Britney Spears addressed to the Los
Angeles Superior Court regarding
her long running conservatorship,
the conservatorship that put her
father Jamie Spears in charge of
nearly every aspect of her life.
This has been in place since 2008,
and it is the first time
that we are now here hearing from
Britney Spears herself about what
she feels about this program and
not having full agency of her life,
of her finances.
She said in this court hearing
quote, I feel ganged up on,
I feel bullied and
I feel left out and alone, and
I'm tired of feeling alone.
She said that she's being exploited
and that she can't sleep
is depressed and cries every day.
The New York Times earlier this
week had accessed some court
documents that were not public
previously, so we started to get
a better sense of how she was
feeling about all of this.
And then soon after that she had
the court hearing, and we got a few
quotes from what she had to say.
Spears also recalled one incident
in which she didn't want to do
an additional run of shows in
Las Vegas,
she felt relieved when her handler
said that she didn't have to do
the shows anymore, but suspected
there would be consequences.
Days later Spears said her
therapist told her, that he heard
she was being uncooperative.
She said, he then took her off her
regular meds and
put her on a lithium regimen.
Spears said that she wanted to have
another child, I mean,
this is incredibly disturbing,
Spears said she wanted to have
another child but, has been forced
to keep an IUD in place.
I mean, whether it's her finances
her own body, her mental health,
the drug regimen,
she's on she just has no control as
a result of this agreement.
This thing that she was forced into
back in 2008 and
hasn't been able to get out of.
So Emma, I want to hear what you
have to say about this because, for
me what really stood out was that
she talks a lot about being
exploited.
That she is working and her
earnings are being exploited by her
father and people on her payroll.
So there's a financial incentive
for Jamie Spears to keep this,
process the way it's been.
>> Well not only is she paying for
her lawyer but, she's paying for
her father's lawyers and
all of the lawyers involved and,
this is a really heartbreaking
story for so many reasons.
First of all free Britney of
course, and if you haven't seen
the Hulu New York Times documentary
on this, it's just the tip
of the iceberg because, we hadn't
heard from her, in that amount of
time since 2008 essentially.
Outside of manicured I guess media
appearances, that were essentially
mandated by her father so
that she could keep making money,
and keep him rolling in the dough.
And there are so many different
intersectional elements that I
think should be explored here.
Oddly I thought about Andrew Yang
in the story abit,
[LAUGH] bear with me.
Because, he in the New York Primary
was talking about how we need
to essentially lock up these
mentally ill homeless people
against their will and bring back,
forced internment.
Because, they were dangerous and
they were an eyesore for
people in New York.
And that is such a draconian awful
policy where essentially people who
have mental health struggles,
are forced to be prisoners of
the state against their will
without really any advocacy.
Because they are powerless and
hardly there's some similarities in
the situation.
I mean, Britney Spears obviously
has a lot of money but she had
a well documented mental health
episode or some struggles back in
the time when this happened.
And she's never been able to get
out of it and the other element of
this is patriarchy,
because this would not happen to
a male star of her caliber.
I mean Robert Downey Jr broke
into multiple homes and had a bunch
of arrests, and then a few years
later he was sober and he was back
on his feet and I'm happy for him.
And he was doing a bunch of movies
and he's Iron Man and one of
the richest movie stars ever.
And I mean I guess the third
element of this too is the money,
and the greed that was so
displayed by her family.
I am sickened for her and
the IUD story also fits into
the patriarchy too.
>> Yeah I think you make great
points all around, just to quickly
comment on the Andrew Yang moment I
did see that video.
And, he definitely did
not articulate his point well, and
it did come across as
incredibly cruel.
And to be sure in California,
that program of forced
institutionalization of people with
mental health issues was draconian,
was awful.
But what we're experiencing at
least in in Los Angeles
specifically I can't speak to other
parts of the country, is the
pendulum swinging to the extreme
opposite end of the spectrum.
Where you do get attacked,
I mean on two different occasions I
was attacked
by mentally ill homeless people.
I'm not saying that we should force
them into being institutionalized
but, right now the city is just
leaving it as it is and
people are getting attacked on
a regular basis.
So, it's insane that we have these
two extremes and can't come up with
a better program,
a better idea in dealing with this.
And of course I mean look at
the end of the day, the root issues
never really get addressed, right?
I mean, if you do have mental
health issues,
even if you have health insurance,
it's really hard to have a plan
that covers the mental health care
that you need, right?
A lot of people don't don't have
health insurance at all and so
they might have undiagnosed mental
health conditions and
then their situation devolves
even further from there.
So there are actual root causes and
root issues that should be
addressed that aren't addressed,
and then you look at
the Britney Spears situation and
you're absolutely right.
I mean, the double standards
are pretty clear, I do want to read
a few excerpts from the New York
Times reporting on this story.
They write that she articulated I
always have a hard time with this
word because I never use it but
she articulated she feels
the conservatorship
has become an oppressive and
controlling tool against her,
a court investigator wrote in 2016.
The system had quote too much
control Miss Spears said according
to the investigator's account,
of the conversation too much,
too much.
Spears also informed
the investigator that she wanted
the conservatorship terminated as
soon as possible, she is sick
of being taken advantage of.
And she said she is the one working
and earning her money but everyone
around her is on her payroll,
the investigator wrote.
And also in 2019, Miss Spears
told the court that she felt forced
by the conservatorship into a stay
at a mental health facility and
to perform against her will.
I mean, it's just sick and
you can see that just by the way
she carries herself, but
by the fact that she's been so
successful in her career even after
she had very clear mental health
episode in 2008, that she's good.
She can take care of herself,
she doesn't need to be under
the control of her father who seems
to be exploiting her.
But unfortunately for now, the
hearing ended with no resolution.
The Los Angeles Superior Court
Judge Brenda Penny said that
Spear's remarks were courageous and
also said that she would have to
file a formal petition,
asking for this program to end
before she could render a decision.
So hopefully there's light at
the end of the tunnel for Britney
Spears, but it does bring up some
pretty devastating questions about
how we deal with mental
health issues in this country,
in the state of California.
And why it is that it's taken this
long for the courts to even pay
attention to this.
>> And how complicit we all are in
this, I mean I just want to to add
she was full of life person.
[LAUGH] I didn't want to use
that word incorrectly and
she was essentially beaten down by
a society that sexualized her as
a teenager.
That forced her to be sexy but
you're also
a horrible role model and
we're going to be entirely invasive
in every part of your life.
I mean that part of the 2000s, when
there was this celebrity culture,
it was sick and
we all participated in.
Yeah. >> And we all have
culpability in it, right?
And I I read those blogs, I read
Perez Hilton, I feel deep shame and
so I think we all have to
reckon with this as a society.
How we treated her and by all
accounts I listened to Mariah Carey
oddly speak about her, she's
apparently the nicest person ever.
And she was drugged with lithium
and things that she couldn't
control, and I feel immense endsley
sorry for her and there's so many
different elements that we could
talk about forever but- >> Yeah,
no I second that and I thank you
Emma for saying it because, you're
taking personal responsibility.
I mean, I obviously have to take
personal responsibility too, but
my hope is that, people can see how
culture has evolved,
that's really important.
And how the kind of comments
about female celebrities,
the kind of coverage of female
celebrities that was incredibly
popular back in the early aughts,
no longer stands today.
There's a lot of resistance to it,
and I'm proud of that evolution.
And so we need to write those
wrongs and, getting her freed from
this situation, and
drawing attention to the unfairness
and the exploitation she's dealing
with is just scratching the surface
of that.