Britney Spears lost her court appeal to have her father removed as her conservator. Now she says she will not record or perform while Jamie Spears is in charge. [Pajiba]
This Dean Browning-Dan Purdy story was stupid and insane. [Towleroad]
Paulina Porizkova had a nervous breakdown at an airport, but she’s fine. [Dlisted]
Sarah Paulson looks totally different with a mask & no makeup. [Just Jared]
Sebastian Stan is making out with his girlfriend in the ocean. [LaineyGossip]
Doja Cat’s Givenchy ensemble is tragique. [Go Fug Yourself]
The Mary Wollstonecraft statue is… a lot. [Jezebel]
More Americans are being hospitalized with the coronavirus than ever before. [Buzzfeed]
I don’t even want this situation explained to me. [Starcasm]
Richard Schiff & his wife have Covid! Oh no!! [Seriously OMG]
Paulina is my favorite supermodel. Still beautiful. She’s going to be just fine.
Shes at a difficult age. She may finally be experiencing the dubious joy of menopause. Which for some of us revives the dysfunction and chaos of puberty all over again. My mom had it really rough and went completely bonkers. I just had a lot of migraines, hot flashes, and a temporary return of really bad acne.
I’ve even known a couple of previously steady marriages to break down over it. But it seems it’s still a taboo subject to discuss. I’m shocked at how shocked the younger women I know seem to look when I so much as mention the “m” word. These are, after all, women who are comfortable talking in great detail about things my generation didn’t even know about at their age. Stuff like having strangers remove hair from body parts we don’t normally let people bearing wax near, unless they’ve gone to dinner and a movie with us first. But say the word “menopause” and they blush and look as awkward and scandalized as church ladies who heard Uncle Ralph let fly with a swear word when he dropped his reading glasses in front of the pastor.
Menopause menopause menopause. Learn to share information about it while you’re young, ladies. So it won’t be some big flipping shocking mystery you have to painstakingly sort through when you’re older.
I remember back when I was still reading the Daily Mail and they had an article on how the subject was still rather taboo. I laughed at all the comments from the women insisting there was nothing to discuss or know about and to “just get on with it.”
Yes, try “getting on with things” when without warning you start overheating and feeling like you’re going to faint and you wonder if this is what a heart attack feels like for women. Or you’re in the middle of a presentation and you forget what you were going to say next and have a sudden urge to throw a book at your boss’s head just to hear the thud. Fortunately that didn’t happen to me. But my mom threw a roast turkey at us once for no apparent reason. It was during one of her menopausal mood swings.
I don’t know if this is what Paulina is going through. She did mention her period in an interview not that long ago. So I am guessing it’s possible. But that’s her business.
thank you, all of this
MENOPAUSE!
I thought they were separated years ago and it was set to be an amicable divorce. Huh..
I feel bad for Britney, the court should have respected her feelings.
As for the covid news we are in a very bad place, I’ll be happy to have Joe & Kamala in charge. Science matters
None of us knows the true state of Britney’s health. These cases are never easy, but there has been a lot of closed to the press testimony and medical evidence presented. I think an informed decision was made by the judge.
Britney’s plight is heartbreaking bc the betrayals are coming from blood family and partners. Betrayed by both your parents and then a man who deliberately has two children with you to set himself up for life and periodically goes back to court to ask for more to fund his ever expanding family.
Her sons will turn 18 in the next few years and her obligations to KFed will diminish to almost nothing.
Her father is on the other hand is just an opportunistic a-hole user.
I notice that her diagnosis is always talked around, however it is clear that she has some sort of schizo-affective disorder with psychotic outbreaks. I am by no means attempting a diagnosis, but I am guessing that is why the Conservator-ship remains, due to the impulsivity and lack of control issues.
It’s just sad that someone who has manipulated, used and abused her is allowed this amount of control over her life.
I think Britney also owes a debt of gratitude to Kevin and his wife for helping raise her children, if her condition is bad enough for a court to order conservatorship of an adult for this long. Legal judgements like this are not about her “feelings” it’s about her and her children’s safety and wellbeing.
