Britney Spears’ mum launches blistering attack on singer’s ‘threatening’ dad Jamie
Lynne Spears (L) and Britney Spears. (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Britney Spears’ mother launched a blistering attack against the singer’s father, saying his relationship with his daughter has “dwindled to nothing but fear and hatred”.
In new court filings that point to the growing tension in the Spears household, Lynne backed Britney’s plea to oust Jamie Spears as conservator of her estate.
The Monday (26 July) documents, obtained by E! News, say that the 66-year-old author would testify if called as a witness amid the ongoing conservatorship battle.
“I became involved in this conservatorship during what I will term a ‘time of crisis’ that began at the end of 2018 and continued into 2019,” Lynne wrote in the paperwork.
She claimed that she became involved in the legal arrangement because she felt it was not in “Britney’s best interests”.
Britney Spears ‘lives in custody’ under Jamie’s ‘complete control’
How the arrangement has given Jamie “absolute, complete control” on Britney’s life for the last 13 years has, Lynne said, eroded their relationship.
It has “dwindled to nothing but fear and hatred” and signals “his mistrust of her, his coercion of her, his ‘bartering’ with her over what she can and cannot do for whatever reward or punishment he is willing to mete out, his constant threats, and his decision-making over all aspects of her life”.
His unchecked authority means Jamie has “exercised absolutely microscopic control” over Britney.
Members of her household staff, medical aides and security act as “informants”, she said, who “report back to him each and every detail of every action that takes place”.
Jamie Spears, Britney Spears, her brother Bryan and her mother Lynne. (Chris Farina/Corbis via Getty)
“Such scrutiny is exhausting and terrifying, like living in custody,” she said.
Lynne looked to an alleged scuffle between Jamie and Britney’s then 13-year-old son, Sean Federline, as the flashpoint in this.
“Of the actions that solidified the failure of my daughter’s and Mr Spears’ relationship, the physical altercation between Mr Spears and [Britney’s] minor children, my grandchildren, was perhaps the most appalling and inexcusable, and understandably destroyed whatever was left of a relationship between them,” she said.
Britney’s ex-husband Kevin Federline claimed in September 2019 that Jamie physically abused Sean. Jamie faced no criminal charges after the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office dropped the investigation.
‘Toxic’ singer forced to take ‘inappropriate’ medicine, claims mother
Lynne also voiced concern about Britney’s medical care, which was largely under the direction of Jamie until 2019 when he left the post due to ill health. The courts swapped him out with current personal conservator Jodi Montgomery, who has supported dissolving the arrangement.
In 2019, Jamie allegedly hired a “sports enhancement doctor” described by Lynne as a psychiatrist. They prescribed Britney medicine she did not consent to which was “entirely inappropriate”, Lynne said in the filings.
“I witnessed my daughter be compelled by that doctor, with the knowledge and encouragement of Mr Spears,” Lynne said, “to enter a health facility that she did not want to enter, where she was threatened with punishment if she did not stay for medical treatment that she did not want to endure.
Britney Spears attends the announcement of her new residency, ‘Britney: Domination’ at Park MGM on October 18, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic)
Britney that year had told the courts in sealed hearings how she was forced by the conservatorship into a stay at a mental health facility against her will in April 2019.
She viewed it as a “punishment” for standing up to herself after objecting to a piece of choreography during a rehearsal for her Las Vegas residency.
And throughout her 23-minute-long court testimony which gave in excruciating detail insight into her life under the conservatorship, Britney said she was forced to take lithium in claims that strike parallels to Lynne’s statement.
“Three days later after I said no to Vegas, my therapist sat me down in a room and said he had a million phone calls about how I was not cooperating in rehearsals and I haven’t been taking my medication,” she told judge Brenda Penny.
“All of this was false. He immediately, the next day, put me on lithium,” she said, referring to the mood stabiliser used as a treatment for bipolar disorder.
Britney’s new attorney, Mathew Rosengart, a high-powered Hollywood lawyer, filed a blistering 120-page-long petition to remove Jamie for good from the arrangement and be replaced by certified public accountant Jason Rubin.
“Any father who genuinely loves his daughter and has her best interests at heart should willingly step aside in favour,” he wrote, “of the highly respected professional fiduciary nominated here.”
