Britney Spears addressed a courtroom in a groundbreaking move for her conservatorship case.- The pop star on Wednesday formally requested that the legal guardianship come to an end.
- Spears said she'd been "traumatized" and controlled, comparing her situation to sex trafficking.
The pop star Britney Spears spoke publicly for the first time on Wednesday about the conservatorship that has controlled her money and many aspects of her life since 2008.
"It's my wish and my dream for all of this to end," Spears said while addressing the judge in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday.
"I want to end the conservatorship without being evaluated," she added, referring to the legal guardianship that put Spears' estate, financial assets, and some personal assets under the control of her father and Bessemer Trust.
"I've lied and told the whole world that I'm OK and that I'm happy," Spears said. "It's a lie. … I've been in denial. I've been in shock. I am traumatized."
In March, Spears' father, Jamie, said he was not "the perfect dad" but everything he's done was in the singer's "best interest."
"[Jamie] would love nothing more than to see Britney not need a conservatorship," his lawyer Vivian Lee Thoreen told CNN. "Whether or not there is an end to the conservatorship really depends on Britney. If she wants to end her conservatorship, she can file a petition to end it."
The court-ordered conservatorship went into effect 13 years ago after the singer experienced a mental-health crisis.
There's been renewed interest in Spears' situation thanks to The New York Times' "Framing Britney Spears" documentary, which highlighted her wish to remove her father from the conservatorship altogether.
Last year, the conservatorship was extended four times, Insider's Hillary Hoffower reported. Spears requested her father be removed as conservator twice. She was denied both times.
Earlier this year, Jamie Spears lost a key battle to gain total control over the singer's investments. Variety reported in February that Judge Brenda Penny "overruled Jamie Spears' objections to an order establishing Bessemer Trust Co. as a coconservator of daughter Britney Spears' estate."
After that ruling, Britney Spears' lawyer said he recognized that "removal" of Jamie Spears from the conservatorship "is a separate issue."
Now Britney Spears is asking for the conservatorship to be ended entirely.
During her prepared statement, Spears said she was put on medication against her will and her father 'loved' having control over someone as powerful as her
In one instance, Spears told the court she had once rejected a dance-move idea during rehearsals for her live shows. Spears said her managers claimed she wasn't participating or taking her medication, which Spears denied.
"I'm not here to be anyone's slave," Spears told the court. "I can say no to a dance move."
In 2019, Spears had already announced a new Las Vegas residency called "Domination" but then put the shows on hold. During Wednesday's court hearing, Spears said she told her team she didn't want to do another Las Vegas show and was put on lithium the next day.
"He put me on that and I felt drunk," Spears said. "I couldn't even have a conversation with my mom or dad about anything."
Spears brought up her father multiple times, saying that he loved "the control he had over someone as powerful as me." She talked about feeling overworked and controlled, saying: "In California the only similar thing to this is called sex trafficking - making anyone work against their will, taking all their possessions away."
To learn more about the #FreeBritney movement and the legal battle around her conservatorship, read Insider's full report here.