JUDGE: So I'm going to give
the appearance of counsel first.
CROWD: Free Britney now! Free Britney now!
JERYLL: Your Honor, Jeryll Cohen
of Freeman, Freeman, & Smiley,
appearing for‐‐for James P. Spears.
CROWD: Free Britney now! Free Britney now!
VIVIAN: Good afternoon, Your Honor.
Vivian Thoreen of Holland & Knight,
appearing on behalf of James P. Spears.
CROWD: Free Britney now! Free Britney now!
JAMIE: James P. Spears,
conservator for the estate of Britney Jean Spears.
CROWD: Free Britney now! PROTESTER: Shh, shh, shh.
She's calling in, I guess.
PROTESTER: Yeah. She's going to do it. This is it.
PROTESTER: This is it. ‐ I‐I was able to connect.
How about you?
JUDGE: Good afternoon, Ms. Spears.
I believe you are on the telephone?
PROTESTER: She's doing it. PROTESTER: I heard it.
PROTESTER: What's happening here?
PROTESTER: She's doing it.
BRITNEY: Hi, good afternoon. CROWD: Whoo!
PROTESTER: Yeah!
JUDGE: Did any of the counsel have
anything they wanted to say
before we hear from Ms. Spears?
SPEAKER: Your Honor, this is Ms. Wright.
I did want to ask that we please seal the transcript
and clear the courtroom
so we can preserve those medical rights.
I think it's really important then‐‐
BRITNEY: I think they've done a good job
at exploiting my life
in the way that they've done my life,
so I feel like it‐‐it should be an open court hearing,
and they should, um, listen
and, um, hear what I have to say.
[protesters cheering]
‐ Come on, Britney!
BRITNEY: I will be honest with you.
I haven't been back to court in a long time
because I don't think I was heard on any level
when I came to court the last time,
and that's why I'm telling you this again two years later,
after I've lied and told the whole world I'm okay
and I'm happy.
It's a lie.
I'm not happy. I can't sleep.
I'm so angry, it's insane, and I'm depressed.
I cry every day,
and the reason I'm telling you this
is because I don't think
how the State of California can have
all this written in the court documents
from the time I showed up and do absolutely nothing.
It's embarrassing
and demoralizing what I've been through,
and that's the main reason I've never said it openly.
I honestly didn't think anyone would believe me.
I just thought people would make fun of me or laugh at me
and say, "She's lying. She's got everything.
She's Britney Spears." I'm not lying.
I also would like to be able to share my story with the world
and what they did to me,
instead of it being a hush‐hush secret
to benefit all of them.
Ma'am, my dad and anyone involved
in this conservatorship and my management,
who played a huge role in punishing me
when I said, "No, ma'am," they should be in jail.
[crowd cheering]
[serene music]
♪ ♪
‐ [sighs]
Like, I know this is the right thing to do,
and I‐‐I obviously, you know, really want to do it,
but... it's‐‐it's still scary.
I don't know what's gonna happen after this comes out.
♪ ♪
TISH: I've never spoken about what we witnessed.
You know, we signed those NDAs,
and it has been hard to come forward
knowing there are people in her management
that could stop me from making a living,
but this is important.
This is a human life that's been tortured.
♪ ♪
DAN: I think I'm doing the right thing.
I had to muster the courage to speak out
because if not me, then who?
FELICIA: When I read what Britney spoke about
on her own in court,
I was extremely proud of her and the bravery
that it took to take up for herself.
Once Britney started telling her story,
I felt like there were going to be many people
and many memories that would need to be talked about
to put all the puzzle pieces together
and make the truth of the story come out.
REPORTER: Spears, the former "Mickey Mouse Club" star
who launched into the pop culture stratosphere
as a teen had a fall from grace in her mid‐20s
that's become synonymous with her success.
ANNOUNCER: From Kentwood, Louisiana,
here is 10‐year‐old Britney Spears!
REPORTER: Her new CD is titled "Oops!... I Did It Again,"
and she certainly has.
HOST: Britney Spears! HOST: Britney Spears!
‐ Everyone say hi to Britney.
‐ Hi! ‐ Hi, Britney!
REPORTER: She's been out almost every night
with her new party pals,
Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton.
REPORTER: She began the year
in style in Las Vegas, passing out at a club.
‐ Britney! Britney! ‐ Are you okay, Britney?
‐ My God. No, wait, I can't see, guys.
STAFF: Get off the car! ‐ Stop it! Stop it!
‐ I'm a person, just like you.
COMMENTER: Britney Spears, she's bald.
JAY LENO: Friends say this is the craziest thing Britney
has ever done that didn't involve marriage.
It's unbelievable.
DAVID LETTERMAN: Britney Spears had chapped head.
♪ ♪
[siren wailing]
REPORTER: Thursday, a police motorcade
accompanied the ambulance
taking Britney Spears to UCLA Hospital.
COMMENTER: Clearly she's been suffering some
from some mental issues,
anxiety, perhaps even more. COMMENTER: Yeah.
REPORTER: We hope the best for your daughter, sir!
REPORTER: Friday, Britney's father, Jamie, went to court,
and a Los Angeles judge gave him
and an advisor temporary conservator status.
‐ Y'all, please get out of my way.
[light music]
♪ ♪
‐ So the conservatorship was granted in February 2008
amid concerns around Britney's mental health
and potential substance use.
♪ ♪
Many of the court records are sealed,
so there's a lot that's unknown about the situation,
but people in the conservatorship
long maintained to the public
that it was a smooth‐running operation.
♪ ♪
COMMENTER: And as far as the conservatorship
is concerned, which has been in place,
her father in charge of her affairs, it seems to me,
given all the pressure she faces in her daily life
just being Britney Spears the star,
it seems like exactly the right thing, so she...
‐ Conservatorships are always supposed to be designed
around serving the best interest of the conservatee,
so it's a really interesting question.
What is the best interest of Britney?
[camera shutters snapping]
FAN: We love you, Britney! ‐ Stay off.
Hold on, hold on.
LIZ: When the conservatorship first started,
Jamie had the power to retain security around Britney 24/7.
‐ Watch out, guys. Watch out.
‐ Why do you have to‐‐ You look great, Britney.
‐ Edan Yemini runs Black Box Security,
which was Britney's longtime security company.
♪ ♪
I don't think security has gotten much scrutiny.
