When Britney Spears Claimed in Court She Was 'Forced To Take Lithium' As a 'Punishment'

The world was deaf to the 'Princess of Pop' Britney Spears's cries for help. The now 42-year-old complained that "no one cared" when she suffered the abuse while still under conservatorship controlled by her father Jamie Spears during a court appearance in 2021, which involved shocking details like she was being forced to consume lithium as a "punishment." 

The Oops...! I Did It Again singer alleged that she was betrayed by her family and her team who controlled her life in a literal sense. Spears revealed she was forced to go on a tour in 2018, "My manager said if I don't do this tour I would have to find an attorney and my own management could sue me if I didn't follow through with the tour," adding that her manager coerced her to sign a sheet of paper. 

"It was very threatening and scary, with the conservatorship I couldn't even get my own attorney," she recalled, as per The Sun. "When I came off that tour a new show in Las Vegas was supposed to take place." In another statement, Spears claimed that she was left to herself during the tours, directing and choreographing most of her performances independently."

Furthermore, the singer said that her team's account (of what happened) contradicts what she claimed in her testimony and admitted that, "I wasn't good, I was great. It's funny to hear my manager's side of the story. They all said I wasn't participating in rehearsals and I never agreed to take my medication. My medication is always taken in the mornings, they don't even see me." 

That's not all. Spears also alleged that if she refused to do a dance move, her team would desert her and not show up, sometimes for 45 minutes. Consequently, her manager would call her therapist and complain that she wasn't cooperating during the rehearsals or taking her medications. She couldn't even say no to a show, including a specific Vegas show she mentioned. 

"It made no sense at all, there was a week period where they were nice to me. They said if I didn't want to do the [Vegas] show, I didn't have to. They said I could wait," said Spears. However, she still went ahead and did the show out of fear because then her therapist would have put her on lithium. 

"I was really hard on myself and it was too much," she lamented. The singer told her assistant that if she didn't perform in Vegas, her team may "punish" her, with Lithium "out of nowhere." Additionally, she said, "Lithium is very very strong, it's a completely different medication to what I was used to. You can go mentally impaired if you take too much or stay on it longer than five months. I felt drunk, I really couldn't even [look after myself]." 

Her court appearance marked the first time Spears spoke against her treatment during the conservatorship since 2008. Her impassioned speech was enough to give chills to anyone while the singer pleaded to a Los Angeles court, "I've been in denial. I've been in shock. I am traumatized," requesting, "I just want my life back," as per The New York Times.