Britney Spears’ Dad Jamie Just Called Her Conservatorship “A Great Tool”

It’s been over a year since Britney Spears’ controversial conservatorship ended, and her father, Jamie Spears, has finally decided to speak publicly about it. He broke his silence in a rare interview with the Daily Mail and revealed he doesn’t regret establishing the legal arrangement that gave him and other conservators control of Britney’s personal and financial life for 13 years. He even called it “a great tool,” despite acknowledging there has been substantial family fallout.

At the time Britney was placed under the conservatorship in 2008, she had suffered a very public breakdown. According to Jamie, her life, her relationship with sons Sean Preston and Jayden James Federline, and her finances were all at risk. He told the Daily Mail that he doesn’t know “if she’d be alive” had they not intervened.

“For protecting her, and also protecting the kids, conservatorship was a great tool,” he said. “Without it, I don’t think she would have got the kids back.”

Jamie added that “the main purpose was to get Britney back with her kids in a comfortable relationship.” He also claimed Britney “was broke” at the time and that “the conservatorship set a resource where she could get back financially.”

The #FreeBritney movement, however, has slammed Jamie over the years for monetarily benefitting from the conservatorship. Britney’s lawyers argued in the case that he “enriched himself” as he made more than $6 million before it ended, per CNBC. Meanwhile, Britney described the conservatorship as “abusive” in her June 2021 court testimony, and she specifically called out Jamie. “He loved the control to hurt his own daughter 100,000%,” she said. The pop star also spoke of being forced to work, likening it to sex trafficking.

As in his Daily Mail interview, Jamie maintained during the legal battle that he was acting in Britney’s interest. Though he agreed to step down as conservator of her estate in August 2021, he said in court documents that there were “no actual grounds” for his removal. He also called it “highly debatable whether a change in conservator” would be good for Britney.

With the conservatorship now behind them, Jamie told the Daily Mail that he and Britney don’t have any contact, but he hopes they can reconcile in the future. “The family’s a mess,” he said. “All we can do is keep praying.” He currently lives with his youngest daughter, Jamie Lynn Spears, who has also had a rocky relationship with Britney in recent years. The two sisters exchanged public messages in a social media back-and-forth in early 2022, but more recently, Britney wrote a loving Instagram post for Jamie Lynn on her own birthday, telling her little sister she loves her and she “ain’t alone.”