You may, like, see them in the background of a photo,
hovering around Britney,
but we didn't really understand what they did.
[soft investigative music]
♪ ♪
INTERVIEWER: Okay, so‐‐ ALEX: So I worked
with the security team for Britney for almost 9 years.
I started at Black Box being Edan's assistant.
I did everything from write his emails to
be on all phone conversations in order to take notes for him.
I was the only person at Black Box
that knew everything, really.
Edan was so relieved when he saw the first documentary.
He was so relieved that he wasn't mentioned,
Black Box wasn't mentioned, Tri Star wasn't mentioned.
It was his biggest fear
that security would somehow draw any attention.
INTERVIEWER: So let's start at the beginning.
‐ When I started working at Black Box in 2012, Britney
was the only full‐time client.
REPORTER: Come forward. Come forward.
REPORTER: Move forward, Britney. Go forward.
REPORTER: Just go forward, Britney.
ALEX: When I got the job, I was super excited.
I just turned 21 that year.
Um, it was‐‐it was‐‐honestly,
it felt like an opportunity of a lifetime
because there was potential.
[electronic music]
But I would see her very briefly.
A lot of the times, they would even ask me to leave
if we knew Britney was going to be home.
I didn't know even anything about the conservatorship.
I'd never heard of that, and everything that I would
know about the conservatorship would be from Edan.
♪ ♪
We were told the conservatorship
was there for her own good,
that it was there to protect her from influence,
from her losing money,
that it was a way for her to have custody of her kids.
The same thing was always repeated,
that this is something she wants.
I remember, I asked Edan,
"Why is it that security is with her 24/7?"
And he told me
that security was part of the conservatorship.
REPORTER: Britney Spears:
A California court has named her father her temporary...
REPORTER: Britney's dad, Jamie Spears,
just filed for conservatorship‐‐
REPORTER: Source tells Us Weekly Britney's dad
is now consulting with her medical team.
‐ For the most part, Britney's father, Jamie,
has been the face of the conservatorship
and has been the one getting most of the attention
and scrutiny, but we've learned
that there were a lot more people behind the scenes
who, you know, really had influence over Britney's life.
Her business management, basically accounting,
financials, was handled by a company
called Tri Star Sports & Entertainment,
which is run by a woman named Lou Taylor.
LOU: Well, we thought it was important to hear a voice
for Jamie and Lynne Spears. I mean, here you have Britney
that needs to have some security somewhere
that every single thing she does
and every single person she has a relationship with
doesn't become an opportunity to be exploited.
LIZ: And a Tri Star staffer named Robin Greenhill
was closely involved in the Britney account.
‐ Jamie, Edan, and Robin were basically a part
of every step Britney took.
There was a group chat with Edan,
Robin and Jamie, and security
where they would basically post all movement.
[reporters clamoring]
Even in the sacred place, her home,
every single request was monitored and recorded.
Her intimate relations were closely managed.
REPORTER: How you doing, Britney?
‐ You know, Britney could not have someone
in the privacy of her house
without those three people knowing.
Edan would say, "She's just like a child
"and like any other minor
who needs their parents' consent."
Around the same time is when one of the new agents
that was working her was asking me,
"How is it okay
that we're in charge of her medication?"
You know, I was like, "What do you mean?"
He's like, "Well, we were given prepackaged envelopes.
"We have to hand them to her, and she can't leave.
She has to take it there."
And, you know, every time that was brought up or discussed,
it was like, "This is what security should be doing
"because, you know, this is what the client is asking for,
and this is what the client needs."
INTERVIEWER: Was the client asking for it, or‐‐
‐ The client is Jamie.
You know, when I took a step back
and I looked at everything,
it really reminded me of somebody that was in prison,
and security was put in a position
to be the prison guards, essentially.
[baby crying]
NARRATOR: Each of us begins life
needing the care of others.
Later in our lives, many of us need help
to live the best life possible.
In California, if people are found by a judge
to be unable to care for themselves or their finances,
the court may appoint another person to take responsibility.
This arrangement is called a conservatorship.
LIZ: Conservatorships are not meant
for just anyone with a mental health issue
or a substance use issue.
Otherwise, there would be tens of millions of Americans
under conservatorships.
They're supposed to be a last resort
because they really take a lot of powers away from someone.
The standard in California is that you are unable to feed,
clothe, or shelter yourself,
but Britney starts working almost immediately
after the conservatorship starts.
[gentle music]
REPORTER: A California court has now given her father
limited control over her troubled life.
‐ Here, "From the personal library of Ted Mosby."
That's you!
LIZ: She starts guest starring on TV.
She starts recording a new album.
She starts preparing to embark on this huge blockbuster tour
called the Circus Tour.
♪ ♪
‐ In 2008, I was recruited from Shakira's management team
to come into the Britney world to help right the ship.
This was Britney's first return to public life
after the very tumultuous period in 2007.
[percussive dance music]
The promotional tour for Circus
involved the Black Forest in Germany.
We did the Bambi Awards, the next day to Paris.
‐ Britney Spears!
DAN: That's where we shot Star Academy.
The next day, we moved to London to do X Factor.
‐ Wow, ladies and gentlemen, Britney Spears!
DAN: A couple days off,
flew to New York, Good Morning America.
DAN: Then LA...
‐ Britney, would you like to help the mayor?
DAN: Christmas tree lighting.
‐ Hi. ‐ Hi.
DAN: Uh, Ellen, which was a pretape.
‐ We're just, uh‐‐we're just kind of spreading cheer
around the neighborhood.
BRITNEY: ♪ Boy, don't try to front I, I know ♪
And on five, we'll just turn around and just pose.
Five, six, seven, pose.
♪ Womanizer ♪
DAN: Then about a week off, and we flew to Japan.
‐ Britney Spears [speaking Japanese]
Give her a big hand. Thank you very much!
‐ Thank you very much! ‐ [speaking Japanese]
DAN: It was intense. It was an intense schedule.
It had to have been approved by the court,
so apparently they felt
that she had the capacity to endure that.
[dramatic music]
LIZ: The Circus tour goes on to gross over $100 million
and is one of the biggest tours of 2009,
and the more money Britney brings in,
the more money everyone makes.
