For those who hoped that the end of Britney Spears’ conservatory years would herald the beginning of a new chapter of happiness and stability for the singer, the past 18 months have been a challenging one.
Since November 2021, when the 13-year agreement to control her financial and personal affairs was lifted, she has been documenting her freedom in a barrage of highly emotional social media messages, many of them half-naked.
The often bizarre posts raised fears the 41-year-old was fragile, marred by years of being controlled by others and possibly still plagued by the mental health issues that originally led to the conservatory position.
Today, Britney finds herself in an extremely dangerous place.
They tell me she’s back on drugs – and some in her family say she’s now addicted to crystal meth, the highly addictive cocaine derivative made infamous on the hit series Breaking Bad.
Britney Spears’ family are concerned her drug use has returned. Britney is pictured with her father Jamie, brother Bryan and mother Lynne
Since her conservatory days ended in 2021, Britney has posted a series of highly emotional and quirky messages on social media, many of them half-naked
But after nine months of working with the entire Spears family – Britney’s parents, her brother, her ex-husband and their children – on a new documentary, I regret to say that the situation is more worrying than even we suspected.
“I’m afraid she’s on meth – I’ve been praying for someone to come out and wake her up,” Kevin Federline, her ex-husband and father of her two sons, told me. ‘It’s scary.’ She’s the mother of my boys.’
Her sons Preston, 17, and Jayden, 16, are refusing to meet their mother, claiming they saw drugs being delivered to her home.
Her family is scared and Britney’s father Jamie tells me he fears she will meet the same fate as English singer Amy Winehouse, who died at the tragic age of 27.
Having spent time with both families – Amy’s in the three years before her death and Britney’s last year – I can see disturbing parallels.
And as her ex-husband put it on numerous occasions, “Every time the phone rings, I fear there’s devastating news.”
“I don’t want the boys to wake up one morning and find their mother overdosed.”
After cutting herself off from her family after she left the conservatory and accusing Jamie – the initiator of the agreement – of being “abusive”, “harassing her” and even forcing her into birth control, she left them powerless to intervene.
Britney Spears at the 1999 Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles
Kevin Federline, Britney’s ex-husband, said: “I’m afraid she’s on meth – I’ve been praying that someone would make it public and that she would wake up” (pictured together in 2004)
I first met the Spears family in July last year when I began filming a TV news show featuring Britney’s family members with my producer Erbil Gunasti.
The idea was to look at both points of view – from the point of view of a singer recently released from the shackles of the conservatory, but also from the point of view of her two sons and those who had to raise them. Little by little, we were able to figure out how Britney and her family got to this cataclysmic point.
Various family members say they would like to get in touch with her, but claim that no longer dependent on her care, she now relies on an entourage of influential advisors – with those who were once closest to her unable to get through.
Last month, Britney announced that there had been a step towards reconciliation with her mother Lynne, who she said “showed up on my doorstep after three years,” adding on Instagram, “I love you so much! !!”
For the rest of her family, there was no such approach. No one was present at her wedding to 26-year-old American-Iranian model Sam Ashgari last year.
Britney’s sister Jamie Lynn is also estranged after writing in her memoir Things I Should’ve Said that Britney’s fame has left her struggling with a lack of self-esteem.
The book also detailed an incident in which she claimed Britney locked the couple in a bathroom with a knife in hand – claims the singer called “crazy lies”.
Britney would struggle to refute her drug abuse in the same way.
Britney’s sister Jamie Lynn is also estranged following her memoir Things I Should’ve Said (pictured together in 2003).
During a custody hearing in 2007, a California judge described her as a “habitual, frequent and continuous” user of alcohol and prescription drugs.
Kevin told me that once, when the boys were babies, he had his lawyers warn Britney not to breastfeed her while she was on drugs.
In August, I announced in the Mail on Sunday that the boys had decided not to see their mother until she found help. They kept their word.
They told me that they had had many traumatic experiences with her over the years.
And it didn’t get any better with age. For example, they claim that she tried to continue bathing them when they were 11 and 12 years old.
During a frightening stay at Britney’s house, they reportedly found her near the door of Jayden’s bedroom in the middle of the night – with a kitchen knife in hand. “She was standing there with a knife,” Jayden said to his father.
Bright, attractive, and well-mannered, Jayden and Preston have told me that they are not angry, just concerned for her well-being and desperate for her to get the help she thinks she needs. The response to our MoS article was dramatic. Britney took to social media and attacked her sons like a wounded animal. Jayden received vehement calls from her while he was at school and stopped answering her calls and texts.
Contact was not completely stopped. Preston called her on December 2 to wish her a happy birthday. He told us they had good conversations on the phone – but when she invited him to visit, he said he wasn’t ready and was focused on school and his future.
In August, I announced in the Mail on Sunday that the boys had decided not to see their mother until she found help. Britney is pictured with her sons Sean and Jayden in 2013
In a burst of parental instinct, Britney broke my heart when she told me, “I deserve respect, I’m her mother.”
In fact, it funds the boys’ education and more. Kevin Federline collects around US$40,000 (£32,000) in child support from Britney every month.
While caring for the boys involves significant expenses, he gets more than the US President – and it’s tax-free.
When Britney says she’s spent years funding the lifestyles of those around her, she’s right.
