Front Burner - ‘I’m done’: Britney Spears fights back against conservatorship

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

As Britney Spears fights for her legal freedom, Dominic Patten, senior editor for Deadline Hollywood, joins us to explain the latest revelations on the 13-year conservatorship that controls every aspect of the pop icon’s life.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. I'm done. All I want is to own my money for this to end and my boyfriend to drive me in his car. So of course, you probably recognize that voice as Britney Spears. This is audio of a court recording that was recently leaked online. In it, she's speaking really in depth and publicly for the first time about her opposition to the conservatorship that has ruled basically every facet of her life for more than a decade now. I just want my life back and it's been 13 years and it's enough. It's been a long time since I've

owned my money and it's my wish and my dream for all of this to end without being tested. Again, it makes no sense whatsoever for the state of California to sit back and literally watch me with their own two eyes make a living for so many people and pay so many people trucks and buses on the road with me and be told I'm not good enough, but I'm great at what I do. The pop icon made a whole slew of really, really shocking allegations that we're going to get into today. And that testimony was followed up recently by new revelations about how her father and a team of lawyers got control of her life, including the questionable circumstances surrounding how the conservatorship even began. Then on Monday night, Britney's long-term manager, he resigned, and he cited Britney's plans to officially retire from music. So lots to talk about today.

Dominic Patton has been covering this story. He's a senior editor for Deadline Hollywood based in LA, and he's actually also a fellow Canadian. And he's here with me now to talk about the latest in this incredibly sad and sordid tale. Hey, Dominic. Hi. Thank you for having me and for mentioning my Canadian being born in Canada. Thank you very much. It is always so great to talk to Canadians south of the border.

So look, last time we spoke on the show about Brittany's conservatorship and the Free Britney movement, there were still questions, I remember, about the growing concern for her well-being and whether or not fans were reading too much into her Instagram posts. But now things have totally blown up, hey? And so big picture, what was confirmed when Britney Spears recently made her first public statement in court regarding her conservatorship? Well, two things. This is actually not her first public statement. She has made statements in the past, as recently as last year.

But this was the first time Britney kind of went full in, double down, so to speak, as they say down here in America. After I've lied and told the whole world I'm OK and I'm happy, it's a lie. I thought I just maybe I said that enough. Maybe I might become happy because I've been in denial. I've been in shock. I am traumatized. You know, fake it till you make it. But now I'm telling you the truth, OK? I'm not happy. I can't sleep. I'm so angry. It's insane. And I'm depressed. I cry every day. Among the number of revelations that came out of it essentially is the one time princess of pop has zero control over her career. Very little control about who she sees and when she sees them and how she sees them.

Very little control about her relationship with her sons who live with her former husband who has full custody of them. Almost no control of how her finances or anything are dealt with. And perhaps for many people, this is one of the most harrowing elements of it, is when she revealed that she has an IUD implanted in her body to prevent her from having more children. And I want to have the real deal. I want to be able to get married and have a baby. I was told right now in the conservatorship I'm not able to get married or have a baby. I was told right now in the conservatorship, I'm not able to get married or have a baby. I have a ID inside of myself right now, so I don't get pregnant. I wanted to take the ID out so I could start trying to have another baby, but this so-called team won't let me go

to the doctor to take it out because they don't want me to have children, any more children. to take it out because they don't want me to have children, any more children. So basically, this conservatorship is doing me way more harm than good. So all in all, the 20 minutes of which she was reading from a prepared statement, often it's such a speed that the court reporters had to slow her down. And I know you guys have some audio of this. My management said if I don't do this tour, I'll have to find an attorney. I hate to interrupt you, but my court reporter is taking down what you're saying. That audio was actually got people down here in the United States in quite a bit of trouble because it was not supposed to be recorded. And in fact, has now led to the L.A.

Superior Court system pulling the plug essentially on their remote audio program, which they put in place so people wouldn't have to go down to the courtrooms during COVID. All in all, it was a shocker, to put it mildly. Okay. I didn't know that about what resulted from the audio being leaked. Everything coming from this Britney Spears matter spirals out of control incredibly quickly. You know, as somebody who has covered this story a lot, when you were listening to her speak, like a little over a week ago now, what was going through your head? I felt terrible for her. I've interviewed Britney Spears a couple of times, and she seems like a very nice person, seems like a very nice person, you know, very much trapped in the star machine. And that's not to be unexpected, as sad as it is. But listening to her testimony, you felt like you were listening to someone who was at a

parole hearing. And I don't know if you've ever covered those, but I've covered those in the past. And people at parole hearings, they're begging for their lives, essentially. They may not say that, but they are. They want to get out of prison. And as anyone who knows anything about prison on either side of the border, it's not a place you want to be and you want to get out of as fast as you can and you will do anything to get out of there. Britney Spears sounded like that. I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive. And now we can sit here all day and say, oh, conservatorships are here to help people. But ma'am, there's a thousand conservatorships

that are abusive as well. She said she wanted the whole process to end. And I would honestly like to sue my family to be totally honest with you. I also would like to be able to share my story with the world and what they did to me instead of it being a hush-hush secret to benefit all of them. I want to be able to be heard on what they did to me by making me keep this in for so long.

