Amid Britney Spears' ongoing conservatorship battle, documentaries are attempting to unravel its complicated origins and the pop star's historic complaints.
Netflix's Britney vs Spears and The New York Times' Controlling Britney Spears aims to shed a light on the controversial legal agreement, which she denounced as "abusive" in her explosive testimony in June.
Last week, the singer's father, Jamie, was suspended from the conservatorship that has controlled her life for 13 years, marking a major win for the 39-year-old, who has repeatedly called out her father's involvement.
As her fight for freedom continues, we look at 7 of the biggest bombshells from the documentaries.
1. Spears tried to appoint her own lawyer twice
The pop star was finally able to appoint his own lawyer in July, and chose Mathew Rosengart.
However, it was revealed in Britney vs Spears that the singer had previously petitioned to hire her own attorney several times; the first being when the temporary conservatorship was enforced, and again in 2009.
Filmmaker and former Rolling Stone journalist, Jenny Eliscu, alleges that she had once secretly met with Spears in 2009 to help her secure her own representation.
Eliscu, Spears' ex-manager, Sam Lutfi, and her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Ghalib, came together to put together a document requesting that the Toxic singer should be allowed to select her own attorney. Eliscu then met with Spears in a hotel bathroom to have her sign the paper.
"Spears has expressed in lack of confidence in her court-appointed attorney Samuel Ingham, III," the document reportedly read. "Mr Ingham has great credentials, as counsel of record in this matter, but Ms Spears is of the opinion that he is not advocating adequately on her behalf particularly in light of the severe restrictions placed upon her."
Commenting on the situation in the documentary, Eliscu said: "At that point, I had known Britney Spears for a decade almost, and so I cared about her in a human way that there was no denying it at that point that I could be more of more use as a good Samaritan almost than as another journalist trying to cover this story."
"She just sort of looked at me and said, ‘Thank you,’ and I said, ‘I’ll see you again," the journalist continued tearfully. "She definitely seemed scared. It was hard to tell because I was so scared, but she was appreciative, which was like such classic kind of her vibe to be in that moment to be scared but to also be grateful," she added.
A week later, Eliscu discovered that their attempt had not panned out: "It had been ruled that she lacked capacity to choose her own lawyer, and that they had cast enough doubt on to whether that was her signature. I never heard anything of it again. No one ever talked about it again. Still, no one talks about the fact that there was another attempt to get a lawyer that somehow didn’t work out."
In court documents, Ingham later alleged that the singer had informed him that she had met with the journalist and signed documents, but that she was ultimately happy with his services.
2. She wrote a letter to be read out on TV following Federline divorce
Following Spears' 2007 divorce from Kevin Federline — with whom she shares two sons, Jayden James and Sean Preston — the pop star reportedly wanted to set her side of the story straight.
In response to Federline's 2008 cover story for People magazine where he discussed their highly-publicized marriage and split, Spears wrote a letter to cinematographer, Andrew Gallery, who worked on her MTV special, Britney Spears: For The Record.
However, Gallery never had a chance to read the letter on television, as Spears requested, because her team reportedly found out about it.
In Britney vs Spears, he explains how he and the pop star had become friends following the MTV special, but claimed that he had been "removed" from her life after the letter set off "a huge fire alarm".
He kept the alleged letter, though, and shared it during the documentary — it reads:
"What happened to Britney was a year ago and people need to get with the times. And as for Kevin saying Britney divorced him, she was forced to by her lawyers b/c she went to visit him in NY and he wouldn’t see her and the children, and her lawyers said if she doesn’t divorce him he’s going to do it himself. So Kevin trying to play the innocent victim is hardly irevalent. He left her and the babies. Her going on the mend partying two years ago has nothing to do w/the situation now. She is a completely different person and most of their fighting was done back then b/c of his problem waking and baking to marijuana at 5:00 in the morning [sic].
"No one talks about these things because no one knows the truth. She was lied to and set up. Her children were taken away and she did spin out of control which any mother would in those circumstances. Now this year Britney has been silenced to speak out about anything that’s really going on. The people controlling her life have made 3 million dollars this year. She would love for new eyes to see her situation, but if she brings it up she’s constantly threatened that the conservators will take her kids away. So how long does this go on for. As long as the people are getting paid and she has no rights, it could go on for awhile but it doesn’t make it right at all [sic]."
