Dolly Parton gets behind Britney Spears’ fight for freedom: ‘I understand where she’s coming from’
Dolly Parton has weighed in on the Free Britney movement. (Valerie Macon/ Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty)
Dolly Parton has said she understands what Britney Spears is going through in her legal battle for freedom.
The country icon was asked for her thoughts on the Free Britney movement, which has pushed for the singer to be freed from her conservatorship, during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
“Well I try to not get involved in other people’s business, I think she is a wonderful artist, and I think she’s a wonderful girl and I only wish her the best, and I understand all those crazy things,” Dolly Parton said when asked about Britney Spears’ conservatorship.
She said that she “went through a lot of that myself through a big lawsuit in my early days with Porter Wagoner” the country singer whose TV show kickstarted Parton’s career.
The pair released music as a double act until Parton decided to go it alone. Wagoner would go on to sue Parton for breach of contract.
Of Spears, Parton added: “I understand where she’s coming from and how she feels, so I hope that all turns out the way that it should.”
Dolly Parton is just the latest high-profile figure to throw her weight behind Britney Spears, who has found herself embroiled in a legal battle to have her father Jamie Spears removed from her conservatorship.
Under the terms of the legal arrangement, her father has exercised significant control over her personal life, finances and career over the last 13 years.
The conservatorship was first put in place in 2008 after Spears experienced a mental health crisis, however it has remained in place right up to the present day, meaning she has little control over her own money or personal life.
Fans of the singer had been quietly pushing for her conservatorship to be scrapped for years, but the movement was thrust into the mainstream with the documentary Framing Britney Spears, which cast a critical eye on the arrangement.
Spears had generally remained quiet on whether she wanted to have the conservatorship scrapped, but she dramatically broke her silence during a court appearance in June.
Speaking virtually to a Los Angeles court, Britney Spears characterised her conservatorship as “abusive”, adding that her father and others involved with the arrangement should be jailed.
In a 20-minute court testimony, Spears suggested that her conservatorship had prevented her from marrying her boyfriend Sam Asghari and starting a family with him.
That court-appearance led to the resignation of Samuel Ingham III, Spears’ court-appointed lawyer. In July, she was granted permission by the court to hire her own lawyer for the first time.
She is now being represented by Mathew Rosengart, a Hollywood legal powerhouse and former federal prosecutor, who has promised to “aggressively” push to have Jamie Spears removed from the conservatorship.
Meanwhile, Britney has become more outspoken about her personal life and legal arrangement on her Instagram account. In recent weeks, she has criticised her family, including her sister Jamie Lynn Spears, on the platform.
She also hinted that she won’t be performing live as long as her father has a role in her conservatorship.