According to court records,
Tri Star, the business manager,
was getting 5 percent of Britney's gross income,
and Jamie is making $16,000 a month
plus a percent of Britney's multimillion‐dollar deals,
so if her father, Jamie, as conservator
enters into a deal for her,
is that because it's in Britney's best interest
or because everyone involved stands to make a cut?
‐ Like that. [cheers and applause]
FELICIA: It was a toxic environment.
It really was.
I mean, it made many people feel just yucky.
Yeah. It did. TISH: Yeah.
Well, and I don't think we've realized it,
almost, till now because it was always go‐go‐go.
FELICIA: Yeah. ‐ And so, now,
when you start talking about it,
and your heart starts fluttering, and you get heavy,
you think, "What is this? What is this feeling?"
‐ You will feel lighter after you talk about it,
after you get it out. TISH: Yeah.
I take care of Britney's wardrobe
for her and the concerts.
We're introducing a new number tonight, "Mannequin."
Britney has designed all of the clothes.
I have worked with six or seven other A‐class artists,
and she is always my favorite to work with.
She's the most polite human being,
you know, to work for, but to also be with.
Oh, this, she had a black‐‐ I made a black bodysuit.
FELICIA: Yeah. TISH: And then she wanted
some green military stuff
to add to it,
but then I was told to not let her see it, so...
[gentle music]
♪ ♪
‐ I really do not think that Jamie is the one
that was controlling everything.
Who I dealt with was Robin Greenhill.
[spacey electronic music]
When I first met Robin and she was around and backstage,
I thought she was Britney's assistant.
INTERVIEWER: And did she have a job title?
‐ I don't know. I‐‐I‐‐we‐‐
none of us ever knew Robin's job title.
It was a, "Well, she works for Tri Star,"
and then you go, "Why is she here?
"Why‐‐I mean, that's the business management.
"That's not your tour manager.
That's not your A party road scheduler."
You know, like, there's so many‐‐
and Robin was Robin.
‐ Right now, she's wanting to know when she's going
to start full run‐throughs because she wants
to chronologically go through these things
and get it under her and see what she needs to do.
‐ I had to have Robin's approval
before I spoke with Britney about a question Britney had.
INTERVIEWER: What kind of things would she do?
What would she control?
‐ She‐‐every, like, the little, little things.
Like Britney would say, "Hey, is there any way
we could have sushi for dinner?"
And I would hear Robin say, "You had sushi yesterday.
It's too expensive. You don't need it again."
Maybe there's a lot more behind that,
but I'm only seeing the outside,
but if she pushed back a little bit,
they pushed harder,
and then the yelling got louder.
Then Jamie would come up and say,
"No. You're not having this,"
and then it would escalate to not having the boys.
♪ ♪
‐ But, Jamie, you need to give us the days
that she has the kids and needs to be home.
JAMIE: I'll take care of the kids.
‐ Okay. ‐ And she'll just come in
wherever because I'm going to be the one
to go stay with the kids.
‐ Hey, Jamie. ‐ Can we go say hi to Mama?
‐ What's up, boys? ‐ No, Mama is working.
[dance music playing]
EMCEE: Put your hands in the air!
TISH: We were on the Circus tour.
We had a road case. She gets in the road case.
It has a nice chair, ventilation, some fans in it.
Then crew members push the road case to stage
so that the artist isn't walking through 40,000 people.
So as soon as we arrived at the stage, she is distressed.
She is upset. She's yelling. She's saying,
"It smells like pot! It smells like pot!
"I can't‐‐I can't breathe this! I cannot breathe this!
I'm going to fail a drug test! I won't see my boys!"
♪ ♪
And she bolted. I took off after her.
She was running trying to get back to her dressing room.
INTERVIEWER: Was she crying? ‐ Oh, she was very much crying.
She was crying. She was screaming,
and then I'm crying!
You know, like, I was crying in this moment as well.
I just‐‐I grabbed her and said, "We are not making it.
We have to go back under stage."
The level of how she was scared
really opened my eyes.
We get back under the stage,
and I am asked to leave the quick change,
and they go in there with her.
Whatever happens, she's crying,
and show goes on.
♪ ♪
To have that stress, and she pulls it off?
‐ ♪ There's only two types of people in the world ♪
♪ Ones that entertain and the ones that observe ♪
TISH: It just has to be too much at some point.
[applause]
‐ The roller‐coaster life of Britney Spears in 2008
can be summed up by two Rolling Stone
magazine covers. On February 21st, it was,
"Britney Spears: Inside an American Tragedy,"
and on the latest issue, "Yes She Can!
Britney Returns."
You have interviewed her several times in the past,
but this time a little bit different.
How so?
WRITER: The primary difference was just that it was
a very heavily managed process.
You know, it was largely to do with this conservatorship
that her father has had over her since early this year.
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, her dad now has
tremendous control over her.
You weren't allowed to ask specific questions.
[somber music]
ALEX: Britney wanted to get an iPhone.
She saw her assistants have iPhones,
dancers team, Edan even, and she wanted an iPhone,
and that was a big deal.
Everybody was worried,
and then Edan approached me and asked me,
"Is there any monitoring services for an iPhone
that you are aware of?"
And I'm like, "What do you mean?"
He's like, "Well, parental controls.
"You know, is there any way
to put parental controls on an iPhone?"
And that's when Edan explained to me
that Britney's communication is monitored
for her own, you know, security and protection.
I asked Edan about the legality of that, actually.
"Are you allowed to do that?"
And he said, "Yes. The court is aware of this.
Britney's lawyer is aware of this.
This is for her safety. It's for her protection."
And then Robin came up with the idea of,
"Why don't we just take an iPad,
"sign in with an iCloud on there,
"the same iCloud that Britney would use on her phone,
"and that would mirror all activity?
"You would be able to see all messages,
"all FaceTime calls, Notes,
browser history, photographs."
Edan would bring me text messages of conversations
that Britney would have,
and he would ask me to encrypt those messages
and give it to him so he could pass it on to Robin and Jamie.
[uneasy music]
As time went on, they became very comfortable with me.
Um, they‐‐they openly talked about monitoring her.
Their‐‐their reason for the monitoring was,
you know, looking for bad influence,
looking for potential,
you know, illegal activity that might happen,
but they would also monitor conversations with her friends,
with her mom, with her lawyer, Sam Ingham.
If there's anybody that should be off‐limits,
it should be Britney's lawyer,
and, you know, I still felt that,
"I'm not understanding something,
so just do your job, and maybe one day you'll understand."
