What did you think of the Conservatorship before #FREEBRITNEY?

[Circuit]

What did you think of the conservatorship before #FreeBritney?

I guess I didn't really know what it was. I thought it was just a type of arrangement with her label or something, idk.

I remember seeing a thread on here back when I first joined (around 2012 or 2013) where someone was saying that the c-ship forces her to work and threatens her custody of her kids, etc. and someone replying that a conservator can't force someone to work, etc. I was also 10 around this time and a new fan, so my understanding of Britney Spears the person was very limited.

I just assumed Britney was in it for the money from seeing how happy and excited she was during the Femme Fatale era LOL

Did anyone else buy into the "Britney Spears is severely mentally ill" narrative and did that shape your perception of the c-ship?

I'm curious, what did y'all think?

[phareezy]

When it was first implemented, I supported it because from what we could see, it was put in place to actually help her when she really needed it and for a minute, it looked like it was doing its job. When it became clear that there was an abuse of power in terms of not letting her out, I was upset. When the info about her financials and what's going on there paired with the odd IG posts started to come to light, I got pissed off.

Granted, I had dropped off from following Britney news for a while because it just made me sad. It felt like she didn't want to be famous anymore and I thought as a fan, I should respect that and let her do her thing. Then, it occurred to me that some craziness was going on and now I'm back and ready to fight for this woman.

[Baby Oops]

I didn't even know that Britney was disenfranchised and was on a conservatorship. I watched her music videos, listened to her songs, but I wasn't interested in her personal life. But somehow I found a community of Britney fans on a local social network and read all this terrible truth. Then I just found your website and learned about the Britney Freedom movement from you 

[ifuseekcody]

I remember being so saddened to see Brit's darkest days play out in 2007 and 2008  I never bought into the whole "she's crazy" narrative that so many tried to push in order to make the c-ship seem justified. Especially after how she bounced back with the Circus era looking absolutely gorgeous and slaying all of those promo performances 

From my perspective as a 13 year old kid at the time and from what I understood about it back then, it seemed like the "right" thing to do, but only relating to her finances. I didn't really give it much thought until the Femme Fatale era came around and she was still in the c-ship....even after she was back on top with the Circus era. So after seeing how great she was in that era, it seemed odd to me that even in 2011 it was still ongoing. I thought it should've ended after the Circus era wrapped up. I never really paid much attention to her personal life before then, but from everything we've learned over the past decade, it's hard to not have some sort of interest in it. Her current situation is just so bizarre. I really think this year will be big for Britney. The amount support that has come from the NYT doc has warmed my heart so much!

#FreeBritney 

[NewDisplayName]

1. I never thought that Britney was a crazy person.

2. Never liked c-ship but I have thoughts like “maybe it’s for public - no one believes Britney and it will help her to get out of the dirty media narrative”. But still felt like it was not right.

3. Sadly I missed the main words of Britney that she felt depressed because of the c-ship when she spoke out in ftr and thought the “jail” was her fame. So I heard her but I wasn’t listening (it won’t change anything but she was so right about that words )

4. I wasn’t aware about about c-ship for young and productive people existed.. I don’t even know if it exist now tbh : )) (except Britney case)

[Stannedforever]

First I thought it would have been there for few weeks, then few months, then I was like "okay so she has done 2 albums and 2 world tours since 2008, why isn't the conservatorship ending?" 

I cared about it a lot and was questioning it at the very start, but team C knew how to shut anyone down who dared to speak about it, and they controlled the narrative, that she's happy or sad or anything they wanted her to be (remember all those trusted source or insider exclusive stories in magazines like TMZ), and they distracted fans with releases after release so after a while I just kind let it go from my mind. Even if I wanted to speak about it, the fanbase was really divided about it, others would say things like "she needs it", "she's happier now than ever", "maybe she doesn't want to be free" etc while others would hope that it will end someday but we didn't know about all the details we know now so the conversations about it were nothing that special and never led to anything 

[PokemonSpears]

I personally didn't know all the details when it first happened, like I had no idea about how wrong (and illegal) the whole process was. Conservatorship, as a concept doesn't exist in my country, so I didn't really have a reference.

I didn't know who Lou Taylor was, until very recently, well, at around 2017 or 2018 I started hearing her name, but I didn't have an image of her, I actually thought it was a man lol It wasn't until the FREEBRITNEY movement started that I realized she was the woman from that infamous picture of "Britney's team" and the baptism at the Jordan River.

I thought Britney Spears had finally reconciled with her father, since we saw them together multiple times all these years, and she seemed happy around him, like that picture from Super Bowl 2015.

