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Hello, everyone.

I hope you are all having a fabulous week.

I wanted to pop in for a quick sort of mini episode because as you guys may have seen,

my girl, Britney Spears has been in the news in the last week because there was a bit

of an incident, I guess, in thousand oaks where she lives.

So I wanted to talk about this because I do feel kind of compelled to say some things

because I'm seeing some takes that are, honestly, are bothersome to me and I just kind of

wanted to say my peace.

So yeah, if you guys haven't seen Britney was arrested for a suspected DUI last week in

March of 2026, now the thing that's been bothersome to me is that this has prompted a lot

of online discourse and I think some pretty misogynistic journalism, even coming from outlets,

including the New York Times, who produced that documentary that I appeared in, framing

Britney Spears that that musician impacted about how people understood Britney, but even

in their reporting about what happened with this DUI, a lot of what they were saying and

what other outlets have been saying in their promising of this potential incident is that in

the months leading up to this, Britney has been seen showing nipple in dance videos and in one

video, she had a scratch knee so people have been really concerned. And I think that there's

this sort of like cultural brushing over or acceptance of what I'm viewing here as like really,

this is misogyny. I don't know why outlets would be talking about her showing her nipple for any

reason if we really examine it other than really sort of shaming Britney for choosing to be sexual.

And this is really upsetting to me because obviously Britney Spears is someone who was sexualized

as a child. She is someone who other children were encouraged to be sexual because of. And so now

here she is choosing to be sexual in a way that I think a lot of the people that saw her as a child

sex symbol don't now find sexy. And I think if people are being honest, that is what they're

bumping up against when they look at these videos of Britney dancing and maybe they don't find it

sexy, but she's choosing to put herself out there because she finally has agency in her life.

So to me, it comes off as is really just sexist when any kind of an outlet is talking about how

she's appearing in those videos and the degree to which she's looking put together as a woman.

I think it's also worth pointing out that just a couple days after Britney got this alleged DUI

that an NBA player got a DUI. The forward for the fianic sons was arrested for DUI just a

couple days later. And I do think this speaks to this idea of, you know, suppose in mistakes

that Britney Spears makes or that frankly women make are viewed at a different standard than

famous men. And I think that's really the crux of the Britney story. I think that Britney Spears

has always been held to a different standard than other celebrities. I think this is clear in

the fact that her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake very publicly got a DUI and there were not calls

to conserve him. There were not questions of, oh, should Justin Timberlake be in charge of his life.

So I think this is really problematic and it bothers me as someone who devoted years of my life

to trying to shed some light on what had actually happened to Britney Spears.

There are a lot of details involved in what happened with how she got conserved and why it was

unconstitutional and illegal and an act of really severe abuse that was enabled by the court system.

And, you know, please listen to my podcast toxic, the Britney Spears story if you haven't.

But it's not something that's really easy to explain in short sound bites, which is maybe

where some of this lack of nuance is coming from. But the TLDR is Britney Spears was taken over by

her abusive father at the behest of the California court system with the help of a business manager

who knew quite a bit about managing the estates of celebrities who, whether they were alive or not,

had a lot of money. That's what happened. And so to talk about anything post Britney getting out

of the conservatorship in terms of, oh, did we make a mistake by getting her out of that situation?

I think shows a really severe lack of knowledge about what Britney went through. Of course,

I do not think that she should go back to being conserved. And it makes me feel like all this

work to kind of advocate for victims of conservatorship abuse has been forgotten. So I do just want to

reiterate the point of the free Britney movement was number one to help Britney Spears get out of

the conservatorship. She had been illegally placed in by raising awareness about that issue

because Britney herself was in a legal situation where she could not advocate for herself in that way

because she was facing consequences, including not being able to see her children if and when she

did speak out about this conservatorship. So people outside of Britney's world were vocal about what

was going on because Britney really did not seem to be able to. The point of the free Britney movement

was never, at least in my view. And I think I was one of the leaders of it. The point was never,

okay, we are going to be here for all of Britney Spears's life. And we're going to be here

making sure that we are responsible for every decision that she makes. And we're now going to be

sort of the ones controlling her life. No, the idea was all human beings deserve autonomy,

certainly including Britney Spears. That's a different issue than saying nobody's ever going to

make a mistake. Saying that it's actually saying that somebody deserves autonomy is admitting that

they're going to make missteps. We all make mistakes and we all make missteps. And I think adult

people and free people have to deal with those missteps and deal with the consequences of those

actions. So I think that's why it's absurd and insulting and bothersome when people are using

this incident. And then I don't know for sure that she even was driving under the influence. And