[soft music]
♪ ♪
‐ Some days she would have a phone,
and other days she would not have a phone,
uh, and it would be a fight between her and her dad
that I would hear outside the dressing room
and inside the dressing room.
"I want my phone back. I need‐‐
can I have my phone back?"
And he'd say, "No, you got it taken away."
JAMIE: Give me that phone.
I'll hold that damn phone for you.
BRITNEY: No, Daddy! ‐ [sighs]
‐ Her phone, her own phone
and her own private conversations
were used so often to control her.
I know for a fact that Jamie would confront Britney and say,
"Hey, why did you text this person?"
Just because you're in control doesn't give you the right
to treat people like property. It didn't feel
like she was being treated like a human being.
BRITNEY: If I wasn't under the restraints that I'm under
right now with all the lawyers and doctors
and people analyzing me every day,
like, if that wasn't there,
I'd feel so liberated and feel like myself.
[desolate music]
♪ ♪
I'm angry.
INTERVIEWER: You're angry?
‐ I'm very angry.
INTERVIEWER: You don't seem very angry.
‐ I'm horribly angry.
INTERVIEWER: Horribly angry?
CREW MEMBER: As she smiles saying it.
INTERVIEWER: As you have a huge grin on your face.
‐ No, I'm smiling right now
because I think it's funny that y'all are laughing.
♪ ♪
When I tell them the way I feel, it's like they hear me,
but they're really not listening.
They're hearing what they want to hear.
They're not really listening to what I'm telling them.
It's, like, it's bad.
♪ ♪
‐ The first rule of the conservatorship was,
you don't talk about the conservatorship.
It was just a hard and fast rule
that we don't talk about it.
We don't ask questions. We don't voice opinions
about it internally or outside of the organization.
She was kept very, very isolated.
Her manager, when I first came on, said,
"Be careful, don't get too close.
People have a way of disappearing."
At the time, I assumed that the concern is
that someone would come in
and bring her drugs or other contraband,
but I think if you were actually concerned
with someone's mental health,
you don't take their friends away from them,
and if their friends are going away,
you at least give them a chance to say goodbye.
‐ Hi, my name is Felicia,
and I'm Britney's personal assistant,
and my main role in this whole big production
is, I keep her safe, comfortable and happy.
[pizzicato music]
I went into my job with Britney in my 30s.
I knew who I was. I knew what I was about,
and I didn't want to do anything more than assist her,
and it was the Circus tour that I came back for,
and I went back into my regular mode of assistant.
Then it slowly became
where I wasn't allowed to be by her side
and wasn't allowed to have a conversation
without having other people present, which was very odd.
On one leg of the Circus tour, Britney's dad calls,
and he said, "Hey, Fefe,
you need to come to a urgent meeting."
The meeting was to tell me
that I was not to go on the European tour.
"Britney said she doesn't want you there.
She said she never wanted you on this tour."
Like, "Okay," and he said, "She said if she ever sees you,
she won't go on stage."
And I said, "You know what? I'm going on tour.
My rooms are booked. I just won't see her."
And he's like, "Well, you make sure of that."
Maybe she was mad at me,
but I knew I needed to be there.
If nothing else, I needed to be there
so she'd know I was there and that I believed in her,
and that the concerts were amazing,
and that what she was doing was amazing,
so at the last show,
the very last show of that European run,
as I go to leave the office,
she comes in with security in the far door,
and it's almost like the very air
was sucked out of the hall
because everybody knew I wasn't supposed to be there.
And so the door opened. I turned around.
I made eye contact with her. She took a full running leap
and ran all the way down the hall and leapt onto me,
and she went, "Fe!"
and wrapped her little legs and her arms around,
"Where have you been?"
And it was at that point that I thought,
"No, wait a minute.
Were they trying to turn the two of us against each other?"
♪ ♪
I don't know what parameters they were working
under or with, but I certainly realized now
that I being part of the support system
was not welcome,
and I feel like at some point,
the reason that I was moved away
from being part of the support system is that I simply said,
"If I see something with my eyes, I will tell it,"
and if I had seen something or if Brit had said
or reached out in any way and said, "Fe, I'm scared,"
like she has vocally said since,
I wouldn't have allowed that.
So the further they could push me back,
the smaller the support system got.
I will never forget one of the statements
that Robin made to me.
She goes, "Well, you just don't know who she is anymore."
Maybe I didn't know the person
that they were trying to make her be,
but I knew the person that she was,
and I knew the heart.
Your heart stays the same no matter what.
So my heart and her heart are very old friends.
REPORTER: It was an all‐ Britney Spears bonanza
on Glee.
‐ ♪ Hey Britney We can dance all night long ♪
‐ You're really hot. ‐ You're sweet.
‐ And your breath smells really good.
‐ So does yours.
And you know why? Because this is a fantasy.
‐ Wow.
REPORTER: And get this: we learned today
that Britney's appearance on the show
brought in the highest ratings ever for Glee.
LIZ: Britney is working a lot during the conservatorship.
‐ Simon, she has more talent in her pinkie
than you do in your‐‐ all of your contestants.
REPORTER: Spears still making 58 million a year.
REPORTER: 58 million? What? How?
REPORTER: Over 100 million in album sales worldwide,
the highest‐selling line of celebrity fragrances
on the market, including a new one
called Fantasy Twist.
‐ ♪ Yeah ♪
REPORTER: Pop superstar is in talks
to headline her own Las Vegas show.
REPORTER: They're raking in around $310,000 per show.
They deposit close to $1 million
in Brit's bank account every week.
‐ Britney makes a lot of money under the conservatorship.
[crowd cheering]
She has the Vegas residency
which is one of the most successful shows of all time.
REPORTER: Britney Spears is the queen of Sin City.
The pop star currently a headliner
at Planet Hollywood‐‐ LIZ: Also around that time,
Jamie is approved to receive 1.5 percent of revenues
tied to performances and merchandise
from Britney's blockbuster Vegas show.
REPORTER: Planet Hollywood not only gave her a raise
but increased the number of shows
she'll be performing from 96 to 140.
[delicate music]
‐ The understanding was that Britney had an allowance.
She saw a pair of shoes walking through the mall,
coming into the gig,
and she spotted them and was like,
"Hey, can, um, somebody go get them for me?"