Bob and Max Sheen WISH they had a KFed in their lives. They were bounced around all over the place because both their parents were both messy addicts incapable of caring for them.
@Sass they are also KFed’s children so that goes without saying. However he has clearly used the situation to exploit and benefit his new wife and other children. He also regularly requests ridiculous increases in maintenance payments as if somehow he is entitled to a portion of Britney’s earnings and wealth. That is not fair or equitable.
@ Mignionette. The payments are to equalize the living sitiations for the children – Britney Spears’s children should live in about the same conditions regardelss of whether they are with him or with her. And let’s face it, as much as she pays, it’s still a huge downgrade in living situation when they are with their dad. And it’s fair because it would be exactly the same if it were the other way around, if he had all of the money. It’s about the kids. It doesn’t matter that his wife and other kids are also living in the same household. He’s not obligated to keep a separate house for his kdis with Britney. I’m sure she has no problem providing as much as she can for those boys to have a privileged life, because they have enough pain in their lives with a mom who, through no fault of her own, isn’t well and can’t be a full-time and healthy mom for them.
Britney’s new lawyer friend is really screwing with her head. It was even pointed out in court that what he was doing was none of his business and no one had hired him at the time.
I don’t know if Brit is better off not performing, it seems to have kept her stable and mostly able to function in society, but maybe she hates it, she certainly looks dead behind the eyes 24/7. I feel for her and I want her to be happy, whatever passes for happy with her. Some rag was reporting last week that she and her boyfriend want to have a baby.
My son takes meds that make him look “dead behind the eyes”. He can’t help it as psychotic meds are some real powerful shit!
Apparently the judge asked Brit’s lawyer if she can tell the court HERSELF what her desires are (in person or affidavit). Brit’s lawyer said that Brit was like a patient in a coma, she cannot speak for herself. I find it weird how the lawyer can tell the judge that in one breath, and then say Brit wants the other (temp) conservator if she’s not “legally there” mentally to even testify in court…???
Lady D
It was speculated strongly at the time of her Vegas residency that Britney could not function at that performative level without meds parallel to Michael Jackson. The hours are stressful for even the healthiest and strongest. Her father was said to have made millions upon millions from this. And she crumbled and had frequent break downs.
I doubt it’s best for her and also it’s all she knows.
Follow Britney’s instagram for a month. Watch all the rocking, rambling videos. Look at all the exact same photos in the khaki shorts, filthy extension, smeared makeup, and blank expression.
The whole feed is a screaming example of an extremely immature woman AT BEST.
She’s not immature, she was shoved into child stardom and had her childhood taken from her. Her parents turned her into a money-making machine at a very young age, she bank-rolled them and they controlled her like a robot. She is a perfect example of the trauma inflicted on these young kid celebrities at an age when they should be at school, making friends and playing. No wonder she’s as psychologically disordered as she is. She’s probably suffering from a litany of mental health issues which have caused a state of emotional/ psychological “arrested development” which is hell to live with and almost impossible to treat.
She is mentally ill – not immature. There is a big difference. Obviously you don’t know anyone who suffers with psychosis.
She’s not immature and I don’t think she is acting… sadly I think she is psychologically impaired. Anyone remember the Diane Sawyer interview? It appears Britney dissociated over a trigger word. Very sad.
I remember that. She always seemed like a sweet person. I’m sad beyond words to think of everything that went into making her like this. Even if there is a biological component that was going to express itself like this anyway, there doesn’t seem to be anyone willing to act solely in her best interests when she needs it. She deserves better.
Jules – I recently watched that interview but don’t recall that moment. (I didn’t watch to the very end though). Can you tell me more specifically what happens?
If you google Britney Spears Diane Sawyer a reddit clip will come up that has it. Sawyer asks her a question, Britney starts to answer and one of her words seems to trigger her into dissociating. It looks like a break from reality. She looks off to the side and talks as if someone is there, giggles and then breaks down and cries. It’s very sad.