It's not good for my heart. She seemed to indicate, too, that she didn't really understand or had only recently began to understand what her actual rights were in terms of this conservatorship, which now has been going on for 13 years. And let's be clear, these type of conservatorships do not generally go on this long. They go on for a few months. Conservatorships like this, where people basically come in and take control of an adult's life, is for people who seriously lack any ability to take care of themselves. That's not the case with Britney Spears. Since 2008, she has been unable to do anything, it seems, of significance in her own life. And that process in 2008, now in the light of day, seems very sketchy about the way it was put together and the way it was implemented and how quickly it was done. Right, right. And this is

one of the many revelations that recently came out in this sort of epic New Yorker piece, right? Like that it took 10 minutes basically for this conservatorship to be granted. And there are questions around- There weren't a lot of revelations in that piece. There was a lot of stitching together of things that have been out there for a while, but there was an excellent analysis of looking at the big picture. Very much so. Very much so. Well, you know, I don't know if this has been out there for a while or not, but certainly in that piece, they looked at how much money people connected to the conservatorship have been making, including her court-appointed lawyer, who was reportedly paid $520,000 a year. And the investigation heavily suggests that this lawyer is more aligned with her father,

who runs the conservatorship, than with her. And Britney herself brought this up on June 23rd. Her lawyer was appointed by the courts. Everyone in her life is appointed by the courts. She actually asked the judge, Judge Brenda Penny, what she implied that she, though she said she had a good relationship with her lawyer, she made it very clear, and this was discussed after her statement in the court about how things were going to go forward. She made it very clear that she was considering getting her own lawyer. She has had no control over this. Everyone has been appointed for her. And I will say one element of this that should come under scrutiny itself is this could

all end tomorrow. Judge Brenda Penny, who just recently, late last week, rejected Britney's petition to have her father, Jamie Spears, removed from the co-conservatorship, which she stated very clearly on June 23rd she wanted done and has done before. This is actually a motion put before the court last November. She also reconfirmed the wealth management company that had been brought in last year as a temporary co-conservator. That wealth management company, the next day, mere hours after they were officially confirmed said yeah we don't want to do this we don't we don't want to put any part of this britney spears has made it very clear we do not want a part of it that she doesn't want a part of it so we don't

want a part of it you are seeing the cliche of rats jumping off a sinking ship but you're definitely seeing people abandoning ship very quickly. Britney Spears' defense attorney has resigned after 13 years on her conservatorship case. Samuel D. Ingham officially filed his court application after her manager, Larry Rudolph, also offered his resignation. Because this thing is going, to quote one of Britney's songs, or at least the title of one, this thing is getting very toxic very fast. The reason I'm telling you this is because I don't think how the state of California can have all this written in the court documents from the time I showed up and do absolutely nothing. Just hire with my money another person to keep and keep my dad on board.

Ma'am, my dad and anyone involved in this conservatorship and my management who played a huge role in punishing me when I said, no, ma'am, they should be in jail. And speaking of people jumping ship, you know, I know you broke a story, I think late Monday night that her longtime manager, Larry Rudolph, resigned. And he was citing Britney's intention to officially retire. He also noted, which was, I don't know, shocking to me when I read it, that he hadn't communicated with her in two years, despite being her manager. And so tell me more about that and what you make about that. Well, there's a number of things to make about that. One thing, there were elements of the New Yorker piece that talked about her wanting to perhaps give up her performing career.

That has been out there before. She's made statements that have implied that on social media as well as on June 23rd, et cetera, et cetera. I deserve to have a life. I've worked my whole life. I deserve to have a two to three year break and just, you know, do what I want to do. She has not performed or recorded anything since 2019, when she suddenly pulled the plug on one of her Las Vegas residencies, citing that she wanted to go on a hiatus and implying it in many ways,

in no small portion, because of some health issues around her father, who she clearly is estranged from. That looks like it is becoming more permanent. It also should be pointed out that Larry Rudolph, as he said in his resignation letter that we had up on deadline, he's had no role in the conservatorship. But Britney herself on June 23rd, when speaking in court, did talk about it in 2018, basically being told by a male it's identified as he that um uh she had to go on a tour or she would be in violation of her contract and could be sued by her own management company wow so she went on that tour what has come up time and time again in all of this and if you can kind

