We’re slowly starting to get a full picture of what Britney Spears’s life is truly like — and if you’ve been following the #FreeBritney movement, you know her Instagram is a key piece of the puzzle.
Before we ever had anything as solid as court testimony to understand the truth of the conservatorship, fans scoured Brit’s social media presence for answers. Some people thought that her whimsical — sometimes nonsensical — posts contained cryptic clues or cries for help. Others argued that she wasn’t posting herself at all, and her long captions were written by a social media team with no input. After the pop star’s day in court, one thing became clear: her Instagram posts did NOT match the upsetting, frightening reality of her life.
Related: How Brit’s Boyfriend ‘Empowered’ Her To Speak Out Against Conservatorship
Now, the Everytime singer is addressing the discrepancy. On Thursday, she posted an image to her IG with a quote attributed to Albert Einstein:
“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
She captioned the post:
“I just want to tell you guys a little secret … I believe as people we all want the fairy tale life and by the way I’ve posted … my life seems to look and be pretty amazing … I think that’s what we all strive for !!!! That was one of my mother’s best traits … no matter how s**ty a day was when I was younger … for the sake of me and my siblings she always pretended like everything was ok.”
The 39-year-old went on:
“I’m bringing this to peoples attention because I don’t want people to think my life is perfect because IT’S DEFINITELY NOT AT ALL … and if you have read anything about me in the news this week
… you obviously really know now it’s not !!!! I apologize for pretending like I’ve been ok the past two years … I did it because of my pride and I was embarrassed to share what happened to me … but honestly who doesn’t want to capture their Instagram in a fun light
… you obviously really know now it’s not !!!! I apologize for pretending like I’ve been ok the past two years … I did it because of my pride and I was embarrassed to share what happened to me … but honestly who doesn’t want to capture their Instagram in a fun light 
!!!!”To conclude, she wrote:
“Believe it or not pretending that I’m ok has actually helped … so I decided to post this quote today because by golly if you’re going through hell … I feel like Instagram has helped me have a cool outlet to share my presence … existence … and to simply feel like I matter despite what I was going through and hey it worked … so I’ve decided to start reading more fairy tales
!!!!!”Unsurprisingly, the message was met with mixed reactions. Of course, there was an outpouring of love and support. But many followers still contended that the mother of two wasn’t the one writing the post. Comments from Instagram and Twitter included:
“I just read her entire transcript. This isn’t her.”
“‘pretending that i’m okay has helped’ when just yesterday she said that she’s depressed and cries daily. we aren’t dumb”
“Britney didn’t pretend anything because she isn’t the one controlling this account”
“now we all know she didn’t write that
“They really think a woman that isn’t allowed to have children, isn’t allowed to see her own children, can’t leave the house for months at a time, isn’t allowed to be in her boyfriend’s car, and is forced to sign contracts would have access to her own Instagram? The jig is up”
we saw how she speaks yesterday”First thing’s first — the tone of her IG caption DOES feel very different from the tone of her testimony. How we sound on social media doesn’t always match how we sound in real life (particularly in such a difficult moment as appearing in court), but it definitely raises red flags.
However, some of her testimony does line up with the Instagram, including “pretending to be okay.” In court, she stated:
“I’ve lied and told the whole world, I’m okay. And I’m happy. It’s a lie. I thought I just maybe I said that enough maybe I might become happy because I’ve been in denial. I’ve been in shock. I am traumatized, you know, fake it till you make it, but now I’m telling you the truth, okay, I’m not happy.”
The IG post doesn’t mention one of her major reasons for keeping quiet — that she was afraid people would think she’s lying — but she did also cite being “embarrassed” (and worried she’d be made fun of) as part of her reasoning:
“It’s embarrassing and demoralizing what I’ve been through. And that’s the main reason I’ve never said it openly. And mainly, I didn’t want to say it openly, because I honestly don’t think anyone would believe me. … And maybe I’m wrong, and that’s why I didn’t want to say any of this to anybody, to the public, because I thought people would make fun of me or laugh at me and say, ‘She’s lying, she’s got everything, she’s Britney Spears.'”
That all being said, if the Crossroads actress’ social media was being entirely controlled by her team, they could have just as easily crafted the caption by lifting things from her court statement. And there are definitely strong indications that she isn’t the one writing about her life — particularly because she was explicitly told not to:
“My attorney says I can’t. It’s not good. I can’t let the public know anything they did to me and by not doing a thing… It’s not okay.”
In fact, at the end of her statement, she expressed some fear about getting off the phone, because once her testimony was over she would no longer have the outlet to express herself freely, and said she would instead be “ganged up on and I feel bullied and I feel left out and alone.”
Another red flag is that the caption includes a positive story about her mother. While Lynne Spears wasn’t called out by name in the testimony, the artist did point the finger at her “whole family” for the abuse, and for silencing her:
“And I would honestly like to sue my family, to be totally honest with you. I also would like to be able to share my story with the world, and what they did to me, instead of it being a hush-hush secret to benefit all of them. I want to be able to be heard on what they did to me by making me keep this in for so long, it is not good for my heart. I’ve been so angry and I cry every day. It concerns me, I’m told I’m not allowed to expose the people who did this to me.”
Related: Lynne ‘Very Concerned’ For Britney’s Health After Conservatorship Hearing
So what’s the truth? Perhaps it’s a little bit of both — that the social media team (as dictated by her conservators) allowed her to address some of the testimony, but censored and maybe even embellished upon Britney’s true feelings. She is obviously not permitted to say all that she wants to say online, because based on the testimony and her desire to be interviewed and tell more of the truth, she would be doing so if she was able. But exactly how far that censorship goes is unclear.
But what do U think, Perezcious readers? Was Britney part of this post at all, or is it 100% fabricated by a social media team? Did the testimony change your mind about the #FreeBritney Instagram conspiracies? Let us know your thoughts in the comments (below).
[Image via Britney Spears/Instagram]
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