She seems to be stuck in 2002 with her style and maturity. Her IG videos make me sad. It’s hard to have an opinion when no one really knows what mental illness Britney struggles with. It seems she is happy being retired and hanging with her boyfriend and maybe that is best.
I think it’s clear she’s extremely unwell mentally and emotionally.
Read the 2008 Rolling Stone article. She wasn’t controlled like a robot; she was pretty much left to her devices once she got famous and her mother turned her attention to developing Jamie Lynn. Britney had no parental oversight when she needed it most, when she had all the money and opportunists around her – and all the drugs and alcohol money can buy. Consider the fact your brain doesn’t fully develop until 25, 30, and even later. She was flashing herself to the paps, crying on the street, and doing her nightly chase-me-paps drives. She even invited that pap bf of hers, before they were official, to a public toilet to do you know what. Eventually it had to get to her threatening self-harm and locking herself and the boys and refusing to pass them to K-Fed as per their custody agreement for someone to step in – and the dad came through for her. At this stage she had frittered away most of her tens of millions in earnings, including through being effectively scammed by Sam Lufti etc.
I think she does support her brother, mother, father, and sister but I think she would have been happy to do so. At least her sons are set for life whatever happens.
I don’t know why the father insists on total sealing; he must have a good reason and just doesn’t want the gossip out there.
And he’s continued to encourage her to work probably because she’s better with the structure in her day.
I think the father is a control freak but I do believe he acts in her best interests. The mother is not to be trusted in my opinion.
Keep in mind the input of psychologists/psychiatrists go into every guardianship hearing.
That has nothing to do with being immature and everything to do with being forced to take very heavy medications. That’s how he makes her look like she’s not able to take care of herself. I do think her father purposely has her medicated like that so she’s basically a zombie and he can control her easily.
You can’t just make her take meds on a whim; all of that is overseen by her doctors. If they suspect anything strange they’d probably make her take urine and blood tests – actually she probably already does these regularly. Her last known psychiatrist (Timothy Benson) was an acclaimed psych and consulted for the NBA and NFL. Unfortunately he died suddenly in 2019.
I think this situation is a reminder that electrochoc were for women ‘who acted out’ or had had enough and no longer listened (were not obedient enough to some). Men have seldomly been diagnosed and treated against their will…. Britney appears to be someone who is not able to defend herself against betrayal likely because she is too kind and also because she was ‘used’ and betrayed by her own parents early in life. This woman is supporting her dad financially since she is a kid…. as some point it out: Kanye even attempted to become president and Britney cannot even decide what she does on a daily basis, if this is not a gigantic and traumatic double standard… in everyone’s face… I find this disturbing that no one and no court can help her having a better life or at least, let her decide what a good life is for her.
She is clearly a poorly and vulnerable woman, her Instagram is saddening to say the least. What I cannot fathom is why there isn’t a single person surrounding her seeking to protect her and take a back step from the public eye. If she is poorly enough to warrant a conservatorship then professionals; whether that be legal, medical, or damn even family members should be pushing for her to heal and recover.
She obviously has not got people willing to put her first above the money.
That’s what I always come back to – why keep her working? She’s rich. Let her retire, go back to Louisiana or wherever else she desires, buy some secluded property and just let her retire in peace, live out her life in the manner she chooses, quietly. Record if she wants, on her own time. You know, a peaceful existence. She’s already done so much in her life.
Maybe it was assessed that working is good for her? You know, keep her busy. God knows trouble finds her and hangers on who want to exploit her, like that “friend” she had what was his name? Sam?
I wish she could find some therapeutic hobby, something that she really loves.
Just had a look at her instagram and it’s just heart breaking.
I’m not a mental health professional, but know someone who is and she says it smacks of someone who suffered a huge trauma. Add the psychosis and she feels something dark went down.
Yeah I agree that something bad happened to her which pushed her over the edge – mental health issues run in her family and she has always shown signs of issues (thou that could be because of how she was raised and her awful stage mother). Add on top of all that the drug abuse that went on for years before her breakdown – god knows what those around her were giving her. Long term drug abuse can affect the brain.
