By Cassandra Fairbanks
Nearly 400,000 people have liked a tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk that stated simply, “free Britney.”
Pop icon Britney Spears has been under a controversial conservatorship for over a decade, controlled by her father Jamie Spears.
Free Britney
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2021
On June 23, Spears made a public plea before the court to end the conservatorship. During her testimony, she said that under her father’s control she has been forced into performances, unable to access her own finances, had medications changed without her permission, and perhaps most shockingly — she was forced to have an IUD implanted so that she cannot have another child.
Spears said that she believed her father “loved” having control over someone as powerful as she is.
“I shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if I can work and provide money and work for myself and pay other people,” Spears told Judge Brenda Penny. “It makes no sense.”
“What state allows people to own another person’s money and account and threaten them in saying, ‘You can’t spend your money unless we do what we want you to do’?” she asked. “And I’m paying them.”
On Thursday, Judge Penny ruled against removing her father from her conservatorship and replacing him with Bessemer Trust.
According to a report from Fox News, Spears’ court-appointed lawyer, Sam Ingham, initially filed the motion to remove Jamie late last year, saying that Spears was “afraid of her father.” The motion was denied and had recently been refiled.
Musk joins a large chorus of people calling for her freedom including Rep. Matt Gaetz, Halsey, Mariah Carey, Rose McGowan, Justin Timberlake.
Musk’s long time girlfriend and mother of his child, musician Claire Elise Boucher, better known by her stage name Grimes, publicly thanked him for his tweet in support of Spears.
Free Britney
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2021
Spears has said that she will not perform again until she is granted freedom from her father. Her fortune is estimated to be worth over $60 million dollars.
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