I did watch For the Record, but by the time the Circus Tour happened, she seemed to be herself onstage again, so I assumed things had gotten better, at least, emotionally, for her. She had her kids again, she was singing, performing, she was in great shape, eventually I assumed the conservatorship was just a legal thing to protect her from lawsuits, but otherwise she was still living a "normal", "free" life.

Tbh, we have many pictures of her driving her car from these years, going on vacation, etc., so I thought that, if any, it was just the "mental prison" of knowing that for more freedoms that she was given, at any point her dad could pull off the show, basically by cutting her access to her own money. But I kept thinking, what could Jamie do with her money, if they're still together most of the time, or like, yeah, it's not like he has a second family or something, Britney would still help him and her mom and siblings anyways, even if there was no cship (which is also kinda sad, because it's true). But again, I had no idea of the presence of Lou and Tri Star, and the relationship she has with James.

 

But then in 2016, they made her go to the court to face Sam Lutfi, so that's when things stopped making sense to me. That year we had rumors that the conservatorship was coming to an end, and that she had stopped taking the meds they were giving her. Everything clicked, because we saw how amazing that year was. But the year went by and nothing changed.

Then in 2019 when the voicemail came in, I didn't want to believe, but then meaner and others started to bring all the receipts, we started looking at everything that was being reported at the time, all those details about the hospitalizations, the petition, Sam Ingham, Lou Taylor, etc, and the whole picture started to reveal. Then we actually started looking at what the law says about conservatorships, and the more we learned about it, the less it made sense that she had been put under the one, and even less that it lasted for this long with no changes. And the rest, well, it's history.

 

But yeah, tldr, basically I used to think it was just a legal technicality to protect her from lawsuits and stuff like that at that point, and it did seem suspicious and I was like, I don't know the details but it seems like their stretching the law for the benefit of Britney, so it's ok. Didn't imagine it was only for the benefit of them.

I'm not gonna blame Britney, 'cause that's stupid, but tbh, she also played a big role to convince me that she was fine (probably because she herself was trying to convince herself to accept this life). Except for 2011 where she really look bad, sedated, lifeless, all the following years she just kept getting better. 2012 was very anxious, but at least she was showing more emotions than 2011. Then 2013 was the first time in years she looked really calm and happy in interviews and she looked great on her music videos too. Then she just got better and better until late 2017 when she started to look very nervous and anxious onstage, and the panda eyes made their debut.

 

[Nickey]

I started being a stan around 2011, just because I was a young teenager and could understand more than just listening to her music and watching videos. So around that time I started to read more about her, also the comments.

What I remember is people blaming the c-ship for the fact that something's off about her. But then some other people were coming back for those people, telling them that she clearly has her issues and the c-ship is there for a reason.

I personally always thought something is off. I didn't have a strong opinion on the c-ship cause I didn't really understand the situation (we also had no details on that for a long time) but I always noticed how uncomfortable and anxious she was post 2010. And it just didn't make sense it's because of her breakdown. Now we know the reason.

[FemmeFataleBrit]

What did I think of it? I didn’t think of it.

 

I’m a newer fan (since 2016 - 17) and I’ve been familiar with her situation since 2018 itself. Always disagreed with this and always will support Britney.

[ChrisBritSlo]

There actually isn’t a time “before #freebritney”. On Exhale, the movement started in the early 2008. It’s just that It was seen as bunch of crazy and deluded fans.

 

However, about cship, I have always felt very weird. It just got weirder and weirder year after year. I remember a video where a pap asked her, how she feels about being stuck in cship for the rest of her life. It was around 2010-2012

[ConceptD]

I’ve been strongly against it from the beginning. 

[MeAgainstTheMusic_]

Not to be one of those people but I genuinely have always thought it was wrong. I’ve always known she’s been shut away from the world it’s hard to ignore. She looks plain miserable, she’s awkward during  interviews. 

FF era was probably when it was most noticeable but FTR revealed some sad truths. She looked plain miserable but still somewhat Britney. 

[monkeystar88]

A lot of people skip the fact that on her 5150 her blood test came back clean and they released her early from both 5150's I believe. The C-ship was for some reason rushed without a proper diagnosis from the DR. It's all been sketchy to me thanks to Breatheheavy and the members keeping me informed with all the stories which usually turn out to be true.

[standherealone]

I initially thought something must be seriously wrong mental health wise because she got sectioned prior to the conservatorship and I just assumed they were doing what was best for her at that time.