And, of course, my ears perk up when you hear, "Shoes."
I'm thinking, "Oh, this might be me,"
and I said, "Well, I'll go grab them for her.
Just tell me which ones they were," and they said,
"No, she doesn't have any money to be spending on Skechers."
INTERVIEWER: Wait, she wanted Skechers?
‐ And she wanted some Skechers.
There was a Skechers, a Skechers store.
She spotted them, and they were cute.
And I told Britney, "Hey, I'm‐‐
"I'm putting these through wardrobe expense, and we'll‐‐
"we'll say that they didn't work for stage.
Take them home."
And, um, that's what we did.
♪ ♪
[warbling electronic music]
LIZ: In 2014, there's a closed‐door court hearing
in Britney's conservatorship case with the judge
and the lawyers involved, and we obtained a transcript
of what actually was said behind closed doors.
A quirk of the conservatorship system is that Britney
is paying not only for her own lawyer,
she's paying for her conservator's lawyers.
Britney, for the entire 13 years
of the conservatorship,
had a court‐appointed lawyer,
who she didn't choose, named Sam Ingham.
♪ ♪
[reading quote]
The judge says...
Britney's lawyer says...
The judge said that she would consider
ending the conservatorship
if Britney established a healthy relationship
with a therapist
and returned 1 year's worth of clean drug tests,
but the judge would not guarantee it.
Britney's lawyer also raised the possibility of Britney
removing Jamie as her conservator.
Jamie Spears had serious alcohol issues
when Britney was growing up,
and he even enters rehab a few years
before becoming her conservator.
In this court transcript in 2014,
Britney's lawyer says
that Britney thinks he's still drinking.
Lawyers representing the conservatorship responded
that Jamie had been taking
regularly scheduled alcohol tests,
but Britney wanted a random test.
The judge replied...
Britney's lawyer told the court that she anticipates
that, as it has been done before,
the court will simply sweep it under the carpet
and ignore any negative inferences
with regard to Jamie,
and then there's sort of an aside from the judge,
where she says,
"One more question, related and sort of related:
how are her sales in Las Vegas?"
♪ ♪
[soft music]
♪ ♪
ANNOUNCER: Britney offers a special VIP meet and greet
for $2,500 after‐‐
TISH: We would have meet and greets.
Meet and greets can be very difficult.
They just are.
She might be really upset at the moment
or just got her phone taken away,
and then she needs to go to a meet and greet
and be super happy and joyful
because these are people that love and adore her,
and she loves and adores them.
REPORTER: The news today is, it'll cost you 2,500 big ones
for a meet and greet in Vegas with Brit.
It comes complete with front‐row seats
and backstage access‐‐ ‐ I witnessed management
telling her if she did not do the meet and greets,
that it would be a huge loss of money.
"Will you agree to 20 people?" "Yes."
"Okay, we're gonna do 20 people."
20 people turns into 30 people.
20 people turns into 40 sometimes.
♪ ♪
Whenever she'd bring up something
that was disturbing her, she'd always be dismissed,
always be dismissed like, "Why are you even asking?
"Because you don't even have control over your life.
"So you don't need to ask these questions
because it's none of your business."
So she gave in. She had to.
There's no, like, "Well, why didn't she just tell them no?"
There isn't a no.
♪ ♪
Here's a note that Britney wrote me, and I kept.
She gave it to me in her dressing room.
Um, "Just a little message to let you know
"I appreciate all your kind words
"and patience with me behind the stage.
"You truly are an angel,
"and just knowing in the back of my mind
"that there are genuine people like you in this cruel world,
"it helps me to sleep better at night.
Sending my love."
So that's pretty‐‐ pretty deep for me
and knowing that she wrote it for me.
There were definitely times that I felt trapped there,
because I‐‐I'm damned if I do, and I'm damned if I don't.
Like, she's‐‐
She's going to be
the person that this affects,
that it's going to hurt her more
if I'm not there, and there's so‐‐
there's so many of us that were in the background
that did see the truth.
This isn't‐‐ this isn't a he said,
she said, or what we might‐‐
these are things that we‐‐ we saw with our own eyes
and heard with our own ears.
Uh, it's hard on me to know
that I could be a person to help,
but maybe that's what I'm doing now.
‐ Iggy, when Britney was promoting "Pretty Girls,"
she said she came to your house for salad.
‐ Yeah, nothing is, you know, nothing weird.
ANDY COHEN: Nothing weird?
[soft music]
♪ ♪
‐ They came and, like, checked my place to make sure I, like,
wasn't trying to, like, stash anything weird
and, like, give it to her or something.
‐ Britney had advance people come scope out the place?
‐ Yeah, yeah. ANDY: Wow.
‐ Yeah, to make sure I wasn't, like, a bad influence or‐‐
‐ Wow! ‐ I was like,
"I promise I'm not gonna do anything bad."
ANDY: Right. ‐ "I just want to have lunch."
ANDY: Right, right. IGGY: Uh, yeah.
ALEX: Working in Black Box, I saw so much.
I'm not a law expert, so I can't speak to legality
of everything, but ethically, it was just one big mess.
Edan had a audio recording device
put into Britney's bedroom.
[electronic music]
♪ ♪
Edan and one of the agents working with him
came into my office
and handed me the audio recording device
and a USB drive and asked me to wipe it.
I had them tell me what was on it.
They seemed very nervous
and said that it was extremely sensitive,
that nobody can ever know about this,
and that's why I need to delete everything on it
so there's no record of it.
That raised so many red flags with me,
and I did not want to be complicit
in whatever they were involved in.
So I kept a copy because I don't want to delete evidence.
And I don't think it's a coincidence
that it was done days
before she was due to meet with a court investigator.
[uneasy music]
♪ ♪
‐ "Interview with the conservatee,
"Britney Jean Spears. On September 7th, 2016,
"an announced visit was made to Britney's residence,
"where she was interviewed in person
and in a private setting." So in September 2016...
[upbeat music]
Right after Britney releases her ninth studio album
and in the midst of her very successful Las Vegas show...
‐ How you doing, Vegas?
‐ A court investigator comes to Britney's house
to conduct a periodic review for the judge.
♪ ♪
The investigator wrote in her report...
"She said people are making a ton of money off of her,
"and she said she is smart and knows what is going on.
"The court investigator was told
"that Britney had an allowance,
"and that her credit card was held by her security team
"or assistant and used at their discretion.