I have read that she is happy for the conservatorship over her finances to continue but wants it over her personal life to be removed plus she wants her father removed and someone who is not family appointed.
I will always root for Brit and hope she finds peace but I hope her sons don’t grow up to be grifters like their father.
That 2008 RS article is a very good read on what happened to Britney – totally a tragic teen star stereotype. She was given total freedom once she got famous (her mother went off to try turning Jamie Lynn into another Britney) and she had access to hard drugs, drinks, whatever while her brain was still maturing (research suggests 25 – 35+ years of age for brain maturity). She is most probably still very unwell. And I do believe her bfs are effectively hired guards/handlers to ensure she takes her meds and doesn’t go off the rails again.
Have you seen some of her music videos? They’re really dark. I would find it unnerving to even film stuff like that. I’d hope someone who is looking out for her would not encourage her to film disturbing themes and just dance with some background dancers instead of acting out dark scenes. It’s fine if someone mentally well wants to act such themes out. But this woman has been fragile for most of her career.
Even when the music is lyrically okay, I find so many music videos unsuitable for the age group that would appreciate music videos the most. I’m going to sound like an old cow, but music videos used to be fun to watch when I was a teenager. They didn’t make me want to seek therapy and a hug.
I really am starting to question why so much in pop has to be dark and edgy and show women in some creepy and sadistic situations. What happened to the fun?
I thought baby one more time was the most disturbing video. Her ‘packaging’ in that is what concerns me the most. If anything being over-sexualised at such a young age and being exposed to people who saw her as ‘that Britney’ would have done the most damage.
Both Spears parents are trash to varying degrees. Absolute trash. Who lets a 13/14 year old be sexualised in that way before she’s had the opportunity to understand the responsibility that comes with it? I still see comments on SM from grown men about that video and they’re pretty messed up.
@Guest and Mignionette- yes to all this. Britney was SO exploited and sexualized. Even worse, this was twisted by the music industry and called empowering and feminist. Now kids are fed a diet of violence and exploitation through all kinds of media, and told this is normal. Waking up from this is gonna be difficult.
She has taken a step back from the public eye. Aside from her messy instagram account, which I assume she initiates, what is she doing? She’s not working, not performing. And even before the pandemic, she wasn’t showing up on red carpets or pap strolling.
Ever since the Vegas show ended, she wonders around her mansion all day, occasionally painting terribly, “dancing” in her entry way, or burning down her gym.
She lives in a giant house with no responsibilities, no job, and plenty of money. No one is forcing her to do anything all day.
@Molly but that is the point the inactivity is due to the conservatorship. She feels she has no breathing space as an adult.
I don’t understand how a compromise can’t be reached. A conservatorship essentially states she lacks the capacity to make decisions on her own behalf i.e. an adult child. In applying childlike standards i.e. best interests of the child or in this case adult with child like capacity, how is appointing a past abuser in her best interest. It would surely add to her feelings of powerlessness which is often the key to recovering / staying in recovery where any mental illness is concerned.
A better compromise would be to find a non partisan court appointed official to help her transition away from her parents and encourage her to then be able to assume some sort of adult-hood in the future.
Didn’t she even want the court to have her father stop forcing her to go on stage? I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere.
Her dad needs to go, truly. If she needs to be under a conservatorship, she needs a neutral third party – somebody with no financial interest in her. Her dad might be well-intentioned, but there are so many little things that just don’t add up here: 1.) they claim she has dementia, but she’s been able to produce multiple albums, several tours, a TV stint and a Vegas residency. Does that sound like somebody with dementia? 2.) If she does has dementia, then is such a lifestyle good for her? Almost certainly not – but her family profits off of her, so they have an incentive to keep her working. 3.) If she does have dementia and has the legal/mental capacity of a child, how does she have a boyfriend? Does he not feel weird about having a relationship with a woman with such a diminished capacity? 4.) What is the father’s objection to placing a third party in charge?
It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It’s clear she is not happy with her father, and that his continued actions are doing harm to her. I hope the judge comes to a solution that protects her, first of all.
