Britney Spears has been a public figure for most of her life, and the pop star has dealt with a leave of fame that few of us can ever really understand. For years she lived under a conservatorship run by her father Jamie Spears, while fans campaigned for the courts to #FreeBritney. And in Spears’ new book, she admitted to learning about “free britney” in rehab. Although she still has complicated feelings about it.
Years before Britney Spears’ conservatorship was over, the “Hold It Against Me” singer’s hardcore fans were already posting #FreeBritney. It turns out that she reportedly saw the campaign for the first time while she was being kept in a rehab facility in Beverly Hills after clashing with her father. In her book The Woman in Me (via Rolling Stone), she spoke about how it felt to get support in a time where she was really struggling with the terms of the conservatorship, saying:
That was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen in my life. I don’t think people knew how much the #FreeBritney movement meant to me, especially in the beginning.
Talk about touching. While Britney has seen the downsides of fame in her years as a public figure (including her break-up with Sam Asghari), it looks like there was some upside. Namely because her loyal fans advocated for her, with the chatter eventually getting loud enough that seemingly the whole world paid attention.
The Princess of Pop has been standing in her power over the past year and change, with Spears calling out her loved ones who didn’t support her in the midst of the conservatorship. But while #FreeBritney came to her at a moment she needed it, The Woman in Me also reveals that she didn’t exactly love documentaries and other content coming out about her. As she wrote in the book:
Seeing the documentaries about me was rough. I understand that everyone’s heart was in the right place, but I was hurt that some old friend spoke to filmmakers without consulting me first… There was so much guessing about what I must have thought or felt.
Points were made. There is so much that the public isn’t aware of regarding what singer’s life under the conservatorship was like. And as such, The Britney Spears documentaries that came didn’t feel authentic for her. One has to assume that’s part of why she wrote The Woman in Me in the first place. She's been telling the truth about her experience over the last year, along with those video dancing in her house.
The Woman in Me will hit bookshelves on October 24th. Spears is reading part of the audiobook, which will no doubt make the upcoming memoir all the more personal to read/listen to.
