Britney Spears’ Long-Hidden Interview on Conservatorship Shown in ITV Special

A rare moment in Britney Spears’ history has come to light, shedding new insight into her life under her controversial conservatorship.

The pop icon’s brief but revealing comments from a 2016 taping of The Jonathan Ross Show have resurfaced after eight years. During her appearance to promote her album Glory, Spears, then 34, touched on the conservatorship that restricted her freedom and impacted her creative work.

Although Spears’ management team famously barred her from discussing the legal arrangement publicly at the time, the original segment was cut from the broadcast episode. Fans finally got to see the never-before-aired footage on Saturday, thanks to an ITV special revisiting iconic moments from the long-running talk show.

In the segment titled “Special Guests,” host Jonathan Ross quizzed Spears on her deeper involvement with her Glory album, asking, “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 responded cautiously, “Well, um, there’s a lot of reasons, but I won’t get into the whole story.” With Ross encouraging her by acknowledging that viewers knew her history and she didn’t have to revisit anything she wasn’t comfortable with, Spears seemed to ease up. “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,” she shared.

When Ross asked if she was “happy” and in a “good place,” the “Toxic” singer smiled and said, “Yes, sir.”

This rediscovered clip is particularly poignant for fans who have long speculated about Spears’ mental and emotional state during the years of her conservatorship. At the time of the 2016 taping, an audience member hinted online that Britney had addressed her situation, which sparked interest and hope among her followers. Spears later addressed the editing choice in her 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me, noting, “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. Huh. How interesting.”

The conservatorship, led by her estranged father Jamie Spears, controlled the pop star’s personal and financial affairs for 13 years. Britney described the arrangement as “abusive” during a bombshell 2021 court hearing, leading to Jamie’s suspension as conservator and the eventual termination of the guardianship.

ITV has not commented on why it decided to broadcast the long-hidden footage. For many fans, this moment is yet another piece of the puzzle in understanding Britney’s complex journey to reclaiming her freedom and voice.