I agree; they should find a reputable third party and get Dad out of her affairs. She shouldn’t have to have him in her life, on her dime.
The boyfriend is chosen and paid for by her dad. He’s more of a companion.
Her father is disgusting. I didn’t know he claimed she had dementia. How come shes able to work and perform every night in Vegas but she’s not well enough to make decisions regarding her own life? Performing at that level requires a hell of a lot of mental and physical stamina, the type of conservatorship she’s under is designed for people under a vegetative state. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she’s being drugged and so they can keep controlling her. Her Instagram posts are erratic so her people clearly want to put that image of her out there.
She is bi-polar. VERY different than dementia.
No, she isn’t. I’m bipolar, so I recognize it. People with BP have periods or normalcy between episodes when oversight is not necessary. a conservatorship is for individuals who are long-term incapable of caring for themselves.
Also, please stop with the armchair diagnoses. The only reason I mentioned dementia is because it was stated in the court documents, so I’m quoting. Other than that, I do not try to diagnose her because that’s a crappy thing to do.
If it wasn’t for her father, she would have been dead from drug abuse ten years ago.
Which doesn’t mean that her father can’t be exploiting her now. It has been 12 years since her breakdown. My issue is not removing all restrictions – I think it’s pretty clear she could benefit from some oversight. My problem is with her father refusing to permit anybody, even neutral parties appointed by the court, to step in. Right now, he collects a salary for being the conservator, and his salary is paid out of Britney’s income – any first year law student can see the problem there. His income (and lifestyle) are dependent on Britney and her continued income. He has financial incentives to continue the current arrangement and to keep her working. That is a massive conflict of interest. The best conservator arrangement is to allow a neutral third party, who is paid by the court, not by Britney, to take over, because they can make decisions solely based on her well-being, since their pay is not tied to anything she does or doesn’t do.
He gets something like 140K a year and also a percentage of her LV residency pay, and apparently that’s modest for CA estates of her size/complexity.
I think last time he got sick she stopped taking her meds and dropped out of her LV contract. I think she’s far, far more fragile than any of us have been enlightened to. Yes, she can perform and sell albums but that’s all part of a machine she’s been used to working inside of since she was a teen. With a third party guardian, she might have more leniency that she should not have. Who knows? The court will review her request early next year and she can always keep requesting.
My guess is that her contracts are dependent on her father remaining as conservator, as that gives her management company and third parties more wiggle room to look away as they know her father will do what needs to be done to keep her on their version of ‘the straight and narrow’.
At this point she is just an object for her father. As Sam says above there is a huge conflict of interest.
Sam and Mignionette, which is why it’s good Bessemer Trust is now co-conservator of her estate! She has had a court-appointed lawyer since the very beginning (prob goes to mental capacity in choosing her own lawyer). Also the finances are reviewed by the court every year.
We don’t know what her thing with not being able to speak for herself in court is all about. She has always had her lawyer do all of that. But in that 2008 article, the journalist wrote about how she showed up to court for custody hearings and couldn’t bring herself to go in – twice! She’d sit in the car and no one could persuade her to go in! She had and might still have serious behavioural issues. Her own lawyer described her state as some kind of coma-like state when mentioning why she couldn’t testify for all of these conservatorship hearings.
The dementia thing comes from a certain medicolegal form name and doesn’t have to mean she has an elderly person type dementia – but it might point to some psychiatric diagnosis that comes with mentally degenerative pattern to it. It was proven that schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders, if untreated, treated too late or improperly, cause an actual neurodegenerative process in the brain, and these patients will never be well again, certainly not as functional as before the disease onset. Also, often the term “dementia” is used for stable neuropsychiatric dysfunction after brain injury, stroke etc. Whatever she has, a typical Alzheimer’s or vascular type dementia is extremely unlikely. I wish the dementia gossip would go away, because the way most people understand it is just muddling the picture.
@EarlGrey this is what I was thinking. Her condition around the time of her breakdown and the shaving off of her hair set off alarm bells. At the time the speculation was that she was attempting to avoid drug testing. I am not sure how true that was but it seemed like something was off, like an injury caused by drugs.
