- A former member of Britney Spears’ security team said he was asked to delete “sensitive” audio.
- The allegation was made in a clip from the new documentary “Controlling Britney Spears.”
- The staffer kept the footage since he felt it was “evidence” in Spears’ conservatorship struggles.
A former member of Britney Spears’ security detail said that the singer was being recorded — and that he was once asked to delete “extremely sensitive” audio footage by other members of Spears’ team.
In a clip from the new documentary, “The New York Times Presents: Controlling Britney Spears,” which premieres Friday at 10 p.m. ET on FX and
Hulu
, the unnamed staffer explains that he didn’t want to be “complicit,” and kept a copy of the “sensitive” audio.
“I had them tell me what was on it. They seemed very nervous and said that it was extremely sensitive,” the former employee recalled of being asked to “wipe” an audio recording device and USB drive, presumably with footage of Spears on it, by other team members.
The staffer said the other team members told him, “Nobody can ever know about this, and that’s why I need to delete everything on it, so there’s no record of it.”
But being asked to wipe the devices, he said in the clip, “raised so many red flags.”
“I did not want to be complicit in whatever they were involved in, so I kept a copy, because I don’t want to delete evidence,” the former employee said.
Insider reached out to representatives for Spears’ father Jamie, who is also the coconservator for her estate, and Black Box Security (the team that was allegedly involved in the incident) but they didn’t respond immediately.
“When Jamie was appointed Britney’s conservator back in 2008, he was given the authority to hire security for Britney 24/7 and no one really knew what they did,” Liz Day, co-creator of the documentary, told Good Morning America Friday.
“They’d be in the background of photos with Britney. But the level of control and the ways that they monitored and surveilled her, we certainly didn’t know … before,” She also added.
This allegation by the former staffer is the latest in Spears’ legal struggle to end the 13-year-old conservatorship.
Spears revealed in explosive court testimony that her conservatorship had been restrictive in many aspects. In fact, the singer detailed that she wanted to remove her IUD to have a baby, presumably with now-fiancé Sam Asghari, but that her conservatorship wouldn’t let her. The “Toxic” singer also said that the conservatorship wouldn’t allow her to marry, but she and Asghari have since announced their engagement.
“I’ve lied and told the whole world that I’m okay and that I’m happy,” Spears said during her June statement. “It’s a lie … I’ve been in denial. I’ve been in shock. I am traumatized.”
According to Spears’ legal team, Jamie Spears claimed that he had received millions of dollars in unjustified commissions from her work over the years.
Spears’ father denied the claims made by the singer in court, as well as in subsequent court documents. He recently stated that he will step down from conservatorship.
The next hearing in the conservatorship matter is set for September 29. A judge could rule on Jamie Spears’ fate as financial conservator.