Britney Spears’ Father Reportedly Called Her ‘Fat’ After Hospitalization That Sparked Conservatorship

Britney Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, reportedly called her “fat” around the time she was hospitalized in 2008 and continued insulting her around the time he was made conservator of her estate. The revelation came in the New Yorker‘s latest reporting on the history of the conservatorship. Spears testified in court late last month, asking to be freed from the conservatorship.

Back in January 2008, Spears was hospitalized after she refused to relinquish custody of her sons Sean and Jayden to ex-husband Kevin Federline. She was then admitted to the psychiatric ward at UCLA Medical Center and placed under a 5150 hold. Around this time, the conservatorship began, with Jamie and attorney Andrew Wallet as her co-conservators handling her estate. A month later, she filmed the How I Met Your Mother episode “Ten Sessions.”

After Spears was released from the hospital, plans were in the work for her comeback, and the HIMYM episode was just one part of it. Jacqueline Butcher, a former friend of the Spears family, recalled a meeting at Spears’ home office, with Jamie and Spears’ mother, Lynne Spears, in attendance. Spears, Lynne, and Butcher were sitting on the floor with Jamie behind a desk.

“Jamie said, ‘Baby,’ and I thought he was going to say, ‘We love you, but you need help,’” Butcher told the New Yorker. “But what he said was ‘You’re fat. Daddy’s gonna get you on a diet and a trainer, and you’re gonna get back in shape.’” At this point, Butcher said she felt sick. Jamie then pointed to the television in the office and told Spears she would soon be back on screen, with headlines reading, “She’s back.”

Over the next few weeks, Jamie would “get all in [Spears’] face,” Butcher said. Jamie called his daughter a “w— and a terrible mother,” Butcher claimed. She recalled Lynne telling Spears she could only see her sons if she cooperated with Jamie. Spears “behaved” and was allowed to see her sons on a limited basis. Spears then went back to the studio to record the album Circus and went on a tour, during which her backup dancers needed to take drug tests. The comeback was capped off with the MTV documentary Britney: For the Record, where she was seen getting tense every time Jamie was in the room with her.

Elsewhere in the New Yorker report, journalists Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino reported that Spears called 911 on June 22, the day before she testified in court, to report “herself as a victim of conservatorship abuse.” Although emergency calls are usually available to the public in California, Ventura County officials sealed Spears’ call because of an ongoing investigation. Spears’ team started “frantically” texting each other, according to Farrow and Tolentino.

During her testimony, Spears said she was presenting a fictional version of herself to the world and was not doing well under the conservatorship. She revealed that she has an IUD that prevents her from having children and cannot get married without permission. “I thought, just maybe if I said that enough, maybe I might become happy because I’ve been in denial. I’ve been in shock. I am traumatized,” she said. “You know, fake it till you make it… But now I’m telling you the truth, OK. I’m not happy. I can’t sleep. I’m so angry, it’s insane and I’m depressed. I cry every day.”

The judge in the case denied Spears’ request to remove Jamie as her conservator, and Spears has not formally filed a request to end the conservatorship. Jamie is now the sole conservator after Bessemer Trust pulled out of an agreement to act as co-conservator. The financial organization reportedly said it no longer wishes to be involved in the controversial situation.