Kevin’s plan is to relocate the boys to Hawaii, far from their home in Los Angeles, which will only increase their suspicions.
In fact, there is a legal peculiarity in Hawaii. There, parents have to support their children during their studies until they are 23 years old. In all other states, the obligation to support ends at the age of 18.
Britney also points out that Kevin has little to do besides looking after the teenagers, and she seems right. She claims he also regularly uses marijuana — which (if true) is legal in California.
Today they live in Calabasas, a celebrity enclave in the Santa Monica Mountains with the likes of Kourtney Kardashian as neighbors — though celebrities like her live in a gated area. Britney, of course, pays the rent for the house, which has a basketball court and a pool.
Kevin and his partner Victoria have certainly given the boys a loving home and make time to drive them to school and other activities. But there are no flowers in the garden. The grass is unkempt. And with two dogs roaming free, you have to watch where you step. The boys may have pictures of their mother in their bedrooms, but there’s not much of Britney downstairs.
When I suggested that Jayden’s talent at the piano might be an inheritance from his superstar mother, Victoria disagreed.
‘NO!’ She said. “Britney used to yell at Jayden for practicing piano at her house. He made too much noise. “We were the ones who encouraged Jayden to practice.”
Those close to Britney were hoping to stage an “intervention” on Tuesday, February 7 – effectively kidnapping her and taking her to a safe place under medical supervision.
None of Britney’s family members were present at her wedding to 26-year-old American-Iranian model Sam Ashgari last year
There were reports that Britney had stopped taking her mood-stabilizing medications and that the substances she was taking instead “were driving her nuts” and causing her to be “upset.”
One of her friends told online gossip publication TMZ, “I’m scared she’s going to die.”
The plan had been devised by Jodi Montgomery, one of Britney’s former restorers who was appointed by the court to replace her father in overseeing her affairs.
She had remained on the board at Britney’s request.
She told Kevin that Sam Ashgari and Cade Hudson, her manager, were involved in the surgery, which would see Britney treated for at least two months. Friends and family rented the singer a safe house in Los Angeles for the singer and hired “interventionist” Matt Brown — a medical doctor who specializes in treating addiction.
Jodi had told Kevin to prepare his boys for what was about to happen. He was just filming with me when the moment came.
I watched him nervously as he was glued to his phone, waiting for a text message from Jodi telling him the procedure was in progress. But no text ever came – just a message that Jodi had resigned.
As rumors about it surfaced online, Britney took to Instagram and denied the story – claiming there was no such plan. But I was there. In reality, she had been alerted and the plan failed. Afterwards, one of Britney’s family members told me, “This was the last chance to save her.”
Her family is scared, and Britney’s father Jamie tells me he fears she will meet the same fate as English singer Amy Winehouse (pictured at the 2007 BRIT Awards).
Perhaps it is no surprise that the intervention failed due to the previous trauma experienced by Britney, a loving mother.
When Britney fell apart in 2008 – which led to the conservatory position – her babies were taken away from her and she was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward.
At that moment, Britney said her own mother told her to “give the boys to their father” and asked Kevin to take them.
In 2019, Britney told a court she was forced to stay in another psychiatric facility and was given medication without her consent.
About Daphne Barak
Daphne Barak is a renowned interviewer and documentary filmmaker whose subjects have included Nelson Mandela, Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton, Johnny Depp and Michael Jackson, among others.
Daphne’s best-selling book, Saving Amy, based on months of filming with Amy Winehouse and her family, is being adapted into an eight-part TV series by Halcyon Studios.
Today, reports suggest Britney’s marriage to Asghari is in trouble. Fans noticed that she didn’t wear her wedding ring on a recent vacation to Puerto Rico in April.
There were also reports of a “manic episode” occurring at a restaurant.
A friend told a US publication, “She’s often up all night and sleeps through it.” [the] day and has much anger.’
It doesn’t help that she can’t channel her energy due to a lack of work.
It’s hard to believe given her huge commercial success, but Britney’s father and other family members are concerned about her current financial situation.
Britney hasn’t had a steady income since 2019, when she ended her residency in Las Vegas. What are your intentions if Kevin’s child support ends?
Some family members said they had long assumed the monthly child support payments included money to be set aside for trust funds for Preston and Jayden.
They calculated that Jayden and Preston should now be in the six figures. Family members say they saw no evidence of the trust funds’ existence.
But the boys are doing their best to focus on their future. It is clear that they feel powerless to intervene in their mother’s life.
Her only power is to stay away, hoping that one day she will understand her reasons and they can mend their relationship.
Jamie compares his daughter’s fate to that of Amy Winehouse. In a conversation about the Back To Black singer with my producer, Erbil, he interjected, “Yeah, yeah, right… Britney could die like Amy.”
Despite being condemned by Britney and many of her fans for his controlling role during the conservatory years, Jamie firmly believes he is a loving father who did what it took to protect his famous daughter.
He says: “Compare her well-being then and how she is now.”
Adds Preston, “We just want her to listen to us.”
I hope she does – before it’s too late.
Daphne’s latest book, Struggling for One America, written with Erbil Gunasti, is published by Skyhorse Publishing and can be purchased here.
Read her pop culture updates here.