I later just assumed it was for insurance purposes so she could tour and get visitation with her kids.

I did not realize she was being controlled to the extent she was. I honestly just thought it was a façade so they could get insurance for her to tour and so she wouldn't have to attend all those court hearings.

[monkeystar88]

Her behavior was never "crazy" to me I always saw it as the world trying to crush her because she was trying to be powerful against an INDUSTRY I think all of us have done worse. Kevin, Jaime and all those people trying to get her money and I think they paid of judges, TMZ, Perez Hilton and people to make the C-ship work. 

[Justanonim]

Before #freebritney movement, i didnt know much about her. I only knew that she was a pop icon and assumed she couldnt handle fame and had a breakdown in 2007. I didnt made researches and just accepted that she had serious mental problems and she could never heal from 2007 thats why cship was placed and honestly didnt know cship was controlling her to that extent

[vzlafan]

going back 13 years ago , britney was not in her best, everyday every news, was worse and worse and worse, i mean her relationship with adnan, sam lufti , her without her kids, the conservatorship back them was a light into the way.

 

but Now I can't digest until today that Kevin have more custody of the children than herself, for me its all corruption system, and part of plan between the management, jamie and kevin to use her, its just unnaceptable.

 

Kevin, Jamie , all BTEAM and all the Jamie Lawyers, need go to the jail, they are scam.

I Can't believe how the first country in the world, who lives criticizing other courts systems, are part of this corruption plans

[December02]

Well we were hoping she’d get out of the conservatorship for years beforehand. I remember that we used to have threads in the early 2010s about her court hearings. We just didn’t know the extent to how she was being treated. We were of course confused about her restrictions especially in interviews, etc. Interestingly I also had gotten into Britney’s Gram a while before the #freebritney episode so I had been really skeptical of the conservatorship for a bit before we went full force. 

[notacamwhore]

The Free Britney movement only publicised the general feeling towards the consveratship on this site. The general consensus on Exhale since 2009 has been that she's imprisoned in it and had her basic human rights taken away.

[joanhs]

I became a Britney-follower the night she shaved her head, and came out of the fan-closet the first time I heard Gimme More..
2007 was hell sometimes. We didn't know if she was depressed, suicidal, or what was wrong. Accents, late night runs even WITH the kids, she stayed away from the courtroom when she was expected to go fight for her kids.
Adnan and her started dating in december and I kinda think it made her better, I liked she had a boyfriend who knew how to hide her better, Sam Lutfi CALLEd them home to her..

Then january came, and I just wished to got they would have kept her in the hospital the first time. It's so easy to just leave. I dont get why they let her go still, She needed help. We can't argue that. But she didn't need a c-ship kinda help. 
I think we all in here agreed we wish she just got to Louisiana with her boys and stayed at Serenity. People in here were disapointed there were no performances, and no promo anyway... (as usual, lol)

The first 2 years I holy believed she had gotten better. Circus was amazing, she smiled, she danced SO well, her PR-team was perfect, we got lilttle fun candids and she met some fans, she got her kids, and everything looked so positive. Over the years I more went to the "Yes, the c-ship wasn't exactly perfect, but look, it got her kids back!"... And I believe the insurance rumor.... That no one wanted to insurance her tours and concerts if she wasn't under c-ship because companyes were afraid if she went missing or something.. Denied to work.. Then came the rumor about SO many people just waiting to sue her for ****, like, designers suing her for her dog ****ting on the dresses, Elizabeth Arden suing her, and I heard many people were waiting in the shadows to sue her.. I believed that, and defended that.. That the C-ship had no meaning what so ever, we saw her drive her car, we saw her going to parties, she had boyfriends, she had her kids, Instagram was bubbly.. But suddenly, Instagram just got sader and sader. No friends. Okay; i don't have that many friends either, but I occasionally still post a photo with someone or go out somewhere. She only went to Hawaii..
So, I started being like, okay, her family saved her life, but maybe its' time to... let it go?? And more and more talk. The came Domination and I instantly thought "that **** is going to get cancelled"... We talked about bad tickets sales in here, and that people coudl feel she didn't want to do this anymore but at the same time we saw her killing her rehearsels. But we got more and more suspicious.. When it got postponed I wasn't surprised, but I thought it really was the low ticket-sale... And then we learned more in here, and now I still think, something NEEDED to get done in 2008 but not this. 
I dont think we can hate EBERYTHING that have happened the last 13 years. We dont know what was her idea and what wasn't. So, For me it's about being in the present, and waiting for her to release her side of the story one day.