Britney Spears’ recent DUI arrest has left her family ‘worried’ but believing they are unable to intervene after the Free Britney movement.
The pop icon, 44, was arrested under suspicion of ‘driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs’ on Wednesday night.
She was reported to authorities for driving her BMW ‘erratically at a high rate of speed’ on a motorway, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) said.
A representative for Britney previously told Metro that the incident was ‘completely inexcusable’.
They said they hoped the incident would encourage the Toxic singer to seek ‘help and support she needs during this difficult time.’
Now, sources close to Britney have shared that everyone feels they are unable to intervene or ‘don’t want to’, due to the Free Britney Movement.
The movement was a fan-led campaign that brought widespread attention to the conservatorship under which the singer had been living since the 00s.
It was part of the reason she was freed from the legal arrangement in 2019 after gaining massive public support for Britney to take back control of her life.
However, the star’s behaviour has become more erratic again but now her family are reportedly reluctant to step in despite one insider calling it ‘life or death’.
‘We’re worried, of course, but at some point what can we even do? Everyone in this family got a lot of s*** because of the conservatorship and we still get a lot of s***, but this wasn’t happening when she was being watched,’ the insider said to The Daily Mail.
Before the arrest, Britney had been posting her usual dancing videos to Instagram, accidentally exposing her breasts on several occasions.
The pop star disabled her Instagram account on the day of her arrest, with her last video to a slow, haunting Enya song in a dimly lit room.
The insider continued: ‘She needs help and hopefully this is a wake-up call. Her entire family adores her and loves her so much. No one wants to see her fail, no one wants her to get hurt. But this is what we have always been trying to avoid.’
Britney was placed under the conservatorship in 2008 at the height of her mental health struggles, with her father, Jamie, in control of her personal affairs and finances indefinitely.
However, in 2021, she compared the order to ‘abuse’, stating in court she felt those in charge had ‘done a good job at exploiting my life’.
It emerged that Britney wanted to have her father removed as a conservator as far back as 2016.
‘I’ve been in denial,’ the Lucky singer shared. ‘I’ve been in shock. I am traumatised. I want to end the conservatorship without having to be evaluated. I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive.’
A lawyer for Britney’s father, Jamie, later said on his behalf: ‘He is sorry to see his daughter suffering and in so much pain.
‘Mr Spears loves his daughter and misses her very much.’
Britney claimed the conservatorship had ‘too much control’, dictating everything from the colour of her cabinets to who she could befriend.
After the order was removed, she shared a voice message on YouTube recounting the days leading up to it and claimed to have no idea what started it.
‘I literally spoke in a British accent to a doctor to prescribe my medication and three days later there was a Swat team at my home, three helicopters,’ she recalled.
She also claimed that she was held down on a gurney in an ambulance at the beginning of her conservatorship.
‘There was no drugs in my system, no alcohol, nothing,’ she said, claiming that the conservatorship was ‘premeditated’.
However, her father’s legal team argued that the conservatorship was ‘necessary to protect Britney in every sense of the word’.
At the time, her behaviour had become erratic amid a messy custody battle over her two children with Kevin Federline.
A source close to Kevin, 47, told the Daily Mail they were hoping this would be the wake-up call needed, so something worse doesn’t happen.
Her family said they were just relieved nobody was hurt by her alleged driving under the influence earlier this week.
Britney’s court hearing is scheduled for May 4.
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