The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears gives a close look at some of the intricacies and nuances of not just Britney Spears’ conservatorship, but also of her career and treatment by the press and the public since she was just a literal child. The new documentary was unauthorized by the Spears camp and features no one from the Spears family speaking on camera, let alone on the record. It examines the cultural, social and even political ways that framed the way that the world perceived and portrayed the Kentwood, Louisiana, teen superstar-turned-mom of two. It also sheds some serious light on her mental health struggles and what may well have caused them…and how we’re almost all complicit in the dehumanization, objectification and, yes, framing of Spears. Keep reading for 10 revelations we learned from Framing Britney.

Britney Spears’ father Jamie was largely absent during her meteoric rise

Those who worked with Britney Spears early in her career have little recollection of Jamie Spears, save for a comment he once made about Britney eventually making the family rich. Kim Kaiman, former senior director of marketing at Jive Records, recalled in Framing Britney Spears, “Her mother [Lynne Spears] would do whatever it took, personally and for the family’s sake, for Britney to be a star. Lynne supported Britney. I want to say Lynne because I never talked to her father. The only thing Jamie ever said to me was, ‘My daughter’s going to be so rich, she’s gonna buy me a boat.’ That’s all I’m going to say about Jamie.” Jamie also battled his own demons during Britney’s youth, including crippling debt, a bankruptcy and alcohol abuse. Longtime Spears family friend and one-time Britney assistant and chaperone Felicia Culotta was the biggest presence in Britney’s life during her rise to fame, she claims in the doc, as Lynne requested that she travel with Britney in New York and around the country while she raised the family’s youngest daughter Jamie Lynn Spears.

Britney Spears was sexualized at a disturbingly young age

Though at the time it seemed normal to almost everyone, when Spears was a mere teenager, interviewers asked her frequently about her breasts, her boyfriends and her virginity from literally as young as 10 years old. In a post-#MeToo world, the lecherous lines of questioning, criticism and speculation that Spears endured would now be viewed shameful at best, and likely incredibly damaging. Framing Britney Spears gives just a small glimpse of how common it was to sexualize, slut-shame and objectify her from when she was a minor through her 20s. When discussing her “Work B*tch” music video in 2013, Spears herself lamented about how much she’d been sexualized and admitted she wanted to go back to her early days when she was actually more covered up in her visuals (think “Sometimes,” “Oops! I Did It Again” and even “…Baby One More Time”). She admitted her managers at the time pushed her boundaries past where she may have been comfortable and explained, “A lot of sex goes into what I do. But sometimes I would like to bring it back to the old days when there was like one outfit through the whole video, and you’re dancing the whole video, and there’s like, not that much sex stuff going on.”

Boy band stars of Britney Spears’ peak era (including ex Justin Timberlake) got off much more easily

In interviews conducted at the height of both Spears’ and boy bands’ peaks, the young men received far fewer questions about or criticisms of their behavior, a further testament to the sexism and misogyny that was so common at the time. Spears’ ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, appeared to use that to his advantage after their breakup: He publicly dished on their sexual relationship in interviews and famously insinuated that she cheated on him during their romance in his “Cry Me a River” music video. While Spears herself never publicly dissed nor commented on the breakup and genuinely appeared to wish her ex well, Timberlake’s word was taken as gospel at the time. Case in point: In an interview almost entirely about men, Diane Sawyerasked Spears, “Justin has gone on television and pretty much said you broke his heart…what did you do?” “It was a really weird time…there was talk about what we did together sexually and stuff, and I just felt very exploited, and very weird,” she said of Timberlake’s comments. She displayed an incredible amount of strength, consideration, nuance and diplomacy that she never received proper credit for at the time, explaining, “I was like, ‘Why is he going on these shows and they’re asking him and he’s talking—’ but I’m sure, just like right now, you’re asking about it and I’m talking about it, and it just comes out.” A number of other previously televised interviews in the documentary show Spears in tears from questions criticizing her clothing choices and prying into her private life, including accusing her of being a bad mom to her two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James Federline. In one incredibly telling vignette, she shrugs cynically, “That’s America for you.”

No one close to Britney Spears was too shocked when she married Kevin Federline

In Framing Britney Spears, Culottaadmits that all Spears really wanted for most of her life was to be a mom. “I don’t think I was at all surprised when she and Kevin got engaged,” Culotta says. “She told me and I remember her saying, ‘I gotta call my mama!’ And I said, ‘Absolutely you do!’”

Britney Spears had a cordial relationship with the paparazzi, but they didn’t respect her as a human being

