them “why highlight the most negative and traumatising times in my life from forever ago ????”, fans held on to their scepticism, adamant that she was still being controlled.

Those concerns were well-founded, and yesterday is all the proof that is needed.

The US pop singer asked a judge in an open Los Angeles court to end the conservatorship that has been hanging over her for 13 years.

Spears gave an emotional and disturbing 24-minute statement in a phone call to the court, which is the first time the 39-year old singer publicly and directly spoke out about her predicament.

Spears called the conservatorship “abusive,” denying her basic rights, and condemned her father and the others who have controlled it, reported Al Jazeera:

“I just want my life back,” she said. “I’m not here to be anyone’s slave.”

“This conservatorship is doing me way more harm than good,” she added, pleading for the court to end it. “I deserve to have a life.”

She also mentioned that when she said she was okay in Instagram posts she shared over the past year, “I was in denial,” reported Variety, who have the full statement transcribed.

It’s reported that Britney is given a weekly allowance of $2 000, despite her vast fortune.

From The Guardian, the conservatorship has given her father, Jamie Spears, complete control over her estate, career, medical care, and other aspects of her personal life, via “a corporate fiduciary known as Bessemer Trust”.

Some of the most striking parts of her testimony revealed many details that have been carefully guarded for years by the court.

“They don’t want me to have children.”

Spears said the conservatorship has had control over the most intimate details of her life, including her desire to marry and have another child.

She said she has a contraceptive device that she wants to be removed but has not been allowed to go to the doctor to do so as the conservatorship controls her medical care.

Spears also said she is banned from seeing her friends who live minutes away from her, and that her boyfriend is not allowed to drive her in his car.

“He immediately, the next day, put me on lithium out of nowhere.”

Spears said she was forced to take medications that she did not want, after doctors changed the medication that she was taking for five years to lithium, a strong mood stabiliser.

This was because she had told management she wanted to discontinue her Las Vegas residency in 2019 and disagreed with one part of the show’s choreography:

“The only similar thing to this is called sex trafficking … The people who did this to me should not be able to walk away so easily … I’m not here to be anyone’s slave. I can say no to a dance move.”

While nearly 100 fans from the #FreeBritney movement gathered outside the court around the time of the hearing, holding signs that read “Free Britney now!” and “Get out of Britney’s life!”, Spears was echoing some of the arguments that #FreeBritney activists have made for years:

“I’m great at what I do,” she said, adding that there are a “thousand conservatorships that are abusive as well”.

“I shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if I can work,” Spears said. “The laws need to change … I don’t feel like I can live a full life.” The people who control her life, she said, “need to be reminded they actually work for me”.

She also said she had been scared to speak out, fearing that nobody would believe her:

“I’ve lied and told the whole world I’m OK and I’m happy,” she continued, adding that she initially feared speaking out. “I honestly don’t think anyone would believe me.”

Britney’s father and his lawyers have emphasised that she and her fortune (around $60 million) remains vulnerable to fraud and manipulation:

Under the law, the burden would be on Spears to prove she is competent before the case could end.

The case adjourned without making any big decisions.

You can read Spears’ full testimony here.

[sources:aljazeera&theguardian]