Christina Aguilera, Kevin Federline back Britney Spears: ‘She deserves ... freedom’
Two prominent figures from Britney Spears’ past have added their voices to the growing chorus of support for the pop musician following last week’s bombshell court hearing.
Spears’ ex-husband Kevin Federline and fellow “Mickey Mouse Club” alum Christina Aguilera both spoke out on behalf of the “Toxic” artist Monday.
Their statements come nearly a week after Spears delivered an emotional plea to a Los Angeles court requesting termination of her controversial conservatorship, which has restricted the Grammy winner’s autonomy over the last 13 years.
“What is best for her, Kevin supports her in being able to do that,” Federline’s attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, told “Entertainment Tonight.”
“It doesn’t matter how positive of an effect a conservatorship has had if it’s having a deleterious effect and detrimental effect on her state of mind.”
Addressing the court for the first time in two years, pop star Britney Spears was candid and emotional at her conservatorship hearing Wednesday.
Spears shares two children — Sean, 15, and Jayden, 14 — with Federline, the backup dancer-turned-DJ to whom she was married from 2004 to 2007. During her recent court appearance, Spears accused her conservators of limiting her access to her kids and preventing her from having more children by forcing her to use an intrauterine contraceptive device.
Federline believes Spears should have “the best environment for her to live in and for his children to visit with their mother in,” his lawyer said, and “feels that the best thing for his children is for their mother to be happy and healthy.”
In a lengthy Twitter thread, Aguilera also defended Spears, whom she met in the early 1990s while shooting “The All-New Mickey Mouse Club” variety series alongside fellow Mouseketeers Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake and more.
Experts in probate law say the singer’s account is well within the realm of how conservatorship works. “You’re taking away a person’s right to make any decisions over themselves,” one said.
“These past few days I’ve been thinking about Britney and everything she is going through,” the “Reflection” singer tweeted, along with a throwback photo of her and Spears as kids.
“It is unacceptable that any woman, or human, wanting to be in control of their own destiny might not be allowed to live life as they wish.”
While addressing a judge Wednesday, Spears laid out the conditions of her conservatorship in graphic detail, calling them “abusive” and accusing her conservators of forcing her to work nonstop, among other allegations.
‘And I’ll support her long after,’ actor Jamie Lynn Spears wrote in response to her sister Britney Spears’ remarks on her conservatorship.
“To be silenced, ignored, bullied or denied support by those ‘close’ to you is the most depleting, devastating and demeaning thing imaginable,” Aguilera added. “The harmful mental and emotional damage this can take on a human spirit is nothing to be taken lightly.
“Every woman must have the right to her own body, her own reproductive system, her own privacy, her own space, her own healing and her own happiness.”
After appearing on the star-making revival of “The Mickey Mouse Club” together as children, Aguilera and Spears went on to launch parallel careers in music, dominating the early 2000s pop scene and navigating a media circus that often pitted the women against each other.
Halsey spoke for many when she tweeted, “I hope with my whole heart she is awarded freedom from this abusive system.”
“While I am not behind the closed doors of this very layered & personal yet public conversation — all I can do is share from my heart on what I’ve heard, read and seen in the media,” Aguilera wrote on Twitter.
“The conviction and desperation of this plea for freedom leads me to believe that this person I once knew has been living without compassion or decency from those in control.”
Aguilera and Federline are among several celebrities who have publicly backed Spears in recent weeks. Others who have rallied behind the “...Baby One More Time” hitmaker in the wake of Wednesday’s watershed court hearing include Timberlake, Mariah Carey, Cher, Brandy and Spears’ younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears.
“To a woman who has worked under conditions and pressure unimaginable to most, I promise you she deserves all of the freedom possible to live her happiest life,” Aguilera concluded her social media statement. “My heart goes out to Britney. She deserves all the TRUE love and support in the world.”
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