Jamie Lynn Spears has broken her silence surrounding her older sister Britney Spears’s conservatorship.
Posting to her Instagram story, the former Zoey 101 star doubled down on the behind-the-scenes support she’d given her sister over the years.
“I just want to take a second to address a few things,” Jamie Lynn began. “The only reason I haven’t before is because I felt like until my sister is able to speak for herself and say what she felt she needed to say publicly, that it wasn’t my place or it wasn’t the right thing to do. Now that she has very clearly spoken and said what she needed, I feel like I can follow her lead and say what I feel I need to say.”
She continued, saying she has “loved, adored and supported” Britney since the day she was born.
“I don’t care if she wants to run off to the rainforest and have a gazillion babies in the middle of nowhere or if she wants to come back and dominate the world the way she has so many times before,” she explained. “I have nothing to gain or lose either way. This situation does not affect me either way because I am only her sister who is only concerned about her happiness.
“I have made a very conscious choice to only participate in her life as her sister, as an aunt to [Britney’s sons]. Maybe I didn’t support the way the public may have liked me to with a hashtag on a public platform, but I can assure you I have supported my sister long before there was a hashtag and I’ll support her long after…note that.”
On 23 June, the “Womaniser” singer spoke directly to Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny about her long-running conservatorship, which has controlled her money and affairs since 2008.
It was the first time she had appeared in open court in the 13 years of the conservatorship, and at the hearing she called for her father to “be in jail”.
“My dad and anyone involved in this conservatorship, including my management … they should be in jail,” she said. “I’ve told the world I’m happy and OK.
“I lied. I am not happy, I can’t sleep. I’m so angry, it’s insane. And I’m depressed.”
She spoke about wanting to end her conservatorship without being medically evaluated, given the extent to which she has already been seen multiple times, for many years.
At one point she claimed she was forced to take lithium after she publicly announced that she was taking a break from live performances.
“It’s a strong drug. You can go mentally impaired if you stay on it longer than five months. I felt drunk, I couldn’t even have a conversation with my mom or dad about anything,” she said.
She also explained that her team allegedly did not want her to get pregnant with another child.
“I want to be able to get married and have a baby,” Spears said. “I have an IUD in my body right now that won’t let me have a baby and my conservators won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out.
“I feel ganged up on. I feel bullied and I feel left out and alone,” she told the court.
The conservatorship has the power to make Spears’ medical decisions and her business deals, The Associated Press previously reported. It can restrict her visitors, take out restraining orders in her name, and it has the power to approve her major life decisions, such as getting married.
Spears spoke out on the matter in the wake of a number of documentaries about the conservatorship, including Framing Britney Spears produced by The New York Times. She said that among other things, the agreement forced her to go on a tour when she didn’t want to, and to change her medications.
Spears became famous at a young age and was hounded by the paparazzi, tabloids and TV interviewers until she had a public breakdown, famously shaving her head in 2007.
Fans had maintained the #FreeBritney movement for years, until more recently documentary makers re-examined her circumstances and showed it in a more sympathetic light, fuelling greater public pressure for an end to the conservatorship arrangement.
