Britney Spears’ Contentious Relationship With Dad Jamie Spears Over the Years

Britney Spears' 6 Statements About Her Father Jamie Spears

Britney Spears, a pop icon whose career has been marked by both soaring success and personal struggles, has not hesitated to reveal her tumultuous relationship with her father, Jamie Spears. In her memoir, The Woman in Me, Spears candidly discusses the challenges she faced under a court-ordered conservatorship and sheds light on her strained relationship with her father. Spears' journey from global superstar to a voice advocating for autonomy and self-determination has brought attention to issues of mental health, legal guardianship, and family dynamics in the entertainment industry.

1. Health Issues and Work Hiatus

In 2018, Jamie experienced a life-threatening colon rupture that led to emergency surgery. Spears announced a work hiatus, including putting her Las Vegas residency on hold, to be with her father during the difficult times. She wrote on Twitter, “I don’t even know where to start with this, because this is so tough for me to say. I will not be performing my new show Domination. I’ve been looking forward to this show and seeing all of you this year, so doing this breaks my heart. However, it’s important to always put your family first… and that’s the decision I had to make. A couple of months ago, my father was hospitalized and almost died. We’re all so grateful that he came out of it alive, but he still has a long road ahead of him.”

2. First Public Address on Conservatorship

In 2021, Spears finally broke her silence about her conservatorship in a court hearing. She revealed the emotional toll of living under the legal arrangement. She said, "I've lied and told the whole world I'm okay and I'm happy. I'm not happy. I can't sleep. I'm depressed. I cry every day." During her testimony, she revealed, “Not only did my family not do a goddamn thing, my dad was all for it. Anything that happened to me had to be approved by my dad. And my dad acted like he didn't know that I was told I had to be tested over the Christmas holidays before they sent me away when my kids went home to Louisiana. He was the one who approved all of it. My whole family did nothing…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 — he loved the control to hurt his own daughter 100,000%. He loved it.”

3. Allegations of Conservatorship Abuse

In July 2021, Spears expressed her desire to press formal charges against his father for "conservatorship abuse." She accused her father of exerting control over her personal choices, including limiting her access to basic freedom. She said, "I want to press charges against my father today. I want an investigation into my dad…If this is not abuse, I don't know what is." Spears remarked, “I’m here to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse…this conservatorship has allowed my dad to ruin my life…Their goal was to make me feel crazy, and I'm not. And that's not OK."

4. Emotional Impact and Family Hurt

After her conservatorship ended in November 2021, Spears shared her emotional journey highlighting how deeply her family’s actions had hurt her. She asserted, "From every angle, I was being hurt for no reason and my family was hurting me. I went into a state of shock and the way I coped was being [in] fake denial. It was too much to really face. Honestly, my family embarrassed me and hurt me deeply…tooting my own horn and seeing my past accomplishments reflecting back at me actually helped," as reported by PEOPLE.

5. Body-Shaming Allegations

In her memoir, Spears revealed disturbing details about her father’s alleged body-shaming comments during the conservatorship. She wrote, “I’d been eyeballed so much growing up, I’d been looked up and down, had people telling me what they thought of my body since I was a teenager. Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back. But under the conservatorship, I was made to understand that those days were now over. I had to grow my hair out and get back into shape. I had to go to bed early and take whatever medication they told me to take. If I thought getting criticized about my body in the press was bad, it hurt even more from my own father. He repeatedly told me I looked fat and that I was going to have to do something about it.”

6. Control Over Public Image

Spears reflected on how the conservatorship stifled her creative expression and autonomy, attributing much of the blame to her father’s influence. She wrote, “I would do little bits of creative stuff here and there, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore. As far as my passion for singing and dancing, it was almost a joke at that point. Thirteen years went by with me feeling like a shadow of myself. I think back now on my father and his associates having control over my body and my money for that long and it makes me feel sick… Think of how many male artists gambled all their money away; how many had substance abuse or mental health issues? No one tried to take away their control over their bodies and money. I didn’t deserve what my family did to me.”