of remove the emotionality from it and i know for some people who are big britney spears fans that's hard for others no you know a lot of judgment from a lot of different people, some of it misogynistic, some of it just simply generational, some of it just people being jerks, to be honest. But I think that one thing that's come out of this time and time again is how much in the dark Britney has been left. You know, she could actually file paperwork to dissolve this conservatorship or certainly ask for it to be dissolved or certainly ask it to be altered like any time in the past 13 years. I don't, my understanding from what she has said and following this story quite closely the past several months, I don't think she knew that until very recently. I want changes and I want changes

going forward. I deserve changes. I was told I have to sit down and be evaluated again if I want changes and I want changes going forward. I deserve changes. I was told I have to sit down and be evaluated again if I want to end the conservatorship. Ma'am, I didn't know I could petition the conservatorship to end it. I'm sorry for my ignorance, but I honestly didn't know that. But honestly, I don't think I owe anyone to be evaluated. I've done more than enough. I don't feel like I should even be in room with anyone to offend me by trying to question my capacity of intelligence, whether I need to be in this stupid conservatorship or not. I've done more than enough. I don't think she knew what she was capable of doing or what she had a right to. I don't even think she knew that she could get her own lawyer as opposed to have the court appointed lawyer.

I think some of this is spiraling quite quickly. And Dominic, you know, why do you think that is? I mean, I don't want to speculate too much here, but certainly in her testimony, I don't think this is something that we've talked about yet. You know, she talked about there were like allegations that she had been drugged. She was very specific. She says that she's on a high dose of lithium. And for anyone who's ever taken lithium, lithium is a very, very powerful antidepressant that, you know, lithium might as well be, you know, also known as lethargy. I mean, it really knocks people out. People can even get lithium poisoning, in fact. 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. All of this was a false. He immediately the next day put me on lithium out of nowhere. He took me off my normal meds I'd been on for five years. And lithium is a very, very strong and completely different medication compared to what I was used to. You can go mentally impaired if you take too much, if you stay on it longer than five months. But he put me on that and I felt drunk. I really couldn't even take up for myself. I couldn't even have a conversation with my mom or dad really about anything. So I think that that is yet another part of it. You know, she also talked about, and it has been revealed to some of the documents in this have been sealed. Some not. It's been

revealed that she was taken to facilities on several occasions, some of which were done under kind of harsh circumstances. So, you know, this has been an ongoing thing. She is being held. This is a 39 year old woman. Now, again, regardless of what you think or anyone might think about Britney Spears, whether or not you like her music, don't like her music, whether or not you like manufactured pop, don't like it, et cetera, et cetera, whether or not you're a sexist jerk, whatever, right? But Britney Spears can walk and talk and tie her own shoes and chew gum at the same time and all sorts of other things. Why isn't she allowed to be in charge of her own life? Now, there's a couple of suggestions you could make, as people have. Her father and her mother have talked about how much they love their daughter. Their divorce happened for a long

time, since the early 2000s. But they talk about how much they love their daughter. They talk about how important she is to them. They responded with some shock to learn how she felt she had been abused during the conservatorship, pointing the finger at them, or at least her father. Right, right. So the man doth protest a little too much. I cried on the phone for an hour and he loved every minute of it. The control he had over someone as powerful as me, as he loved the control to hurt his own daughter 100,000 percent, he loved it. However, one thing that I think has come out of this is let's be

very clear britney spears is worth like 60 million bucks you know you talked about the lawyer who got 500 000 which isn't actually to be honest way over the top for a lawyer it is for a conservative lawyer i do find think that that seems heavy but it's not out of the realm of possibilities and we don't know what he's actually doing in many cases, which is another problem here. Fair. Although I think one of the reasons why it was shocking is that it actually totals more than her yearly expense, expenses. She's not allowed to do anything. She's on like, she's on like, her yearly expense was something $480,000. But I would also take that with a grain of salt too. Remember, a lot of things in her life that you and I pay for, mortgages, blah, blah, blah,

all those sort of things, those expenses might find other places to manifest themselves, if you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah. But the bottom line is here is a 39-year-old woman is essentially being held as a captive in modern day America. Ma'am, I'm not here to be anyone's slave. New episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization.

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together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Cops. Look, she wants control of her life back. And you mentioned earlier that this thing could end tomorrow. And considering all these allegations, you know, as you mentioned, like the fact that she's saying that she has to wear an IUD and all she wants to do is have her boyfriend drive her in her car or have another kid. And considering the public opinion is turning sort of wildly against this conservatorship and very much in her favor, like, is it going to end? I hate to make predictions about things like this because it's very hard to tell. This thing has been going on for a very long time.

