Britney Spears lifts lid on Las Vegas residency ordeal: ‘I was nothing more than a puppet’
Britney Spears announcing her second Las Vegas residency, Domination, which was ultimately cancelled. (Getty)
Britney Spears opened up about being treated like a “puppet” in Las Vegas as she returned to Sin City as a free woman.
During her four-year residency, Britney: Piece of Me, the 40-year-old says she was only allowed to explore Vegas twice by her conservators.
Piece of Me ended in 2017, with a second residency, Britney: Domination, later cancelled before Britney announced her “indefinite” work hiatus.
Making her defiant return to Sin City five years later, Britney reflected on what arriving at Las Vegas now as a free woman means to her – and recounted the ordeals she suffered while “locked up” and made to perform.
“Being a guest in Las Vegas is way better than being me … or wait … is it because my family got to be the stars when I worked in Vegas?” she wrote in a since-deleted post Sunday (6 March).
Britney said that while her family were given the “star treatment”, she became their “puppet”, and alluded to her claim of being forced into a mental health facility against her will following Domination’s cancellation, as “punishment” for standing up for herself.
“In a world where it’s okay to lock your daughter up and make her work seven days a week … 8:00am to 6:00pm … no days off,” she wrote.
Britney claimed that she was drugged to an extent that she couldn’t even “speak or talk” and had no privacy even when bathing.
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“I was nothing more than a puppet to my family,” she wrote, “yet to the public, I just performed on stage and did what I was told to do … but it was worse than that because it was accepted and approved by the people I loved the most.”
While under her court-ordered conservatorship – which saw her decision-making on her finances and personal affairs bound chiefly to her father, Jamie Spears – Britney said she was treated “less than, demoralised and embarrassed”.
“Nobody should ever be treated the way I was,” she stressed, in a message certain to resonate to some of the more than 1.3 million Americans in active conservatorships.
“The reason I bring this up is because ending the conservatorship is a huge deal but come on … THAT’S IT ??? They all got away with it !!! If you’ve ever been in shock for four months … threatened for your life … you would be upset too.”
“I’m not done,” she added, “I want justice and won’t stop until something is done to those who harmed me … and YES I was harmed !!!!
“This is a message to all who have been threatened for their life … You are NOT ALONE !!!!”
Britney Spears attends the announcement of her later cancelled residency, Britney: Domination, in 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Bryan Steffy/WireImage)
In a third post, Britney added that she was forced into therapy for “10 hours a day, seven days a week when I was abused”.
Britney has spoken out against her conservatorship, which was terminated last year after the star broke her years-long silence in explosive court testimonies and on social media.
Conservatorships, also known in some US states as a guardianship, are intended as a last resort for the elderly or infirm.
Britney was placed under one in 2008, but continued to work for more than a decade. She has since claimed that she was forced to go on tour, and has indicated that she hopes to sue both her father and her former managers. Jamie Spears has denied all wrongdoing.
Lawmakers have even invited Britney to speak in Congress to share her experiences of being in a conservatorship in hopes of reform.
