Britney Spears’ axed TV interview on conservatorship finally unearthed after 8 years

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A rare footage of Britney Spears talking about her conservatorship has finally made it to the public, eight years after it was initially axed from a TV interview. 

In 2016, the 42-year-old songstress sat for a candid interview on Britain’s ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ to promote her then-latest album ‘Glory’.

During the course of the interview, Spears - who was then under the conservatorship - opened up about her situation with Ross and talked about how her creativity often got hampered by the legal arrangement she was made to obey, per Page Six.

Though the ‘Toxic’ singer opened up about her conservatorship on national television, her team infamously did not allow those portions to air online, resulting in the deletion of those comments from the final episode. 

Recently, ITV aired a special on Saturday, where the deleted footage finally came to the fore.

Old footage of Britney Spears talking about her conservatorship finally gets released

On Saturday, November 9, ITV released a special episode titled ‘Special Guests’ where the never-before-seen footage was finally aired along with several other older memorable moments from the show. 

Speaking about ‘Glory’, Ross asked Spears, “The new album, you are more involved in this musically, I understand, than previous ones? So you’ve taken control. You’re more in control of your music than before? Why did it take you so long? Why did you wait ’til now to do it?”

The ‘Oops…I Did It Again’ singer, who was 34 then, replied with hesitation, “Well, um, there’s a lot of reasons, but I won’t get into the whole story.”

Ross, however, paused her while reminding that her fans knew “a lot” of her history, including her 2007 public breakdown. Thus, Ross reassured that Spears did not “have to go over” anything she wasn’t comfortable with.

This relaxed the ‘Circus’ songstress as she explained, “Since the conservatorship … I felt like a lot of the things were planned for me to do and, you know, being told what to do. And I was just like, for this [album], I want to make it my baby, and I want to do it myself, and I was very strategic about the way I did it, and, um, yeah, that’s why it means so much to me.”

Later, when the veteran TV host asked her whether she was “happy” and in a “good place,” Spears reassured, “Yes, sir.”

While the clip was recently aired, its presence has been known since 2016 as an audience member revealed on social media that the Grammy winner spoke about her conservatorship during her interview with Ross. 

Spears herself mentioned the axed interview segment in her 2023 memoir, ‘The Woman In Me’, writing, “I even mentioned the conservatorship on a talk show in 2016, but somehow, that part of the interview didn’t make it to the air,” before concluding, “Huh. How interesting.”

The songstress was involuntarily placed under her father - Jamie Spears’ - conservatorship in 2008. Her father was in charge of her personal and financial affairs for 13 years before a judge suspended Jamie from being her conservator in 2021 after Spears described her situation as “abusive” during a court hearing. 

Following months of ‘Free Britney Movement’ by the Princess of Pop’s ardent fans, her conservatorship was finally terminated in November 2021. 

Britney Spears' fans celebrate the release of axed interview clip

The fans were left in utter relief after the clip finally made its way online. 

One of the social media users said in the YouTube comment section, "I can't believe we're actually seeing this. I thought this day would never come. Britney, you're so strong. We LOVE you!"

"Just love, respect and admiration for this woman! ❤," said another user. 

Someone else said, "Finally this is amazing!!!!! So sad they forced her to cut this! 🤦‍♂️."

Another social media user chimed in, "Omg 😮 I can't believe she really did it and they just cut it out 😔😢 but I'm glad now we saw that and was not just a rumor and she is FREE now 🩷🩷✨ We love you Britney 💋💖."

"I'm so glad we can finally see this part that was deleted. Thank you so much ❤️," said someone else. 

Another netizen celebrated, "After so many years we finally have it."

Meanwhile, another fan observed, "This is the last time she had an interview so freely."

"Glory was so sabotaged back then 😭," wrote a fan recalling the album's release. 

However, another fan praised Ross too for creating a comfortable environment for Spears, as they wrote, "I love that he made it a point to really tell her, like he leaned into her face, that her fans love her and are protective of her. It's feels like he was trying to make her understand that if she spoke up about it then her fans would do everything to help. I believe she needed to hear that during that time in her life."

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