Britney’s case also has striking similarities to the case of the Adult ent star Hannah Hayes. Same horrible situation, she has some sort of executive function disorder as a result of an accident, so her family and manager effectively exploit and abuse her.
Dementia is a natural occurance in the brain that happens with age. She can’t have dementia. I think those are side effects from her medication. They could get her the best doctors that put her on proper medication. If you’ve seen her latest insta posts, those are placed on purpose by her father. She seems so off, most likely from the heavy meds.
@JUJU no, dementia is a disease. Age greatly increases the risk, but if your genetic lottery went bad, you might get early-onset Alzheimer’s in your 40s. But that’s not what we were talking about here – as I explained, there probably is some cognitive, neuropsychiatric dysfunction caused by an unknown (to us here) factor (like schizoaffective disorder that got treatment too late, or neurological injury from drug abuse). Blaming her behaviour on medications isn’t just wrong, it’s irresponsible. It’s extremely unlikely for meds to be the cause of her troubles. And blaming the meds publicly might be harmful to the mentally ill readers – I know folks with mental illnesses, often they’re looking for any excuse to stop the treatment that is the only thing keeping them functioning. Sometimes stuff someone blurts out on the internet might be the very trigger that leads to the ill person going off the rails. Just don’t. She didn’t burn down her gym because of her meds. She didn’t lose custody of her sons because of the meds. They didn’t turn her into the person we see on her IG these days either.
My son takes meds that make him look “dead behind the eyes”. He can’t help it as psychotic meds are some real powerful shit!
I think her dad is a POS, she’s basically a cash cow to him and her team. She clearly doesn’t trust him and that’s all that matters. It her money and her life, if she needs help managing these things then she has ever right to make these decisions for herself and decide who she can trust. I know she got her sister was appointed a trustee. Also Britneys Instagram is quite sad to see, she was once literally the biggest and hottest star in the world, and now she looks a shadow of her former self. I wonder what medication they make her take, and if they purposefully keep her in this state, just so they can control her and her cash. Good for her for refusing to perform.
” She clearly doesn’t trust him…”
It’s always interesting me that people discount all the thoughts and feelings of someone with mental health issues, but often their heightened somatic intuition is very telling. It may get jumbled up along with their often misfiring thought processes, but if you allow someone to tell their story, regardless of how lucid they are, they will have moments of clarity when you allow them to feel safe that it’s ok to tell THEIR story.
She’s acknowledged through her lawyers that her father stepping in was necessary. I think she really just wants more everyday freedoms. Even her dating has to be approved by Papa and she cannot get pregnant without his permission. One of her ex-household staff members sold his story to the press and claimed she was walking around naked and acting inappropriately around him. She is a very sick woman but she has the opportunity to show why her father should be replaced to the court.
But how do we know it isn’t her father leaking out all these stories.
Also sexually acting out is classically a sign of someone who has experienced past sexual trauma as a child, which is what leads to the ‘acting out’ in the first place, as they are somaticaly displaying the age at which they experienced the trauma.
Any sexual trauma would have come out in these endless guardianship hearings long ago. She was sexualised from a young age but I don’t think anyone abused her physically. The dad didn’t leak that household staff member story because it was the guy himself talking to the rags.
She may have trusted him 12 years ago when she thought this was temporary but she doesn’t now. Ultimately it’s her money and career and he has no problem rolling her out on stage every night, but she’s too sick to make basic decisions. I don’t argue Britney needs help, but her father doesn’t help her. Why is she not getting proper treatment? I wouldn’t be surprised if she did suffer from sexual trauma at a young age, that sort of thing is rife in the entertainment business. And if she did, again that leads back to her parents.
@mignionette- omg yes to this: Also sexually acting out is classically a sign of someone who has experienced past sexual trauma as a child, which is what leads to the ‘acting out’ in the first place, as they are somatically displaying the age at which they experienced the trauma.