Photographers, journalists and tabloid editors reveal that they made millions of dollars off photos of Spears, especially during her marriage to Federline and her darkest days that followed. Celebrity photographer Daniel Ramos claims in Framing Britney Spears that the singer “enjoyed it” when paparazzi followed her at first. He says she was “very friendly, sweetheart of a girl. It was like she needed us and we needed her…it was a great kind of relationship.” Ramos says that Spears would often “give them the shots” they needed. But soon photographers’ presence became more invasive and she clearly didn’t enjoy the attention anymore once she became a mom. Spears said in a Dateline interview with Matt Lauerat the time that she got scared when paparazzi circled her car when her babies were in tow, and she was accused of being an unfit mother due to the nature of some of the photos taken of her at the time: Driving with Sean Preston on her lap and tripping outside of a Starbucks while holding him. Following her divorce from Federline, when Spears began partying with the likes of Paris Hiltonand Lindsay Lohan, Spears’ mother believed her daughter was suffering from postpartum depression. During this time, the paparazzi were seen swarming her so severely that she couldn’t even walk through a convenience store. A crying Spears confirmed in an interview that she just wanted the paparazzi to leave her alone. After nearly a decade of being objectified, when Spears shaved her head, it was perceived to be an act of literally shedding her people-pleasing image. Of course, at the time, Spears was ruthlessly mocked for being “crazy.” Ramos was on hand at the time when a newly-bald Spears tried visiting Federline and their children at his home. When Federline refused to let Spears see the boys, she was understandably upset. Spears and her cousin went to a gas station, where paparazzi, including Ramos, began to swarm. Ramos says photographers followed Spears back to Federline’s home, where he once more refused to buzz her in. Then an image that will live in infamy was captured. “I go to the car, I tell Britney, ‘Hey Britney, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna ask you a couple of questions and then I’m gonna leave you alone,’” Ramos recalls. Spears’ cousin begged the paparazzi to leave her alone, but they refused. That’s when Spears cursed Ramos and his ilk out and beat his car with an umbrella. When asked if he thought paparazzi contributed to her mental health struggles, Ramos was obtuse. “You know, working on her for so many years, she never gave a clue or information to us that ‘I don’t appreciate you guys, leave me the eff alone.’” When asked outright about the times Spears told the paparazzi to leave her alone, he simply says, “There were times when she’d [be] like, ‘Leave me alone for the day,’ not ‘Leave me alone forever.’”

Did Osama “Sam” Lutfi lead to Britney Spears’ conservatorship?

When Spears was publicly spiraling leading to her hospitalization, Osama “Sam” Lutfi was publicly serving as her manager, adviser and close friend. Spears’ family obtained a restraining order against Lutfi and accused him of controlling her and drugging her, viewing him as “an architect” of her problems. It was at this time that Jamie Spears became the conservator of the singer’s person. Lutfi vehemently denied all of the allegations.

Britney Spears never wanted her father to be her conservator

Attorney Adam Streisand met with Spears at the Beverly Hills Hotel at the behest of her family law attorneys. Streisand says Spears was cognizant enough of the situation to acknowledge that she would be under a conservatorship regardless of her wishes and simply wanted an independent professional other than her her father to be the conservator of both her person and her finances. “The day I went to court for her, the judge said, ‘I have a medical report Mr. Streisand, and I’m not going to show it to you, and it shows that she’s not capable of retaining counsel and directing counsel on her own,’” Streisand recalls. He says he felt that based on his own interactions with Britney, she was capable of retaining and directing him as needed and that the judge made a bad decision. However, Streisand acknowledges that he still didn’t know what was in the medical report that the judge received, so he needed to accept the decision as it was.

Britney Spears’ conservatorship controls a lot of her life, and conservatorships are really hard to break

There was speculation that Britney Spears only accepted the conservatorship as a condition to see her children, and the conservatorship covers a lot of ground, from permitting her a trip to Starbucks to controlling who can and cannot visit her at her home. One of Jamie Spears’ former attorneys in the conservatorship, Vivian Lee Thoreen, doesn’t speak about Britney’s conservatorship specifically but says in a general sense that she’s never worked on a case where a conservatee was able to get out of their conservatorship. She notes that in cases like Britney’s, who’s considered “a high-functioning conservatee,” the burden of proof is on the conservatee to show that they don’t need to be under its clutches anymore…and that’s a tough sell in most cases.

Britney Spears made big bucks, even when deemed incompetent

Within months of agreeing to a conservatorship, Britney Spears appeared on network television once more (including a memorable episode of How I Met Your Mother) and by the end of the first year of the conservatorship, recorded, released and prepared to tour to promote Circus. Culotta says that during the 2009 Circus tour, her job role changed and she began merely giving backstage tours. She was hired by Britney’s tour management company, not by Britney’s actual team at the time, which had changed since Jamie was put in charge of her life. “When I went back it was a different business management and her dad was involved so they did not hire me, the touring company hired me,” Culotta explains. “I don’t know why the Britney company didn’t hire me, all I know is that maybe they didn’t know the role I played earlier. So, I took a backseat and I simply did what I was hired to do.” Culotta admitts that she still has no real understanding of the conservatorship, but observes, “I just don’t know that they knew her well enough to realize her capabilities in making the decisions. Just me looking in, that’s what I saw.” Beyond the Circus tour, Spears made a considerable amount of money during the conservatorship. She judged one season of X Factor for a cool $15 million and grossed $137.6 million for her first Piece of Me Las Vegas residency.

According to Framing Britney Spears, Britney paid $1.2 million in legal fees to run the conservatorship in 2019, a year in which she didn’t work at all. Jamie is paid a salary of $130,000 annually from the conservatorship, in addition to salaries for Bessemer Trust and Jodi Montgomery for their roles in the agreement. According to the documentary, Britney also pays for her conservators’ lawyers as well as her own. This means, effectively, that Britney pays for attorneys to make their cases and fight against her own. Next, see inside the #FreeBritney movement to end Britney Spears’ conservatorship.

Framing Britney Spears Spoilers from the Documentary - 1