Britney Spears' parents have both responded to her bombshell testimony calling for the end of her 'abusive' conservatorship
- Spears' mother, Lynne, says she's "very concerned" for her after the pop star's explosive testimony.
- Spears said at a Wednesday court hearing she wanted to end her "abusive" 13-year conservatorship.
- Jamie, Spears' father and coconservator, said through his lawyer that he "misses" his daughter.
Britney Spears' parents, Jamie and Lynne, have each spoken out after the pop superstar delivered explosive testimony at her conservatorship hearing on Wednesday.
Lynne Spears' lawyer Gladstone Jones said in court on Wednesday that Lynne was a "very concerned mother" after hearing Britney Spears' passionate remarks asking to end her "abusive" 13-year conservatorship. Spears told the court she had an abusive relationship with her father and was allowed very little freedom in her personal life.
Spears' conservatorship (a complex legal arrangement that appoints a legal guardian for a person who is unable to make their own decisions) was put in place in 2008 after Spears experienced a series of public mental-health crises, including high-profile run-ins with the paparazzi.
"Today is the day while the world watches while we listen to Ms. Spears, that we put in place a plan," Jones' court statement from Lynne Spears said, according to Vulture. "That is her mother's request, that we not leave the court without having a plan."
Jamie Spears, who is divorced from Lynne, also had a lawyer, Vivian Lee Thoreen, present at Wednesday's hearing. Thoreen read a statement from him after Britney Spears' testimony, Vulture reported.
"He is sorry to see his daughter in so much pain. Mr. Spears loves his daughter and misses her very much," Thoreen said on Jamie Spears' behalf in a statement to the court, according to Vulture.
Jamie Spears gained control of Britney Spears' estate, business decisions, and many parts of her personal life after her conservatorship was approved in Los Angeles in 2008.
After a number of changes over the past decade, he's a coconservator alongside a third-party financial company, Bessemer Trust, that was selected by Spears and her legal team. Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney Spears' younger sister, was also named a trustee to Spears' estate in 2018.
Despite Jamie Spears' long-running control of his daughter's affairs, a New York Times report published on Tuesday said Britney Spears had expressed concern since 2014 over her father being her conservator.
According to the Times report, which cited records it obtained, Britney Spears said in 2016 that "she feels the conservatorship has become an oppressive and controlling tool against her" and said again three years later that she was "afraid" of her father.
She had previously asked a court to end the conservatorship at a hearing in May 2019, but her request was denied.
Britney Spears made several shocking allegations in her bombshell testimony
During the hearing, Spears also compared parts of her life under the conservatorship to "sex trafficking."
"The control he had over someone as powerful as me - he loved the control to hurt his own daughter, 100,000%," Spears said of her father on Wednesday.
"I worked seven days a week, no days off, which in California, the only similar thing to this is called sex trafficking," Spears added. "Making anyone work against their will, taking all their possessions away - credit card, cash, phone, passport - and placing them in a home where they work with the people who live with them."
In one of the most shocking revelations from Wednesday's testimony, Spears said her conservatorship wouldn't let her remove her IUD (a highly effective intrauterine contraceptive) even though she had expressed interest in having more children. She has two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James.
Spears has continued to have a flourishing career throughout her conservatorship, including multiple albums, a Las Vegas residency, and several perfume lines. She announced she was taking a break to focus on her mental health in 2019.