3. Jason Trawick said the conservatorship was "too constrictive"
Spears' ex-fiancé, Jason Trawick, believed that the conservatorship was "too constrictive".
Trawick, who was once the singer's agent, began dating her in 2009. They got engaged in 2011, and he later went on to become her co-conservator with Jamie Spears that year. He was removed after their split a year later.
Per a memo, dated March 18, 2012, sent from a doctor in regards to the conservatorship, her ex-fiancé believed that "eventually Britney will have to learn to live without a conservator."
The doctor added, "He feels that the present arrangement is too constrictive."
In the note, Trawick alleges that the "constrictive" measures included needing to ask for permission to drive a golf cart in a gated community, having to ask for permission before being able to eat at a burger restaurant, and needing to wait a "few days" for an answer to a request for money to buy children's books.
4. Her bedroom and phone were allegedly tapped
In New York Times' Controlling Britney Spears, Alek Vlasov claims that the '...Baby One More Time' singer's phone was monitored.
Vlasov was the cybersecurity manager of nine years for Black Box — the security team employed by Jamie.
In the documentary, he says that the founder of Black Box, Edan Yemini, asked him about "monitoring services for an iPhone."
"I'm like, 'What do you mean?' And he's like, 'Parental controls.' That's when he explained to me that Britney's communication is monitored for her own security and protection. And I asked Edan about the legality of that. 'Are you allowed to do that?' And he said, 'Yes. The court is aware of this. Britney's lawyer is aware of this.'"
He later alleged that there was also an "audio recording device" put in her bedroom.
5. Sam Lutfi said he was a "scapegoat"
Amid Spears' 2007 breakdown, both of her parents blamed her public meltdown on her manager, Sam Lutfi.
Lorilee Craker, who co-write Lynne Spears' memoir, explains in Britney vs Spears: "It was total crisis mode with Sam. That is something that I don’t think has really been portrayed correctly is the level of crisis at the moment the conservatorship began. They felt they had to do it to protect Britney from Sam. He was crushing drugs and putting them in her food and bragging about it."
However, Lutfi vehemently denied drugging the pop star, and claimed that he was made to be a "scapegoat".
"We have 100 blood tests and drug tests the entire time I was with her and she passed every single one of them, which is why the police never came to my door," he asserted. "No one ever called the police. To be accused of allegations that serious, that you’re drugging the world’s biggest star, you call the police, you call the FBI, you don’t call TMZ."
"I was the perfect scapegoat. I was new. They didn’t know who I was. I was just an expendable guy," he continued. "A five-day notice means she would have been notified that this was going to happen and she would’ve had the right to contest to it. She would have obviously contested to it, immediately, and they knew that and everyone knew that. They had to do everything possible to prevent that from happening."
6. Adnan Ghalib speaks about the first night of the conservatorship
Spears' ex-boyfriend, Adnan Ghalib, recounted the first night of her 2008 temporary conservatorship.
The celeb photographer alleged that he received a call from Jamie to bring Spears to her house — where he was reportedly waiting with four security guards and two law enforcement officials.
"They’re standing there and she freaks out," he claimed in the documentary. "'What are they doing here? Why are they here? Why is my father at my house? Who are these people? Why are the cops here?' And she looks at me. I’m supposed to be the one that protects her. I’m trying to calm her down, and I cannot."
"I’m trying to explain to her, 'He is your conservator. Without his permission, because he is you, I’ve kidnapped you.' And it’s that real. She just looks. She doesn’t talk anymore. She’s completely silent. You know, they escort her to the house. That’s when the realization was, 'OK, I don’t think things are going to be the same anymore.'"
7. Spears' medication was reportedly increased on performance days
Filmmaker Erin Lee Carr and Eliscu allege in Britney vs Spears that the mother-of-two had her medication increased on the days she was performing. This, they say, was reportedly during the time when she received a $15 million deal to be a judge in the X-Factor.
Citing that the deal caused Spears "undue stress", the filmmakers quoted a document that read: "On the one hand, Jamie and others on the team valued the benefits of stimulants for Britney’s performance.
"This had been the case for both of her tours and for her participation on X-Factor. By the same token Jamie wanted Britney not to take stimulants. This contradiction has not been resolved.”