"Traumatized", singer Britney Spears asks the Californian justice to lift its guardianship
The pop star had been placed under the tutelage of his father in 2008, after a series of media escapades, but she now denounces an "abusive" measure.
Calling herself "depressed" and "traumatized", singer Britney Spears asked, Wednesday, June 23, a Los Angeles court to lift the guardianship she has been subject to since 2008 as a result of psychological disorders, and which deprives her much of its autonomy.
"I just want to get my life back, it's been thirteen years and that's enough," said the pop star, speaking, at her direct request, in an internet hearing. Britney Spears spoke uninterruptedly for more than twenty minutes, with an extremely fast flow and by chaining the arguments to ask the judge Brenda Penny to lift this judicial measure which does her, according to her, "more harm than good ".
"I really think that this supervision is abusive", she launched. "I told the world that I am happy and that I am doing well" but "I am traumatized," added the 39-year-old artist. “I'm not happy, I can't sleep. I'm so angry, ”she insisted, ensuring“ cry every day ”.
Descent into hell
Britney Spears was placed under guardianship in 2008 after a high-profile descent into hell at the time. The conditions of this guardianship are very strict and provide that the decisions concerning her are taken in particular by her father, Jamie Spears, with whom she has had a long difficult relationship.
These arrangements have been hotly contested in recent years, and Britney Spears’s lawyer recently asked the court to replace Jamie Spears with the professional guardian who is currently co-managing her case with her father. The singer criticized the attitude of her family, including her father, on Wednesday. "My family didn't do anything at all," she said.
Her court-appointed lawyer, Samuel Ingham, had previously said in court that the singer was "afraid of her father," but this is the first time she has made such outrageous remarks in public. In a brief statement read in court, Jamie Spears said he was "sorry to see her in such pain" and said he loved his daughter "very much".
Although occasionally featured on social media to keep in touch with her fans, the star has so far refrained from publicly discussing her guardianship or difficult relationship with her father. She told the judge on Wednesday that she did not know she had the right to ask for the measure to be lifted.
A long battle
However, according to court documents cited by the New York Times, Britney Spears has repeatedly expressed strong opposition to the terms of her trusteeship regime. "She said she felt the guardianship had become an oppressive check against her," a forensic investigator in charge of the case wrote in a 2016 report.
According to the report cited by the daily, Britney Spears informed the investigator that she wanted to end this guardianship regime as quickly as possible. "She's 'fed up with taking advantage of her' and says she's the one who works and brings in the money but pays for everyone around her," the document continued.
The New York Times, for example, assures us that under this guardianship the singer must pay not only her own legal fees but also those, quite considerable, of the guardians who contest her claims in court.
All this controversy has only revived the #freeBritney ("free Britney") campaign orchestrated in the streets and on social networks by some fans, convinced that the singer is kept against her will under supervision and that she is sending appeals using coded on his Instagram account. Several dozen of them were in court Wednesday to show their support for the idol.
