On September 30, 2021, Britney Spears was released after 13 years under strict legal guardianship exercised by her father, James Jamie Spears. The court ruling came to endorse what the #FreeBritney movement (Free Britney) had been denouncing for years: that Jamie had taken advantage of his daughter’s psychiatric admission, in 2008, to take charge of her life and her fortune -valued at the end of the guardianship at $60 million—and control every aspect of its existence. But Jamie Spears has a different take on the facts.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Jamie has assured that guardianship “saved his daughter’s life”, and that without it he would not have been able to see his two children again after his divorce. “To protect her and also her children, guardianship of her was a great tool. Without that, I don’t think she would have gotten the children back,” she has stated. The singer’s father has been the target of all criticism in recent years, not only from his daughter, but from the #FreeBritney social movement that pushed the change in public perception about the singer’s controversial guardianship and that Jamie describes it as “a hoax led by conspiracy theorists.”
Britney Spears embarked on a crisis before the public eye in 2007 when she divorced her then-husband, dancer Kevin Federline, after three years of marriage and two children together. She shaved off her hair, hit a photographer’s car with an umbrella and was admitted to the hospital for substance abuse. She then lost custody of her children, though details are unknown. There was a time when she and Federline had joint custody, but at the end of September 2019, custody was reduced to 30% for Spears, due to a problem that the minors had with Jamie, whom they accused of having assaulted them. while the singer should have been taking care of them.
“I miss my two boys very, very much,” said Jamie, who admits losing contact with her grandchildren, Sean Preston, 16, and Jayden James, 15. “We were very, very close. They were that age where you can start having fun with them. But they were developing their own mind. God makes things happen for a reason. I don’t know what it is, but it’s been a difficult three years without them. The family is a mess. The only thing we can do is keep praying.”
Spears has taken advantage of this interview to vindicate herself and has told how things were when her controversial guardianship began, also justifying the tight control of the singer’s finances. She has claimed that her daughter had squandered all her money in the years before her guardianship: “She was broke. She did not have money. The guardianship allowed finances to improve.”
He has also wanted to speak out about the insults and accusations that his daughter has launched in recent months through social networks. “She has treated me worse than a bloody dog. It has been a hellish time ”, she explained. “But I love my daughter with all my heart and soul.” Jamie Spears assures that she has allowed people to speak ill of him during these years to protect the singer. “I don’t mind taking that beating, because I know it’s not true and because I don’t want to start another fight,” he said.
Jamie Spears was an alcoholic during her daughter’s childhood and, according to what she said, could be “abusive”. He has spent times estranged from his three children and his wife, whom he divorced in 2002. Currently, according to the Daily Mail, he lives with Britney’s little sister, Jamie Lynn, in a rural Louisiana. It’s not far from where Britney was born, where he grew up, and where he enjoyed his glory days as a star quarterback for the local football team.
For her part, the interpreter of I’m a Slave 4 U has taken advantage of this year and a half of freedom. She has recorded a song with Elton John, she has married the Iranian coach Sam Asghari and she has been traveling the world for the last few months with a frenzy of activity on her Instagram profile. Spears is at odds with her father, against whom she is waging a legal battle over the consequences of his guardianship. But also with her sister, her brother and her mother for the role of facilitators they have had in this process. She is also estranged from her two children. It was her own minors who explained her distance in a television interview with her father. “I just want him to improve mentally. When she gets better, I really want to see her again, ”Jayden James, her youngest, said about her mother.
