Britney Spears’ Axed 2016 Interview About Conservatorship Resurfaces

Britney Spears addressed her conservatorship in an interview from 2016 that’s now been revealed after eight years.

In 2016, Spears appeared on The Jonathan Ross Show to promote her album Glory. While on the British program, she talked briefly about the conservatorship and how it impacted her creative process—but the comments were cut from the show because of her team.

The Jonathan Ross Show finally unearthed what Spears said during a recent special that looked back at memorable moments from the show.

The cut segment started with Ross asking the singer, “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?”

Spears hesitated for a second, then responded. “Well, um, there’s a lot of reasons, but I won’t get into the whole story.”

“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,” she continued. “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.”

In her memoir The Woman in Me that was released last year, Spears drew attention to this particular comment, confirming that it existed after years of speculation that it even happened. “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,” she wrote. “Huh. How interesting.”

In April, Spears officially settled her conservatorship case against her estranged father, Jamie Spears. Her former lawyer Mathew Rosengart published a statement at the time revealing that she wouldn’t have to deal with further legal proceedings that were related to the matter.

“It has been our honor and privilege to represent, protect and defend Britney Spears. Ms. Spears is and always will be an icon and a brilliant and brave artist of historic and epic proportion,” Rosengart said.

“Although the conservatorship was terminated in November 2021, her wish for freedom is now truly complete,” he continued. “As she desired, her freedom now includes that she will no longer need to attend or be involved with court or entangled with legal proceedings in this matter … Britney Spears won when the court suspended her father, and Britney Spears won when her fundamental rights and civil liberties were restored.”