Britney Spears Begs For Help In Leaked Voicemails — ‘I’m Confined, Restrained & Stripped Of My Civil Rights’
"I just want to be guaranteed that everything will be fine," Spears begged on the calls.
Tinseltown / Shutterstock Sam Lufti has released a series of voicemails from Britney Spears begging to end her conservatorship.
Lufti, Spears’ controversial former manager, says the calls took place in 2009 ― one year after the singer’s conservatorship began.
Lufti was previously blamed for Spears’s alleged mental breakdown by her family, but is now raging against her team as the singer continues the complicated court process to end the conservatorship.
What did Britney Spears say about her conservatorship in voicemails to Sam Lufti?
In the calls, a voice Lufti claims is Spears asks for the legality of the conservatorship to be investigated. She then goes on to express concerning allegations about her treatment.
In the first voicemail, Spears says she was blackmailed.
In the first voicemail, Spears, whose voiced sounds somewhat garbled and as though she is whispering, tells Lufti, “I want out of this conservatorship.”
“I’ve been blackmailed by visitation with my babies by the conservatorship,” she says, adding, “I’m confined, restrained, and stripped of my civil rights. And I demand the state of California to review this case because I feel it's illegal.”
According to claims made in a recent article, Lufti’s younger sister Christina secretly gave Spears a phone in 2009 after hearing that the singer was trying to make contact with lawyers.
In a 2021 testimony, Spears seemed to backed up that story, alleging that she was being abused under the conservatorship.
In a second, Spears shares her fear of losing custody of her children if she fights the conservatorship.
In a second voicemail, Spears again expresses fears that she will lose access to her children if she fights to end her conservatorship.
“I’m calling again because I just wanted to make sure that during the process of eliminating the conservatorship that my father has threatened me several times, that you know, he’ll take my children away,” she says.
Following Spears’ 2008 mental health battle, the singer’s ex ― Kevin Federline― obtained sole custody of the couple’s two sons.
Spears did receive two visits and one overnight a week, but the voicemails suggest these visits may have a source of contention under the conservatorship.
“I just want to be guaranteed that everything will be fine with the process and that you guys are taking care of everything," Spears continued, "that things will stay the same as far as my custodial time.”
And in a third voicemail, Spears requests two new attorneys be appointed to represent her.
In the last of the voicemails shared by Lufti, Spears names the lawyers she wants to be represented by.
“I want John Eardley and John Patterson to represent me as court-appointed attorneys in my best interests and best wishes,” Spears says in the call.
Since the beginning of her conservatorship ― and until recently ― Spears was represented by court-appointed lawyer Samuel Ingham III.
In 2008, Eardley had lost his bid to challenge the order that gave Jamie Spears control of the singer’s estate but pledged to keep fighting on her behalf.
According to Lufti, Spears's former attorney says the voicemails are fake.
While these voicemails show Spears had been fighting to choose her own lawyer and be free of the conservatorship for quite some time, Ingham has, according to Lufti, claimed the voicemails are fake.
And in mid-2009, Lufti and Eardley were hit with restraining orders that forbid them from contacting the singer for three years with Ingham supporting the order.
The singer’s father and hairdresser testified against the men, claiming Spears was afraid of them however she did not appear in court during the case.
"Never before in the history of the world has a restraining order been issued against someone who merely responded to cries for help," Lutfi’s attorney Bryan J. Freedman said at the time.
Alice Kelly is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Catch her covering all things social justice, news, and entertainment. Keep up with her Twitter for more.