A clip of Britney Spears talking about her conservatorship for the first time in a TV interview has been unearthed eight years later.
When the Princess of Pop appeared on Britain’s “The Jonathan Ross Show” in 2016 to promote her album “Glory,” she mentioned the restrictive legal arrangement while explaining how it often got in the way of her creative process.
However, Spears’ team infamously did not allow her to publicly discuss her conservatorship at the time, so her comments during the taping were cut from the final episode.
But the never-before-seen footage finally aired Saturday during an ITV special looking back at memorable moments from the long-running talk show.
In “Special Guests,” host Jonathan 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 “Toxic” singer, then 34, hesitantly replied, “Well, um, there’s a lot of reasons, but I won’t get into the whole story.”
Ross interrupted Spears to remind her that viewers knew “a lot” of her history, which included a public breakdown in 2007, so she did not “have to go over” anything she did not feel comfortable with.
Looking more relaxed, the Grammy winner 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.”
The TV presenter then asked Spears whether she was “happy” and in a “good place,” to which she smiled and responded, “Yes, sir.”
Fans have yearned to see the “Jonathan Ross Show” clip ever since a studio audience member revealed on social media at the time that the “Gimme More” singer, now 42, had made a rare comment about her conservatorship while filming the sit-down.
Spears herself reflected on the segment being axed from TV in her 2023 memoir, “The Woman in Me.”
“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.”
The “Crossroads” star did not publicly mention her conservatorship again until 2021 when she described her situation as “abusive” during an open court hearing, saying her estranged father, Jamie Spears, who was in charge of her personal and financial affairs for 13 years, had too much control.
A Los Angeles judge suspended Jamie as his daughter’s conservator three months later before terminating the guardianship altogether.
ITV did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment on its decision to air the unseen footage.
