Britney Spears has slammed her father Jamie Spears for forcing her to participate in a 2003 interview with American television broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer that made the pop singer cry, Variety reported.
As per the report, Spears took to Instagram this week and said, “Pretty lame of my dad and three men to show up at my door when I could hardly speak… they put Diane Sawyer in my living room… they forced me to talk!”
In the primetime special on ABC News in 2003, Sawyer questioned the pop singer regarding her clothing choices, dating choices, break ups, piercings, and whether she was a good role model for young girls, among several other things.
Showing magazine covers featuring Spears, Sawyer asked her “What happened to your clothes?”
Spears broke into tears, asking for the interview to be stopped even as the camera kept rolling and Sawyer continued asking questions.
The journalist also prodded her on her breakup with American singer Justin Timberlake at the time and her faithfulness in the relationship.
In another Instagram post this week, Spears wrote, “Something I never shared when I had that big break up years ago was that I couldn’t talk afterwards… I never spoke to anyone for a very long time… I was in shock.”
Spears further claimed that her father had forced her to do the interview.
Earlier in the week, the singer had also called out Sawyer for the way she conducted the interview. In another now-deleted post from Monday on Instagram, Spears wrote, “Do we dare forget the Diane Sawyer interview in my apartment almost 20 years ago? What was with the ‘You’re in the wrong’ approach? Geeze… and making me cry?”
While Sawyer has not commented on the issue, Spears’ father issued a statement to Variety denying his involvement in the infamous interview.
“Mr Spears has no idea what Ms Spears is talking about,” said the statement issued through his lawyer. “Jamie never set up any interview with Diane Sawyer and was not present for any such interview. He had nothing to do with Britney’s career at this point and was completely uninvolved in this interview. Jamie loves Britney very much, wishes Britney nothing but the best and hopes that she continues to seek the help that she needs to stay safe and healthy.”
It is notable that Spears’ recently-ended conservatorship under her father, which she has termed “abusive,” began only in 2008. Set up following her public meltdowns during her divorce with Kevin Federline, the arrangement gave her father, Jamie Spears, control over her financial affairs, estate, and her personal life, and the singer fought a lengthy court battle to end it.
After opposing for long all his daughter’s attempts to remove him from the conservatorship, on September 7, Jamie Spears had unexpectedly filed a petition to end the arrangement.
Later, on November 12, the 39-year-old pop singer’s 13-year-old conservatorship with her father finally came to an end.
Following a recent hearing on December 8, Spears’ attorney told the media that her father has been uncooperative with their requests for certain documents that his firm believes will “shed light in regard to his abuses.”
Jamie Spears has also been evading deposition (out-of-court, sworn, oral testimony), the singer’s lawyer, Matthew Rosengart, said.
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Following Jamie Spears’ clarification regarding the Sawyer interview, Rosengart, in a statement to Variety, asked the singer’s father to instead answer questions regarding financial issues and the surveillance allegations. Jamie Spears has been accused of intense surveillance of Spears, including bugging her home.
“Rather than bullying and attacking his daughter, even as he claims to ‘love’ her,” said Rosengart, “it would be far more appropriate for Mr Spears and his lawyer to focus on answering the following fundamental questions, which we have been asking for months: As a suspended conservator, will he now return the millions of dollars in combined salary and commissions from Britney’s work that he paid himself before he was suspended? What were the total amounts he received from his daughter’s estate? Why did he approve a $500,000 payment to Tri Star after Britney went on hiatus? Does he have any evidence to refute the allegations in the extensive New York Times expose regarding a listening device being placed in his adult daughter’s bedroom?”