--- title: How Britney Spears Feels About #FreeBritney description: Britney Spears writes about what the #FreeBritney movement has meant to her in her memoir, 'The Woman in Me.' canonical: https://time.com/6325910/britney-spears-memoir-free-britney/ author: Laura Zornosa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-10-19T16:39:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:50.252Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: How Britney Spears Feels About #FreeBritney og:description: Britney Spears writes about what the #FreeBritney movement has meant to her in her memoir, 'The Woman in Me.' og:url: https://time.com/6325910/britney-spears-memoir-free-britney/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf4c95350c92f067/698a416509208fb6ae41ad49/britney-spears.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sony Pictures' "Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Britney Spears Feels About #FreeBritney twitter:description: Britney Spears writes about what the #FreeBritney movement has meant to her in her memoir, 'The Woman in Me.' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf4c95350c92f067/698a416509208fb6ae41ad49/britney-spears.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Britney Spears Reveals How She Feels About the #FreeBritney Movement in _The Woman in Me_ > Sponsored content. 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Oct 19, 2023 4:39 PM UTC  Britney Spears attends Sony Pictures' "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood" Los Angeles Premiere on July 22, 2019 in Hollywood, California Britney Spears attends Sony Pictures' "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood" Los Angeles Premiere on July 22, 2019 in Hollywood, CaliforniaAxelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic—Getty Images  by [Laura Zornosa](https://time.com/author/laura-zornosa/)  ## Laura Zornosa Laura Zornosa is a reporter at TIME. Oct 19, 2023 4:39 PM UTC Watching people chant “Free Britney!” in the streets was “the most amazing thing I’d ever seen in my life,” Britney Spears writes in highly-anticipated memoir, _The Woman in Me_. “I don’t think people knew how much the #FreeBritney movement meant to me,” she writes in the book, a copy of which was reviewed by _TIME_ ahead of its Oct. 24 release. “Especially in the beginning.” The Free Britney movement first arose [over a decade ago](https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a34113034/why-longtime-britney-spears-fans-are-demanding-to-freebritney/), when a group of fans grew increasingly concerned about Spears’ legal guardianship contract. From 2008 to 2021, Spears’ finances and bodily autonomy were [controlled](https://time.com/5921720/britney-spears-conservatorship-free-britney/) by her father, Jamie Spears, and a lawyer. #FreeBritney gained traction in 2020, when the movement snowballed on social media and drew global media attention. In 2021, the New York _Times_ documentary [_Framing Britney Spears_](https://time.com/6075563/britney-spears-free-britney-fans-testimony/) further highlighted issues with Spears’ conservatorship. ### More From TIME **Read More:** [_What Britney Spears Reveals About Her Conservatorship in_ The Woman in Me](https://time.com/6324615/the-woman-in-me-britney-spears-conservatorship/) In _The Woman in Me_, Spears writes that she first became aware of the movement in 2018 while in a Beverly Hills rehabilitation center, to which her father had pressured her to go. If she didn’t, he said, she would have to go to court. He threatened to make her look like an idiot. “The doctors took me away from my kids and my dogs and my house,” Spears writes. “I couldn’t go outside. I couldn’t drive a car. I had to give blood weekly. I couldn’t take a bath in private. I couldn’t shut the door to my room. I was watched, even when I was changing.” Then a nurse—“the only one who was real as hell”—showed her a video of women on a talk show discussing the conservatorship. One of them was wearing a #FreeBritney T-shirt. Then more clips: fans trying to figure out if Spears was being held against her will. “I think my connection to my fans helped them subconsciously know that I was in danger,” she writes. “Fans of mine—even though I hadn’t said anything online or in the press about being confined—they just seemed to _know_.” Spears knew that some people didn’t take the movement seriously, questioning the importance of a cause surrounding a celebrity. But she was being held against her will. To her, it was a matter of life or death. “Everyone who spoke out for me helped me survive that hard year, and the work they did helped me win my freedom,” she writes. “Toward the end, when the court hearings were going on, seeing people advocating for me meant a whole lot. But when it first happened, that got my heart, because I was not okay, not at all.” Three years later, Spears would make her first [public statement](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/britney-spears-statement-conservatorship-hearing-1189043/) about the conservatorship in court, condemning its abuse. Five months after that, a judge would formally terminate the conservatorship. When her father was removed as her conservator, “I felt relief sweep over me,” she writes. “The man who had scared me as a child and ruled over me as an adult, who had done more than anyone to undermine my self-confidence, was no longer in control of my life.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6325910/britney-spears-memoir-free-britney/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6325910/britney-spears-memoir-free-britney/"},"headline":"Britney Spears Reveals How She Feels About the #FreeBritney Movement in The Woman in Me","datePublished":"2023-10-19T16:39:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:50:50.252Z","description":"Britney Spears writes about what the #FreeBritney movement has meant to her in her memoir, 'The Woman in Me.'","url":"https://time.com/6325910/britney-spears-memoir-free-britney/","keywords":["Books","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf4c95350c92f067/698a416509208fb6ae41ad49/britney-spears.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Zornosa","jobTitle":"Laura Zornosa is a reporter at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/laura-zornosa/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf4c95350c92f067/698a416509208fb6ae41ad49/britney-spears.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sony Pictures' \"Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood\" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals","caption":"Sony Pictures' \"Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood\" Los Angeles Premiere - Arrivals","creditText":"Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6325910/britney-spears-memoir-free-britney/","name":"Britney Spears Reveals How She Feels About the #FreeBritney Movement in The Woman in Me"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"'Crossroads' Director Reflects on Britney Spears and Impact of the Movie","description":"The movie \"Crossroads\" returns to theaters on Oct. 23 and 25 for a special fan event to accompany the release of Spears' memoir, The Woman in Me.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fBL9ZckL/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-10-19T21:07:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fBL9ZckL.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6325910/britney-spears-memoir-free-britney/","duration":"PT3M41S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6325910/britney-spears-memoir-free-britney/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```