They were childhood friends who grew up to have the most notorious rivalry in pop music. But now Christina Aguilera is sending a message of support to Britney Spears following her bombshell testimony on the trauma of her conservatorship in a court hearing last week.
“These past few days I’ve been thinking about Britney and everything she is going through,” Aguilera, 40, wrote in a tweet on Monday, accompanied by a photo of herself and Spears together as children during their time on The All New Mickey Mouse Club. “It is unacceptable that any woman, or human, wanting to be in control of their own destiny might not be allowed to live life as they wish.”
“To be silenced, ignored, bullied or denied support by those ‘close’ to you is the most depleting, devastating and demeaning thing imaginable. The harmful mental and emotional damage this can take on a human spirit is nothing to be taken lightly,” Aguilera continued in a series of tweets.
She went on to speak out about Spears’ revelation that she has not been allowed to have her IUD taken out in order to have a baby with her longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari, 27.
“Every woman must have the right to her own body, her own reproductive system, her own privacy, her own space, her own healing and her own happiness,” Aguilera wrote.
“While I am not behind the closed doors of this very layered & personal yet public conversation – all I can do is share from my heart on what I’ve heard, read and seen in the media.
“The conviction and desperation of this plea for freedom leads me to believe that this person I once knew has been living without compassion or decency from those in control.
“To a woman who has worked under conditions and pressure unimaginable to most, I promise you she deserves all of the freedom possible to live her happiest life.
“My heart goes out to Britney,” Aguilera concluded. “She deserves all the TRUE love and support in the world.”
Spears, 39, has been under a court-ordered conservatorship since 2008 after undergoing involuntary psychiatric evaluations at that time. The conservatorship put her personal life and finances in control of her father Jamie Spears, 68, alongside co-conservators for her finances.
“I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive, and that we can sit here all day and say, ‘Oh, conservatorships are here to help people,’” Spears said in her testimony by phone to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny on Wednesday, June 23.
“But ma’am, there’s a thousand conservatorships that are abusive as well. The only similar thing to this is called sex trafficking. Making anyone work against their will, taking all their possessions away — credit card, cash, phone, passport — and placing them in a home where they work with the people who live with them.”
Spears requested for the conservatorship to end without a psychiatric evaluation, and was told by the judge that she needs to submit a petition to terminate the conservatorship to the court. This petition is expected to be filed by Spears’ legal team, after which another hearing would take place.
Aguilera was 12 and Spears was 11 when they met as castmates on the Disney Channel TV show The All New Mickey Mouse Club in 1993. Fellow cast member Justin Timberlake, who famously dated Spears from 1998–2002, also recently tweeted a message of support to Britney.
“Regardless of our past, good and bad, and no matter how long ago it was… what’s happening to her is just not right,” he wrote on Wednesday. “No woman should ever be restricted from making decisions about her own body. No one should EVER be held against their will… or ever have to ask permission to access everything they’ve worked so hard for.”