"She said she cannot drive alone.
"She cannot befriend people, especially men,
unless they are approved by her father."
‐ There was an obsession with the men in Britney's life.
They would have to sign contracts.
They would have to sign NDAs.
‐ "Then they are followed by private investigators
to make sure their behaviors are acceptable to her father."
‐ I heard that your dad kind of set you up
with your current boyfriend. Is that true?
‐ No. It's not true.
‐ The reports of your dad doing a background check on David.
Is that not true?
‐ That is true. ‐ That is true?
‐ Yeah. ‐ That's crazy!
‐ Yeah! HOST: Does that embarrass you?
‐ My dad's a little crazy like that. He's‐‐
HOST: Does he‐‐does he own a gun?
‐ Um, he does own a gun. ‐ Okay, note to self there.
‐ "She said she feels her father is obsessed with her
"in the sense he wants to control everything about her.
"'Any mistakes resulted in very harsh consequences,'
"Britney said, and that the conservatorship
"'comes with a lot of fear.'
"Britney told the court investigator
"she is not happy being conserved,
"and she said she wants it terminated as soon as possible,
"and she wants direction from the court
on what she would need to do." The report concludes...
"It appears the conservators have done an excellent job
of protecting Britney,
and it is apparent they have made commendable efforts
"to help her reach the positive places in her life
"she has to this date.
"It appears effort should be made to provide Britney
a pathway to independence
and the eventual termination of the conservatorship.
"In the interim, it is important for all entities
"associated with the conservatorship to do
"all possible to prevent the conservatorship
from giving Britney feelings of subjugation."
‐ I heard that after the show‐‐
which‐‐I believe you're doing 96 shows?
‐ Yes. MARIO LOPEZ: After this run,
I should say. 96 shows in 2 years
is just amazing, a lot of work.
That obviously, you'd want to take a long break,
but you might even possibly retire.
Is that true?
[soft music]
♪ ♪
‐ I might. Who knows?
I may have two more kids and‐‐
‐ Really? BRITNEY: I don't know. Yeah.
I said, "How you feeling?" [crowd cheers]
[upbeat electronic music]
♪ ♪
TISH: We're in Las Vegas, doing the Piece of Me show,
and they were publicly saying,
"Come get your last tickets of the Piece of Me.
We're done. We're done. We're done."
‐ I think it was, like, 119 degrees today outside.
I literally almost fainted, dear God.
TISH: We were all exhausted. ‐ Thank you.
‐ You know, when you're running a marathon,
and you're getting to the end, you're ready to relax.
You're ready to take a break.
‐ Thank you.
TISH: The crew and everyone thought,
"Okay, we're done with this."
Then... they tossed
a 3‐week continuation of the Piece of Me on the road.
[cheers and applause]
‐ It's going to be really, really hot up here.
I'm warning you.
I'm about to pass out, and I'm sick.
So I have actually 102 fever right now.
♪ ♪
‐ And we were going to go to Europe.
♪ ♪
This is a large tour.
[somber music]
♪ ♪
After that, we had heard that there was bidding wars in Vegas
for a new residency for Britney.
So now the Piece of Me is finishing,
and she is going straight into promotions
for Domination already. There was no break.
BRITNEY: When I came off that tour,
a new show in Las Vegas was supposed to take place.
I started rehearsing early, but it was hard
because I'd been doing Vegas for 4 years,
and I needed a break in between.
But, no, I was told, "This is the timeline,
and this is how it's going to go."
Five, six, seven, eight.
I take everything I do very seriously.
There's tons of video with me at rehearsals.
I wasn't good. I was great.
♪ ♪
I was really, really hard on myself,
and it was too much. I couldn't take it anymore.
EMCEE: Ladies and gentlemen, the new queen of Vegas.
BRITNEY: I remember telling my assistant, "You know what?
"I feel weird if I say no.
"I feel like they're gonna come back
and be mean to me or punish me or something."
REPORTER: Britney canceled her
highly anticipated Vegas show, Domination.
REPORTER: Her show, Britney: Domination, was supposed
to begin February 13th at the Park Theater.
BRITNEY: Three days later, after I said no to Vegas,
my therapist sat me down in a room
and said he had a million phone calls
about how I was not cooperating under house rules
and I haven't been taking my medication.
All this was a false‐‐
He immediately, the next day, put me on lithium.
I got a phone call from my dad saying,
"They're planning to send you to a small home
"in Beverly Hills to do a small rehab program
that we're going to make up for you."
I cried on the phone for an hour,
and he loved every minute of it.
The control he had over someone as powerful as me,
as he loved the control to hurt his own daughter.
100,000%, he loved it.
I packed my bags and went to that place‐‐
‐ It was January of 2019.
Edan, you know, reached out to me
and asked if the iPad was still in the safe.
I said, "Of course, you know, where else would it be?"
I was out of town at that time,
and then I come back in February from my vacation,
and Britney is gone.
REPORTER: Britney Spears
checked into a mental health clinic
last week, according to to TMZ.
REPORTER: Their source saying Britney
just needed to focus on herself
as she cares for her father, Jamie,
after his life‐threatening colon rupture‐‐
‐ So it really seems as if this facility stay in 2019
is a really big turning point in the conservatorship
for almost everyone involved.
‐ She did not want to be there.
I heard this from multiple people,
including Robin and Jamie themselves
when they would talk on the phone to Edan.
I overheard multiple conversations
where they knew Britney didn't want to be there.
BRITNEY: I had no privacy door for my room.
They all lived in the house with me,
the nurses, the 24/7 security.
I never had a say in my schedule.
They always told me I had to do this.
And, ma'am, I will tell you, sitting in a chair
10 hours a day, 7 days a week, it ain't fun,
and especially when you can't walk out the front door.
LIZ: Under California conservatorship,
a conservator is not allowed to force a conservatee
into a mental health treatment facility against their will.
It's really murky who sent Britney to the facility,
why she was sent there.
There's a lot of finger‐pointing
going on among conservators
and different people involved, saying, you know,
"They sent her here." "No, they did,"
and, you know, they even claim that Britney, herself,
signed papers saying that she wanted to go in.
We obtained text messages that Britney had been sending
when she was in the facility in early spring 2019,
where she says, "I am here involuntarily.
I feel as if I cannot leave."