This is not understood, not discussed enough, and this acting out is further exploited by people and either normalized, or picked up by the fake-woke who embrace it as feminism. Sick.
@OrangeBozoIsDone- sexual trauma is so stigmatized and shamed, that it more often stays hidden. Often the survivor does not even remember the details because it is so traumatic and dissociates as a coping mechanism.
If you read up on what kind of decisions her father can make..it’s terrifying. She basically has less rights and less power over her life than a 5-year old. I feel so sorry for her.
It’s very sad but people forget what she was like in 2008. She was self-harming and broke. But I don’t think the father’s perfect but has done his best for her. And the legal system’s not perfect either but she gets regular reviews of this guardianship.
I have no idea what’s best for Britney, but I’m rooting for her always.
Same.
Bessemer Trust, is co- conservator, which Britney supposedly wanted to have sole custody, maybe one day they will. Obviously she understands she needs a conservatorship in some way.
WTF. She is a grown woman. If Kanye can do his business without a conservatorship, then she can do it. If she can perform, she can do it. The crux is she WANTS to do it. How is she going to be healthy if people like that around her.
Her father is 100% grifter. I wouldn’t be surprised if alot of money exchanged hands to make sure he never stops being part of the conservatorship. He loves her money so much.
Britney is deeply unwell psychologically and possibly physically and clearly needs the intervention of the court and the protection of Some kind of conservatorship in order to maintain her wellbeing. The court would not extend a conservator ship if she didn’t direly need one. Kanye doesn’t even have one and look at his state. You have to be deeply unwell for a court protection lasting this long. Her appearance, her behavior, her burning down her own gym, her perpetual lack of parent custody all speak to this. I feel very, deeply sorry for her and wish her peace out of the public eye.
I went to her instagram account and it looks normal. I looked up the gym burning incident. it was an accident with leaving candles burning. I think she did an instagram live explaining it.
I don’t doubt that she is struggling with mental issues, but I have a problem with someone having conservatorship over both her financial and private life decisions. It rubs me so wrong. She can’t do anything without her father’s permission.
She asked for her private conservatorship to be removed not her financial one. And she’s not fighting the parent custody which at this late in the game I find pretty mentally stable to understand that it works right now and to make it easy for her kids. She sees her kids. It’s not like she’s a deadbeat mom. I mean plenty of divorced parents don’t see their kids 24/7.
The problem is with her father having conservatorship over her financial and private life – how can she get herself competent trustworthy lawyers and friends she can trust that haven’t been paid for by her father or the co-conservator both who have strong interest in this?
@FLEUR
Closest childhood friend suffers greatly and it’s impossible to get her any care. Britney is ironically ‘lucky’ she has money because she probably needs constant care for the rest of her life. Our mental health system is non-existent and trying to keep someone from living on the streets and much worse is very hard to see and experience. Thank you for understanding the unbelievable struggles to which so many willingly ignore.
Hopefully many would agree that candles destroying property is not an affordable accident to have when it kills someone the next time. Imagine all the stuff we rightfully do not know because it isn’t our business. Sorry. Difficult subject.
I don’t want to judge Britney or her medical issues but do we really know what is going on with her? It made sense she needed it for a few years while her condition stabilized but she seems…okay enough to be on her own. I could see safeguards in place.
My nephew/baby brother (long story) has mental health issues as well and my brother has been tasked with making medical decisions for my nephew over his ex-wife when my brother is unable to. What I find odd is just how little communication there is between Britney and her father. My brother only has authority when my nephew is bad enough that he can’t make his own decisions and even then my brother tries to consult with him over what needs to happen. It just seems odd that someone is allowed to make these decisions unilaterally over her life. That doesn’t seem right to me. Can some explain the legality of this?
I suspect she absolutely needs conservatorship of her material wealth, but Christ, this poor woman. I literally cannot think of a more ethically precarious situation than the one she’s in. Refusing to perform and continue being a product is probably the only independence she’s going to get, so kudos to her for exercising what little autonomy she has. I hope she finds some measure of peace in her life at some point.