I think that's another really important point to make. One of Britney's longtime friends and

assistants, this guy named Sean Phillips, has been kind of in the last couple of days doing this

sort of press tour where he's been saying, listen, I think it's very suspicious that Britney just

got all this money. As I talked about in my recent episode with Thaps Gray, Britney did just sell

her music catalog. And so she is I think flush with liquidity. So the timing is suspicious. And

that's what her friend Sean Phillips is saying. It's really weird that she just got control of her

money. And then all of a sudden, she's being arrested. And here comes her family. And this friend

of Britney's who does seem to have shown recent texts exchanges with journalists. So he does,

people are seeming to find him credible. I have not talked to Sean personally. So I don't know.

But he seems to be texting with her recently. And so the fact that there's a friend out there

kind of pounding the pavement and saying, Hey, there's something really suspicious about this

arrest to me. I'm worried about people in Britney's life trying to get their paws on that money she

just had. It causes concern for me. Now, the biggest red flag around this entire arrest story or

whatever it is comes from a statement that was made by somebody who at first identified themselves

to the New York Times as just a representative for Britney. Then spoke to TMZ and identified

themselves as Cade Hudson. Cade Hudson, if you were not familiar, like super familiar with the

Britney world is Britney's quote-unquote long time best friend. He acted as her agent at CAA for

a long time. He very much has been involved in the career aspects of Britney's life. I do know

that he has a close professional relationship with Larry Rudolph, who was a driving force in

Britney's career for a very long time. So Cade Hudson is very much a business guy. I've always found

it weird or sad, I guess, rather that this is someone who, when I do see Britney socializing,

it's often with this individual. Cade has been accused of sexually harassing people and

sexually assaulting people in the past. Cade has done some things that maybe if you've been

paying attention to my involvement with the Britney story for a while, you can read between

the lines and think of some of the personal interactions I've had with Cade Hudson. But

I don't really know. Maybe this is someone who is really good friends with Britney Spears still

seems to be kind of the case, but he is part of her business career. He is part of her

entertainment career. So I don't really know. This statement from him came out mere hours

after Britney was arrested in thousand oaks. So I don't know why a business representative

is so quick to be talking to the media. So shortly after this event, when Britney has made it,

I think pretty clear that she's not working on a professional capacity. At the moment,

the absolute icon that is Britney Spears did put on her jail paperwork that her profession is

celebrity, which she just she delivers every time I love her. But I actually do think that's

kind of telling right? She didn't write singer. She didn't write pop star. I don't get the sense

that Britney is really interested in having a very active career right now. So it's weird to me

that somebody from her career world made a statement right away, but this statement really rubbed

me the wrong way. Cade Hudson released a statement to TMZ that said, this was an unfortunate incident

that is completely inexcusable. Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law

and hopefully this can be the first step in a long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney's

life. Yeah, I don't like this at all. The completely inexcusable verbiage that Cade is using here

is is honestly something that I've really never seen any celebrity's representative ever use

about their own client. And I think I should go without saying I'm aware that drunk driving is

wrong. I know it's dangerous. And that's why it's against the law, right? So if it's true that

Britney was driving under the influence, she's going to face legal ramifications for that.

Which really I think means that there's no need for anyone else to be punishing her,

talking down to her. And this verbiage, it's completely inexcusable. It's so patronizing.

It's so infantilizing. And I don't understand why anyone who's a representative of any celebrity

would be talking like this because your rap is your employee. So if he's Britney Spears agent or

manager or whatever he's calling himself these days, he is Britney's employee. So to be saying

publicly, this is the first and only front facing statement that went out to every outlet.