And this is not the first time it's come up into the public sphere, maybe not to as great an extent as now. I mean, there were literally over 100 people outside the courtroom with Free Britney signs and what have you. There might be an issue where the conservators, there's a woman named Jody Montgomery, who is a court-appointed fiduciary, who basically handles Britney's, let's say, personal life, aka medical affairs and stuff like that, right? And her father, who was the co-conservator for many years with a lawyer, and then this lawyer resigned, and then someone else, and then with this wealth management firm, and now just with him, is in charge of her finances and essentially her career. Though her

career, as the resignation of her manager, which we exclusively revealed yesterday, her career is kind of on a plateau at best. They might just wait this out. They might just wait. They might be like, you know, we know you guys. Once you move on to the next Instagram post or the Kardashians or this or that or something else happens in the summer that you'll be interested in or some TikTok influencer falls down and cracks a tooth, we might just wait this out. There is another hearing scheduled for July 14th. The agenda of that hearing is kind of rudimentary, but clearly that's not going to be what they're talking about, obviously. Again, though, Judge Penny could end this pretty quickly. She could just say, I've heard Britney Spears, what she said,

my heart is broken by this woman and what she's living through. Let her rule her own life. You guys, you know, be good parents, help take care of your daughter, but you don't control her life anymore, right? And I would just say, at the court hearing, she spoke to Britney, you know, she spoke, Britney was obviously calling him by the phone, but she said, you're very courageous. She spoke, Brittany was obviously calling him by the phone, but she said, you're very courageous. I just want to tell you that I certainly am sensitive to everything that you said and how you're feeling. And I know that it took a lot of courage for you

to say everything you had to say today. And I want to let you know. She actually said she wanted some of the concerns that Brittany had raised around her medical plan, I believe she referred to it as, I might be slightly paraphrasing. She wanted to see some of those addressed. And her father, actually, Jamie Spears, and again, you can postulate about his motivations all you like, but he filed some paperwork wanting to get to the bottom of what these

statements of abuse that Britney had expressed, what was going on. these statements of abuse that Britney had expressed, what was going on. Right. A petition that he's filed. But essentially, he's asking his team to investigate the veracity of the allegations and claims made by Britney, which he has also vehemently denied, right? Look, deflection is a very commonly used legal maneuver. But this stuff is out there now. So it's a question of what happens next. It's a very interesting case. And it's, you know, I cover a lot of legal, a lot of legal stuff down here in Hollywood, and people love to sue each other in Hollywood. But I think for a lot of people, this has become very personal. You know, people who are fans of hers, the original generation, obviously older now, I think there's a very strong possibility

that we're going to see some serious movement on this on the next month or so. And I guess just to reflect before we go, as somebody that also grew up with Britney Spears and how this is personal, I do wonder if there is a real sense of guilt there. People who sort of relished in her meltdown or perceived meltdown

and relished in like the negative tabloid fodder around her, that now they look back on it and feel like they were sort of complicit in this whole thing. I think so. I think there was very, I think there was a strong degree of misogyny and what have you on this.

I think when male rock stars pull crap like that, we sort of be like, that's rock and roll, man. That's so Bacchanalian. I do think it's also worth looking into the timeline of her life. Others have brought this up, but we have as well. You know, Britney had not that long before the so-called meltdown. And I think that that's also part of it. Even people who want to put their hearts in the right place are using the language that shames her, which I don't think we have to be careful about. You know, she had just given birth to her second

child. It's very, if you look at this from a slightly 330,000 feet type level, a lot of symptoms of what seemed like postpartum depression occurring, right? And then you add pressure of what was then her mega fame. You add the pressure of, you know, kind of the slightly pre-social media paparazzi siege, for lack of a better expression, the hothouse that LA can be unto itself around celebrity, all these things. And here's a young woman who, even though almost her entire life she's been a performer, nobody can be prepared for what happens when you are invaded like that.

It's embarrassing and demoralizing what I've been through. And that's the main reason. I've never said it openly. And mainly I didn't want to say it openly because I honestly don't think anyone would believe me. And I think there are a lot of factors there that were done to do to her what has unfortunately was done to many other people over the years, which is sit down and

shut up and we'll take care of you. And that's just wrong. And to go back to where we started this conversation, it's also just incredibly, incredibly sad. Dominic, thank you for this. Thank you. Thank you. um dominic thank you for this thank you thank you all right so some big news from ottawa before we go today on tuesday prime minister justin trudeau announced the appointment of mary as Canada's new Governor General. The Inuk leader and former ambassador is the very first Indigenous person to assume the role. I can confidently say that my appointment is a historic and inspirational moment for Canada and an important step forward on the long path towards reconciliation. Simon's appointment follows the resignation of the former Governor General Julie Payette, who left the post after an external review found she created a, quote,

toxic and poisoned workplace at Rideau Hall. All right, that is all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner, and we'll talk to you tomorrow.