I remember reading an interview of Paulina’s and she said she turned down an 8-figure contract renewal with Estee Lauder because she didn’t want to earn more than her husband!!! Even back then I thought it was ridiculous for the time. Stunning woman with incredible bone structure and hope she’s okay.
Ric Ocasek was a miserly, petty, deadbeat husband & father so it’s no great leap to see that he would have been threatened by any success his wife had.
Given how even after they had split-up, she moved back in with him & cared for him whilst he way dying so I can TOTALLY see her turning that lucrative contract down back in the day.
Her case is a great example of why HIPAA is in existence.
I feel truly sorry for her.
She worked and toured from a very young age, seems to have been taken advantage of, even by close family members, she does seem to have serious mental health problems, which she needs to have proper medical care for.
If she does not want to be a performer any longer, why force her?
With the huge wealth that she has, why not schedule her days like a job?
Gym 3x a week, therapy 2x, Spa days, Yoga class, art class, anything she has an interest in to keep her with a sense of a work day. Certainly she should be allowed to have the choice to spend more time with her children, heck hire a professional Nanny/driver, she could go golfing w/her boys, lunch, walk the dog, something close to a “typical” day.
Honestly, can her Father not find decent professionals to assist her in having a bit of a life?
Gardening, painting, going to museums, etc.
Heck, I know several elderly folks who are financially well off, and they have “staff” who can really improve their quality of life just by giving them some interests or hobbies they can take part in.
Simply the fact that she has a mental health issues does not mean the only choices are forcing her to perform (like an elephant in the circus, he does not want too either) or keeping her under lock and key.
Her Mom & Dad seem to have zero contact or concern except who is controlling the money.
Heck, give her some “walking around cash” like a typical working person.
Who is this lawyer she has speaking for her? That comment “like a coma” dammit, people with disabilities and health/mental health issues deserve to be spoken to and referred to with dignity, politeness, and manners equal to others. Get a better lawyer!
Also interesting to note Britney has a court-appointed lawyer, Samuel Ingham. I’m guessing this is to ensure she has representation who’s not appointed by her guardians/father and representation she hasn’t chosen herself (risk of conflict of interest as she seems incapable of resisting scammers and con-people).
And in other news, that Mary Wollstonecraft statue is a travesty. It isn’t even of her. It is dedicated to her, which wasn’t what was supposed to happen. It was supposed to be of her – period. The artist, a woman, is a joke. When you have to explain what something is of this sort of work then you have failed – and this artist failed in spades. They need to melt this thing down and start over.
I recently took a look at Britney’s IG and for months now she’s been posting the same photo with the same clothes on. Why? Is there a clue we’re supposed to be seeing, is she missing, or is it a sign she’s mentally unwell?
Sometimes I don’t understand some of the extreme comments about her work. I saw her perform in late 2018. She was amazing. Her dancing was razor sharp. She outperformed all her professional backup dancers. Your eye naturally went to her because her movements are unique to her—how she performs them—and she has star quality. I thought she had a longterm knee injury and didn’t expect her to be at the level she was.
To perform like that you cannot be on zombifying drugs. Impossible. They must have balanced her medications at that time to a degree that allowed her full speed and coordination. At that point she appeared happy, completely lucid (it was the last stop of the tour and they were celebrating) and to be doing what she loved. You can’t fake joy.
I know she has serious mental health issues to cope with. Even having psychotic breaks doesn’t mean you can’t work, enjoy work, and participate in society. Read Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind if you want more insight.
I’m not saying she hasn’t had some extreme variations in her state of being or in coherence or connection to reality. It’s the definition of some disorders—they come and go. It’s cyclical and complex to address with medication and therapy. But her bad moments do not invalidate her successes or make her pathetic. I think she’s valiant. She’s said she loves performing. It supplies a structure and purpose. Her decision not to perform or record anymore while her father is in charge of her conservatorship is an effective plan of protest that may well influence things in the long run.
I’d rather we supported her than thought of her as pathetic and sad. She’s living the extraordinary hand she’s been dealt and as difficult as her life has been there’s much to admire and appreciate.