This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable. The not so subtle subtext there

is Britney is in trouble. Don't worry guys. Our girl is in trouble. This really to me is scary

because it points to this kind of disturbing kind of dynamic that seems to be going on still

with people around Britney Spears. Now again, to my knowledge, I was in the courtroom when Britney was

emancipated from her conservatorship. She is a completely free woman. My understanding is that

she has the ability to get people like Kate out of her life if she wants. So I hope that's the case

that she does fully have legal freedom. Now there has been this kind of squishy area around the

termination of her conservatorship or something called a care plan was put in place between Britney's

attorney and her former conservator. That language is really vague, but it does indicate that some

people are kind of checking in and making sure that she's okay, which I don't, in theory,

that could be totally fine, right? It's such vague language and we don't know what that means,

but there do seem to be some people who have some kind of supervisory role in Britney's life,

but this is really disturbing to me. The idea that the public is owed any kind of an update about

the degree to which Britney's in trouble with the people around her. The idea of anyone's

representative throwing them under the bus when they're already having a really rough day and they're

in a really dark time, it really makes me sad. Because one thing that I do know as an outsider looking

at the Britney story is that this is someone who really deserves just companionship and deserves

to know that she's loved and supported and has had her trust violated at every corner. You know,

all of us outsiders who have been paying attention know that and that's why I think anyone who was

really in the free Britney movement kind of knew that it was going to be a long road hopefully

for Britney to reclaim her life. She had undergone just so much trauma. Again, she was being

surveilled by her family, by her business manager. She had drugs forced onto her. Britney and her

own Instagram posts had said she lived through like some really serious trauma. She said I had a

traumatic experience as some of you might know for four months. I no longer had a private door and

was illegally forced not to use my feet or body to go anywhere. And she's talking about this is the

institution that she was placed in against her will that the free Britney movement helped get her

out of in the same post. She says I do feel like my wings were taken away and brain damage happened

to me a long time ago 100%. So that's Britney's own words saying that. So I do think that we've lost

a little bit of track of the gravity of what Britney Spears was put through. And I think pointing

to how clean is her apartment, how covered up are her nipples. This is unacceptable. I think this

is really failing to point the blame at the individuals who are very much responsible for what

happened to Britney Spears. The individuals who continue to walk free and potentially do this to

other people. And what is unacceptable to me is what a group of individuals were able to do

and profit off of with Britney Spears. And I think that is where the anger needs to be pointed.

So much of this story is coming from TMZ. This is a TMZ ground up story. Harvey Levin has long,

he's spoken publicly about how profitable Britney Spears has been for him for now decades.

We have very good reason to believe that Harvey Levin has been in bed with Jamie Spears. He's

published unflattering stories about Britney as almost as long as TMZ has existed. And they

are cranking out content around this story. And I'm seeing these other outlets. I'm seeing the

New York Times, the Wall Street Journal hit me up for a quote this morning. So these other papers

are taking the TMZ news cycle and spinning it into something else. But the really they're just

sourcing the same uninformed points of view. And it's really infuriating. I did sit down for an

interview with ABC News this week because I wanted to say some of this stuff. I wanted to stand

up for Britney and for this movement that really has done incredible work in advocating for people

with disabilities and getting laws changed. And the interviewer did ask me one question that I

can go under my skin. He said, well, I think, you know, at the end of the day, we're going to find out

if free Britney was right, right? We'll see how everything pans out. And I think that's really

missing the point. No, the idea behind the free Britney movement does not need to stand the

test of time. An individual who was in a really scary, sad, dangerous situation got out of that

situation. That will always be a good thing. What happens next is up to Britney. And we all

want the best for her. And I hope every, honestly, every single day that she's having in them

like as healthy and amazing of a life as possible. But none of that could ever negate

getting Britney Spears out of this tragic situation. My only regret is that the free Britney movement

didn't get there sooner. Period. So that's my kind of two cents. And full stop, none of these

misinformed people made blackout have done anything as iconic as Britney Spears. They didn't have

juicy jumpsuits at their wedding. And they just don't understand Britney Spears. But I know you guys

do. So thanks for listening.