Sunny Hostin Questions Britney Spears’ 'Capability' in Light of Her Post-Conservatorship Actions

After Britney Spears' 13-year conservatorship, which famously ended back in November 2021, Sunny Hostin has questions about the Princess of Pop's 'capabilities.' The 55-year-old TV personality, who recently got into a spat with her co-host Sara Haines, brought up the Toxic singer on Tuesday's broadcast of The View while also talking about Wendy Williams, who is battling dementia. 

As reported by Page Six, Hostin said on the show, "We’ve seen a free Britney now after the conservatorship. Is she still suffering? Sometimes I wonder. It seems that she is still suffering." Haines interjected, stating that 'suffering is going to be inevitable,' but she questioned whether Spears was 'capable of making decisions for her life.' Hostin added, "Is she capable? Because we’ve seen some things that have happened that’s questionable."

The singer's videos and other stuff uploaded on her Instagram account are likely what Hostin was referring to. Spears posted a since-deleted video earlier this month in which she was seen smoking and dancing in many sexy outfits while allegedly 'trying to lose weight.' The singer has also previously posted pictures of herself in her underwear and a video of herself dancing with knives that was posted in September of last year. She subsequently said the video was phony. 

With her father, Jamie Spears, serving as a co-conservator, Britney's conservatorship started in 2008 and ended in November 2021. Britney spoke on the effects of the conservatorship in her book, The Woman In Me, which was published in October 2023. She called herself a child robot and said that it had robbed her of her femininity and creativity. Spears wrote in a passage that People published, "I became a robot. But not just a robot — a sort of child-robot. I had been so infantilized that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself. The conservatorship stripped me of my womanhood, made me into a child. I became more of an entity than a person onstage. I had always felt music in my bones and my blood; they stole that from me."

Hostin has previously covered Britney's biography on The View, bringing attention to the difficulties the pop diva had to deal with at a young age due to extensive media scrutiny. Hostin thanked that her childhood transgressions were not caught on video or social media, acknowledging the challenges of growing up in the limelight and drawing comparisons with her experiences. She reminded everyone that Spears had only just begun her career as a youngster and that, as a result of being in the spotlight, she had not been allowed to mature and make errors without criticism.

As reported by Decider, Hostin said at the time, "She talks about her chapter with Justin Timberlake, and Lance Bass, one of his former bandmates, said, ‘I hope that you can show him some grace and forgiveness, and this is Britney’s story and I hope you can show her some grace'. And I was thinking, ‘I did some crazy stuff when I was in my 20s, and I’m so glad there were no cameras around me. I’m so glad there was no social media because I would not be sitting here.'"