(CNN)Britney Spears broke her silence in a court hearing on Wednesday regarding her court-ordered conservatorship that has been in place for nearly 13 years.
Spears requested to address Judge Brenda Penny to speak out about the arrangement. The singer attended the hearing virtually by phone. Spears spoke more than 20 minutes as she read from a letter.
“A lot has happened since two years ago, the last time I was in court. I haven’t been back to court because I didn’t feel I was heard,” Spears began.
She said she felt she had been forced to perform, was given no privacy and was made to use birth control, take medication and attend therapy sessions against her will.
Spears said on Wednesday that she was put on lithium, despite her objections.
“It’s a strong drug. You can go mentally impaired if you stay on it longer than five months. I felt drunk, I couldn’t even have a conversation with my mom or dad about anything. They had me with six different nurses.”
Lithium is commonly used to treat bipolar disorder, which often causes episodes of depression and mania — a feeling of uncontrolled irritability or excitement. It can also be used to treat depression.
Spears criticized how her family, including her father Jamie Spears, has handled her conservatorship and responded to her concerns about her care.
“My family didn’t do a God damn thing,” she said. “Anything I had to do, [my dad] was the one who approved all of it. My whole family did nothing.”
Spears’ father had been the conservator of her estimated $60 million estate since 2008, along with attorney Andrew Wallet, following a series of personal issues that played out publicly for the singer. Following Wallet’s resignation in 2019, Spears had been solely responsible for overseeing her finances until Judge Penny appointed Bessemer Trust in November 2020 to serve as co-conservator.
In response to her remarks, Vivian Thoreen, an attorney for Jamie Spears told CNN, “Mr. Spears loves his daughter and misses her very much.”
Britney Spears said she has expressed her disappointment about her medical care and management of her career to her dad but that she felt like he “loved it.”
“The control he had to hurt his own daughter, he loved it. I worked seven days a week … it was like sex trafficking. I didn’t have a credit card, cash or my passport.”
Spears also addressed why she has not brought up these issues on social media.
“I thought I might become happy,” she said. “I’m in denial. I am traumatized. I’m not happy. I can’t sleep, I’m so angry, it’s insane.”
“I have never said it openly I didn’t think anything of it. I thought people would make fun of me, she’s lying, she’s got everything, she’s Britney Spears. It’s been long time since I’ve owned my money. It’s my wish for this to end,” she added.
Spears said that she wants to hire an attorney of her choosing, since her current counsel, Samuel Ingham III was court appointed in 2008.
“For the past f***ing 13 years, I’m been so good and so pretty and I do everything,” she said. “I can’t allow my ignorant father to do that to me … I don’t even drink alcohol. I should drink alcohol given what they’ve put my heart through.”
She pleaded with judge to take her concerns seriously.
“The last time I spoke to you, it made me feel like I was dead, like I didn’t matter. like you thought I was lying. I’m not lying, so that maybe you understand the depth and degree, I deserve changes.”
Spears also said that she wants to start a family with her boyfriend, Sam Asghari.
“I want to be able to get married and have a baby. I was told I can’t get married. I have an IUD inside me but this so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor to remove it because they don’t want me to have anymore children. This conservatorship is doing me way more harm then good.”
She said that she hasn’t been allowed to ride in her boyfriend’s car alone.
“I’d like to be able to share my story with the world,” she said. “I want to be able to be heard. By making me keep this in for so long, it’s not good for my heart. It concerns me I’m not allowed to be able to heard. I have the right to use my voice. My attorney says I can’t let the public know what they did to me … I shouldn’t be able to be in a conservatorship. The laws need to change. Ma’am, I’ve worked since I was 17 years old. I can’t go somewhere unless I meet someone every week in an office. I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive, but ma’am there are a thousand conservatorships that are abusive as well. I want to end the conservatorship.
Spears ended her remarks by saying, “I deserve to have a two to three year break. I feel open and I’m OK to talk to you about this. I feel ganged up on, bullied, left out and alone. I’m tired of feeling alone. I deserve to have the same rights, having a child or any of those things.”
Following her remarks, the court took a recess and then stopped the public audio feed of the proceedings, citing live tweets of hearing.
A previously scheduled court hearing is next set for July 14.