She texts a friend, "My lawyer doesn't even work for me.
Security is at the door 24/7."
‐ They were monitoring everything,
conversations with her friends, with her mom.
She reached out to an attorney asking if he can sneak in.
‐ And this new lawyer is saying,
"Okay, can I come meet you?" And Britney says,
"I don't think they're going to let you come in
"and meet me if they know that you're a lawyer.
I don't think they're gonna let me hire a new lawyer,"
and she suggests that this lawyer pretend to be a plumber
and, you know, hide the fact that they were a lawyer.
And Britney acknowledges in the text
that she's stuck in this catch‐22.
She says, "How am I supposed to know whether I want to hire you
if I'm not even able to meet with you first?"
And Jamie and security had monitored all of this.
It seems as if one of the rationales, perhaps,
for trying to have such close oversight of Britney
is trying to protect her from bad influence,
but that's not what I'm seeing in these text messages.
It seems as if she's trying to get help.
‐ They openly talked about everything that was going on,
and I still felt that I'm not understanding something,
that I don't know the full story,
that there's so much more to it,
um, and it was easy to detach yourself emotionally
from‐‐from everything that was going on.
And I think this is when I snapped back into reality.
‐ ♪ Got a clue what you're doing ♪
REPORTER: Fans of Britney Spears are worried
about her well‐being following bombshell claims
that she is being held against her will
in a mental health facility.
‐ What do we want? CROWD: Free Britney.
‐ When do we want it? CROWD: Now.
LIZ: So in spring 2019,
the Free Britney movement really starts to catch on.
‐ We're here not as fans of Britney Spears the pop star.
We're here to advocate, I mean, truly for human rights.
REPORTER: Social media is erupting
in Britney Spears hysteria,
launching a Free Britney movement.
‐ Hashtag‐‐ ‐ Free Britney.
CROWD: End conservatorship abuse.
PROTESTER: We think that, you know,
the conservatorship she's been under seems unjust.
‐ Do you believe Britney Spears is being held against her will?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
‐ Edan initially was very worried
about the Free Britney movement
because it was something out of their control.
It was something that was shaping on its own.
‐ She was out and about yesterday on Easter Sunday.
That is her with her boyfriend, Sam,
at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills.
REPORTER: Hi, Britney, how you feeling?
How you feeling, Britney? How's your dad doing?
ALEX: It was orchestrated
that she would come out of the hotel
to show the public that,
"You have nothing to worry about.
"Look, Britney is walking around.
She's with her boyfriend."
HOST: These photos are a big deal
because, obviously, here she is out and about.
Clearly, she's not a prisoner at this facility.
HOST: She's not.
REPORTER: Britney Spears back home with her family tonight
after checking out of a mental health facility.
‐ When she was released from the facility,
security was asked to prepare a iPhone for her
that would only be allowed to make phone calls,
no text messaging, no Internet access.
CROWD: Hey, hey, ho, ho.
The conservatorship has got to go.
ALEX: The Free Britney movement
was heavily investigated in its early days.
Undercover investigators were placed within the crowds
to talk to fans, to ID them, to document who they were.
It was all under the umbrella of,
"This is for Britney's protection."
REPORTER: Britney Spears' father Jamie
speaking out against the viral campaign,
"All these conspiracy theorists
"don't know anything.
"It's up to the court of California
to decide what's best for my daughter."
[crowd chanting]
♪ ♪
PROTESTER: End conservatorship.
CROWD: End conservatorship abuse.
‐ Free Britney!
LIZ: In a court filing, Britney's lawyer said,
"Britney herself is vehemently opposed to this effort
"by her father to keep her legal struggle
"hidden away in the closet as a family secret.
"In this case, it is not an exaggeration
to say that the whole world is watching."
PROTESTER: What do we want? CROWD: Free Britney!
PROTESTER: When do we want it? CROWD: Now!
‐ Hey, guys, it's Megan.
The judge has not made any decisions yet,
but we did want to give you a quick update‐‐
Britney has told Ingham on multiple occasions
that she's scared of her father and that she refuses to work
until he is no longer in control of her career.
♪ ♪
VIVIAN: Britney's assets were clearly being mismanaged,
and she was being taken advantage of financially
by some of those around her.
‐ How did Jamie turn Britney's finances around
so dramatically?
‐ He has collaborated with her. He‐‐
When she is up for performing, she has performed.
When she wants to record an album,
she can record an album,
and when she wants to live her life the way she wants,
like a normal person,
he has collaborated with her to do that, as well.
♪ ♪
‐ Britney knows that her daddy loves her,
and she knows that she can call on him anytime.
CROWD: Free Britney now!
Free Britney now!
REPORTER: She's calling in, I guess.
PROTESTER: Yeah?
JUDGE: Good afternoon, Ms. Spears.
I believe you're on the telephone.
BRITNEY: Hi, good afternoon.
[crowd cheering]
JUDGE: I'm happy to hear from you, Ms. Spears,
so feel free to address me at this point.
BRITNEY: I have this written down.
I have a lot to say, so bear with me.
‐ Oh, God. BRITNEY: Ma'am, I didn't know
I could petition the conservatorship
to end it. I'm sorry for my ignorance,
but I honestly didn't know that.
‐ It was the complete opposite of what, you know,
we've always been told working there.
It was that she didn't want to be in the conservatorship,
and that she felt like she was abused.
BRITNEY: I want to be able to get married
and have a baby.
I have a IUD inside of myself right now
so I don't get pregnant. I wanted to take the IUD out
so I could start trying to have another baby,
but this so‐called team won't let me go to the doctor
to take it out because they don't want me
to have children, any more children.
Um, so, basically, this conservatorship‐‐
ALEX: I heard Britney's testimony,
and I think that was the final indicator
that I wanted to come forward with what I know.
[tranquil electronic music]
I think these emails I saved, because of how scary they were,
and you don't get a lot of this in writing ever.
Edan forwarded me an email thread
in which Sam Ingham emailed Edan and the legal team.
And so the response to that is, "Sam, Jamie confirms...
And so when this email came across my desk,
I was‐‐I was very confused.
♪ ♪
I know that this is the right thing.
I know that this is what I should do,
but I don't know what's gonna happen after this comes out.
When I was leaving Black Box, my filter went away, you know?
I was very open about,
"I disagree how you run the business.
I disagree how you are ethically."
