NEWSBritney Spears' Parents Say Her Troubles Began After Split From Justin Timberlake
Oct. 20 2012, Published 1:50 p.m. ET
Although the changes in Britney Spears were not obvious to her fans until around 2006, Britney's parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, say they actually began all the way back in 2002, after she split from first love Justin Timberlake. Both Jamie and Lynne insist the relationship ended "painfully."
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Jamie's lawyer, Leon Gladstone, made this point in court Friday — Jamie and his ex-wife, Lynne, are currently fighting a defamation lawsuit filed by their daughter's former manager, Sam Lutfi. Gladstone claimed that Jamie attempted to get Britney into rehab back in 2006, after she plummeted into a downward spiral following another split, from husband Kevin Federline.
"It's a story of a man who actually wanted nothing more for his daughter than to live and be well. It's a story of a father who has had to step up and take action that he never thought he would have to take... actions that didn't perhaps endear his daughter to him," Gladstone told the court of his client's side.
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It is Jamie who convinced Kevin to obtain sole legal custody of his two children with Britney.
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"(Jamie) had to take her kids away. He had to get her into a conservatorship. He is scared to death, and he's thinking to himself, 'My daughter has lost everything. Here she is, in a psychiatric ward, out of her head.'" (Britney was hospitalized on an involuntary psychiatric hold in early 2008.)
Justin and Britney haven't been seen together since ending their relationship — Justin just married longtime girlfriend Jessica Biel Friday, the same day these revelations came out in court.
