{"id":117223,"date":"2023-11-01T15:09:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T19:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=117223"},"modified":"2023-11-08T15:34:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T19:34:51","slug":"britney-spears-and-her-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/britney-spears-and-her-dad\/","title":{"rendered":"Britney Spears and Her Dad: How He Took Control of Her Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why was the relationship between Britney Spears and her dad strained? What did her father make her do while controlling her under the conservatorship?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her memoir, The Woman in Me<\/em>, Spears recalls how her father had a drinking problem since she was a child. When she was an adult, he was made her conservator in a controversial case that led to years of abuse and mistreatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading to learn more about the strain Spears felt in the relationship with her father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Performing on Demand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Britney Spears and her dad’s relationship was incredibly toxic, evident just by the way he treated her during her career. One of the things Spears\u2019s father required in her conservatorship was that she go on tour and make appearances on TV. Spears draws attention to the contradiction of claiming that someone\u2019s too sick to make decisions but is healthy enough to learn dance routines, endure an exhausting tour schedule, and present herself well in front of the camera. On tour, she pretended to be an adult on stage, but once her shows were over, she was treated like a heavily chaperoned child. Spears wasn\u2019t even allowed to decide what she ate.<\/strong> When one of her hairdressers commented on Spears\u2019s insane schedule, they were fired the next day. No one was allowed to question Spears\u2019s father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: The tour that Spears discusses began in 2009 and was the first time Spears had gone on the road since before her marriage to Federline<\/a>. Critics praised the show\u2019s lavish production<\/a>, but were less favorable to Spears\u2019s performance, with one reviewer commenting that the concert seemed designed to draw your attention away <\/em>from Spears<\/a>.)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a deal came along in 2013 for Spears to do a multi-year residency in Las Vegas, her fans were welcoming, and her show attracted a younger audience than Vegas usually receives. However, Spears\u2019s enjoyment wouldn\u2019t last. She writes that her boyfriend at the time gave her over-the-counter energy pills that greatly improved her performance on stage, but her father, who had control of her body,<\/strong> sent her into rehab, even though the supplements were legal and available to anyone. In a 2014 bid to break free from her father, she pleaded with the court to test him <\/em>for drug and alcohol use, but her request was summarily denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: The degree of control that Spears\u2019s father exercised is a tool of psychological subjugation, which some abusive parents exert over their children well into adulthood<\/a>. People who grow up under such conditions often feel helpless<\/a> to change their situation. In Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents<\/em><\/a>, psychologist Lindsey Gibson writes that when a parent is controlling and goal-focused, nothing their child does can ever be good enough. In these family environments, children may cope by escaping into fantasy<\/a>\u2014as Spears said she frequently did with her music\u2014or by presenting an inauthentic version of themselves<\/a>, as Spears did whenever she went along with all of her father\u2019s stipulations.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spears\u2019s Las Vegas concert series sold nearly a million tickets during its run, enriching her father, her management company, and anyone else connected to the \u201cBritney Spears industry.\u201d Spears states that while others were profiting from her work, she was only given an allowance of $2,000 per week, which she could only spend with her father\u2019s permission. As the end of the Vegas residency approached, she pleaded for time off to spend with her children, but instead, her father and managers ordered that she start touring again right away. Her father promised that if she refused, he would humiliate her in court for breaching the terms of her conservancy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Spears\u2019s exploitation by her father during the conservatorship has parallels to the relationship between Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker<\/a>. Though Presley wasn\u2019t restrained by the courts as Spears was, Parker used financial and psychological manipulation to control Presley and his career, taking 50% of Presley\u2019s earnings for himself. Parker had a gambling addiction<\/a> and locked Presley, like Spears, into a long-term Vegas residency<\/a> to help Parker cover his debts. Like Spears before her conservancy, Presley took prescription amphetamines<\/a> to keep up with the hectic concert schedule that Parker booked for him, though unlike Spears\u2019s father, Parker is believed to have enabled Presley\u2019s drug abuse<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why was the relationship between Britney Spears and her dad strained? What did her father make her do while controlling her under the conservatorship? In her memoir, The Woman in Me, Spears recalls how her father had a drinking problem since she was a child. When she was an adult, he was made her conservator in a controversial case that led to years of abuse and mistreatment. Continue reading to learn more about the strain Spears felt in the relationship with her father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":117229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,12],"tags":[1321],"class_list":["post-117223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-relationships","tag-the-woman-in-me","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nBritney Spears and Her Dad: How He Took Control of Her Life - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since her conservatorship ended in 2021, details have been revealed about the relationship between Britney Spears and her dad. 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