He's like, "Well, we should really talk about that."
He calls me into his office, and, you know,
he takes the gun in his holster with his clip out
and puts it on the table and starts with,
"So you don't like the way I run my business?"
I mean, it's not a threat, but it's a threat.
[soft music]
♪ ♪
CROWD: Let Britney choose!
Let Britney choose! Let Britney choose!
[crowd cheers]
PROTESTER: Are they getting updates?
What, what? What? What?
‐ She gets her own lawyer! She gets her own lawyer!
She's now free to choose
her own lawyer!
PROTESTER: Britney gets to choose her own lawyer!
[crowd cheers]
‐ Matthew Rosengart,
a high‐powered Hollywood attorney now representing her.
LIZ: It seems like a small victory,
but it was a really big victory
because for the entire 13 years of the conservatorship,
she had a court‐appointed lawyer who she didn't choose.
‐ One thing that everybody has lost sight of
in all of the controversy,
all of the litigation, and all of the drama is,
what is in the best interest of Britney Spears?
My firm and I are going to be taking a top‐to‐bottom look
at what's happened here over the past decade.
‐ Yes! Everyone did that!
LIZ: Britney's new lawyer
almost immediately files to remove Jamie.
‐ Since the cat is out of the bag,
literally out of the bag,
and you guys know my situation, I do want to let you guys know,
things are way better than what I ever anticipated.
[discordant music]
♪ ♪
HOST: There is an enormous development
in the Britney Spears conservatorship case.
Jamie Spears, we found out, has agreed to step down.
This is a monumental move.
‐ But that's not actually what the court filing said.
The court filing said, "Jamie has done nothing wrong.
"The public does not know Britney's addiction
"and mental health issues, and if they did,
they would praise Jamie for the job he has done."
It said, "He is willing to step down
when the time is right,"
and appeared to be setting some conditions for that.
REPORTER: Jamie says the finances
still need to be worked out, among other things.
REPORTER: Court documents reveal
that Spears is currently worth $60 million.
‐ I'm gonna be in Vegas for two more years!
REPORTER: That may sound like a lot at first,
but it's not when compared to others in the industry.
‐ The pop star and her new attorney
say her father is trying to get a $2‐million payout
before stepping down as her conservator.
REPORTER: Matthew Rosengart insisting
she will not be, quote...
REPORTER: The former federal prosecutor
also adding in a statement...
HOST: They're going to take his deposition,
and he's going to have to sit there,
and he's going to go through all of the things,
you know, involving the business manager
and salaries and things like that.
REPORTER: We begin tonight with breaking news.
After 13 years, the conservatorship
of singer Britney Spears may be about to end.
Jamie Spears, her father and conservator of her estate,
filed a petition to end the conservatorship.
‐ I feel like we're all like, "Whoa, there's new news
and a twist and turn every single day."
REPORTER: It is stunning.
All of the things he said in this document
that he filed with the court are very, very different,
in fact, opposite from what he had been saying all along.
REPORTER: So the big question: what's next?
REPORTER: Does this mean that she will
soon not have to do what her father says?
REPORTER: How could this kind of, like, go off the rails?
REPORTER: Only time will tell, right?
LIZ: A lot of big questions remain.
Will Jamie be removed?
Will the conservatorship be terminated entirely,
and will there ever be a full examination
of the last 13 years?
‐ That's the one thing that I don't know still to this day.
Is the court aware of any of this shit?
Like, how‐‐how they've been monitoring her?
Do they actually know about that?
Like, I'm super curious, and Edan telling me
that Sam Ingham knew that Jamie and Robin
were reading all her text messages, is that true?
And if they did know about this, how was that allowed?
‐ Britney's case has raised a lot of questions and scrutiny
on the conservatorship system at large.
It really makes you wonder. If all of this can happen
to one of the most famous people on this planet,
what does that mean for the many people
under conservatorships who are very vulnerable?
♪ ♪
BRITNEY: I'm not sure how you make your decisions, ma'am,
but this is the only chance for me
to talk to for you a while. I need your help,
so if you can just kind of let me know
where your head is.
I'm scared of people.
I don't trust people with what I've been through.
‐ I think the thing that stands out to me most from Brit
speaking out in court is that she was frightened.
That's the thing that I want to say bothers me the most
because these are people that are supposed to protect her.
How many times has she said this before,
and why has nothing changed?
I think she simply wants to be heard,
but, my goodness,
how many times does she have to say it?
How loud does she have to scream it?
BRITNEY: I wish I could stay with you on the phone forever
because when I get off the phone with you,
I hear all these nos, "No, no, no,"
and, then all of a sudden, I feel ganged up on,
and I feel bullied,
and I feel left out and alone,
and I'm tired of feeling alone.
And now, we can sit here all day and say,
"Oh, conservatorships are here to help people,"
but, ma'am, there's a thousand conservatorships
that are abusive as well.
FELICIA: You know, I don't have any way
of getting in touch with her at this point.
All the numbers that I have are now changed.
‐ I cannot call her up.
I know she memorizes numbers,
so as an end‐of‐tour gift,
I bought her a Tiffany's necklace
'cause I know that she likes Tiffany's,
and I had my number engraved on it in case she needed me.
INTERVIEWER: If you were talking to her right now,
what would you say to her?
‐ Well, yeah, if we actually got to see each other
and see Britney again is that, you have a lot of support,
a lot of good support behind you,
and we will be here for you.
INTERVIEWER: If you could talk to Britney,
what would you want to her to know?
Like, if she's watching this, what would you say?
‐ Okay.
And, Brit, first off, I would make you giggle,
and second off, I want you to remember
all the funny things and all the fun times.
I want you to remember how strong you are,
how talented you are, how silly you are,
how goofy you are,
and that that heart of yours is gigantic and that how‐‐
I mean, my goodness, I told you every day how much I loved you.
If I had one penny for every fan
that's just reached out to me
to send their love to you, boy, would I be a rich woman.
Hang in there. Your voice is coming back.
You are louder and prouder and more powerful
than I've seen you in a really long time,
and I love you,
and I will support you no matter what.
And I wasn't going to cry
because you know I don't like to cry.
It makes my nose big and red. I love you.
BRITNEY: I deserve to have a life.
I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does,
and that's all I wanted to say to you,
and thank you so much for letting me speak to you today.
Thank you.
[soft music]
♪ ♪