After eight years, a previously censored clip of Britney Spears discussing her conservatorship has been released.
In 2016, Britney sat down for an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show to promote her ninth studio album, Glory. At the time, the pop star was under a strict conservatorship that allowed her father, Jamie Spears, and lawyers to control every aspect of her professional and personal life.
The clip was removed from the original interview but aired over the weekend in the UK as part of a “best bits” compilation episode titled The Jonathan Ross Show: Special Guests.
Britney Spears discussed her conservatorship during a previously censored clip from a 2016 interview on The Jonathan Ross Show
Image credits: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
In the video, host Jonathan Ross asks Britney, “You are more involved in this musically, I understand, than previous works, so you’ve taken control. You’re more in control of your music than before?”
“Yes,” the singer replies, to which the host inquires, “Why did it take you so long? Why did you wait until now to do it?”
“Well, uhm, there’s a lot of reasons. But I won’t get into the whole story,” she responds.
After the host tells her that “we know a lot of the whole story,” Britney directly addresses the conservatorship she was under for eight years (though the singer said “three years,” the conservatorship began in 2008).
“It was, like, a thing since the conservatorship… I’m in a conservatorship,” she began.
“And I felt like a lot of the things were planned for me to do, and, you know, being told what to do, and I was like, ‘For this one, I want to make it my baby, and I want to do it myself.’ And I was very strategic about the way I did it, and that’s why it means so much to me.”
Jonathan then asks her if it’s safe to say she’s “in a good place,” to which she responds, “Yes, sir.”
“I hope you know this, but you have millions of fans around the world,” the host continues. “I know you know that, but I hope you know that they feel love for you, they feel protective of you, they want to see you thrive. Do you draw strength from that? Does that thought help you, or is it sometimes too much?”
“No, it’s so genuine,” the Mississippi-born star replies. “Like, last night I performed, and the audience was… The ones in Vegas are so far back, and [last night] they were right there in front of [me], and it was so much more personal. And they weren’t drunk or high! It was so intimate, they were so present and so there with me, so it was really nice.”
Britney was asked about her ninth studio album, Glory, and the level of creative freedom she was allowed for the record
According to reports by The Sun, ITV held multiple internal meetings to decide what should be done with this part of the interview at the time. After “a lot of back and forth,” they decided to “play ball” and censor the mention of the conservatorship.
“Everyone was shocked – the conservatorship was always there but never spoken about. The fact Britney raised it on one of the biggest shows in the UK set off alarm bells,” an insider told the British outlet.
“A series of meetings quickly took place as to how to control the situation – the priority switched to keeping the comments off air.
“There was a lot of back and forth, but ultimately ITV played ball and removed all mention of the Conservatorship.”
On social media, fans of the Grammy winner reacted to the never-before-seen clip. “She’s really been through a lot. A legend, an icon, and a nature force,” one of them wrote.
“This breaks my heart. I KNEW once I heard Glory that it was HER album. There was so much passion in the songs; you can tell she was in control,” another commented.
“Feel bad for her. Sucks being in a situation of not being able to trust the people you should be able to trust the most,” a separate fan said.
“You know she was reprimanded hard after this interview,” a fourth social media user speculated.
Britney was freed from her long-running conservatorship in 2021. In her court testimony, the pop star—who began her career at age 11 as a member of The Mickey Mouse Club—asked that the legal arrangement that had been controlling her life since 2008 be terminated.
The pop star said “a lot of things were planned” for her during the conservatorship, which lasted from 2008 until 2021
Speaking to a Los Angeles judge, the Toxic singer testified that she was forced to have an IUD inserted to prevent her from having more children. Additionally, she claimed that she was forced to take lithium and had six nurses at her home who prevented her from going anywhere for a month.
“My dad and anyone involved in this conservatorship and my management who played a key role in punishing me, they should be in jail,” Britney stated.
“I would honestly like to see my family, to be totally honest with you. 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.”
This part of the interview, originally cut from the 2016 broadcast, recently aired as part of a compilation episode titled The Jonathan Ross Show: Special Guests
Image credits: Britney Online
Jamie Spears was appointed as his daughter’s conservator in February 2008, shortly after Britney was taken to a hospital by ambulance for involuntary psychiatric evaluations.
Court documents obtained by the New York Times show that the performer “vehemently opposed” the conservatorship and questioned her father’s fitness for the role. According to the legal documents, Britney believed the arrangement had become “an oppressive and controlling tool against her,” and she was “sick of being taken advantage of.”
Britney further discussed the consequences of the conservatorship in her memoir, The Woman In Me, released in October 2023. In the book, she said the legal arrangement “crushed [her] soul,” “stripped [her] of [her] womanhood,” and made her feel like “a shadow of [herself].”
“The conservatorship almost destroyed her,” one fan wrote
