Britney Spears’ fans have long speculated that someone besides Britney Spears was responsible for running her oft-bizarre social media account — and now her former makeup artist Billy Brasfield is speaking out to confirm long-running suspicions.
He claims he personally spoke to Britney and that she told him she had no control over her photo captions.
via Page Six:
In a post showing Britney dancing, the caption from her own Instagram states, “I didn’t watch the documentary but from what I did see of it I was embarrassed by the light they put me in … I cried for two weeks and well …. I still cry sometimes !!!!”
Brasfield, who has also worked with Mariah Carey, Beyonce and Christina Aguilera, contends of Britney, “The content is her, but … the words are NOT how she feels.”
Brasfield posted on his Instagram claiming that Britney told him that, “Of course watching certain things that are now so far in HER past … circumstances that she has already lived through, and has moved beyond, that are now being brought up over and over, can be #emotional. She ‘deals’ with it, and frankly very well … she is not ‘fragile’.”
Brasfield — who worked with Britney on “The X Factor” in 2012 through her 2013 video “Scream and Shout” — tells Page Six of the post, “I immediately knew it was not her,” alleging, “I texted her about it and she texted me back last night.”
“What was upsetting [about the post] — it was basically a narrative denouncing her fans and the Free Britney movement and people now taking a very conscious look at the facts and what is going on,” he tells us.
“Although it might be complicated for her, of course she is invested. It’s her life. She does not like being a victim, she never wanted to be a victim and doesn’t see herself as a victim. She sees herself as a survivor and has navigated this with patience and strategy.”
Brasfield believes that the post was meant to distract people from what is currently happening in court with Britney’s financial matters and conservatorship.
On Tuesday, Page Six reported that Britney’s father Jamie, who functions as her conservator, filed legal papers seeking to have the “Toxic” singer’s estate pay more than $3 million in legal fees — including nearly $2 million to his own lawyers.
“If approved by the judge, this money would come from Britney’s estate, meaning she essentially would be paying her own father’s lawyers to fight her in court,” a source told Page Six.
Jamie has also requested to continue receiving $16,000 per month for his role as co-conservator of the estate — as well as $2,000 per month for an office space.
Fans have been speculating Britney did not write the social post, with one tweeting “There is not a single chance that Britney wrote this #FreeBritney.”
But Cassie Petrey, who runs Spears social media for the company Crowd Surf, in February commented on the rumors, insisting, “Britney creates her own posts and writes her own captions for Instagram.”
“She finds the Google images, Pinterest images, quotes, memes and everything else herself. Nobody is suggesting any of that stuff to her.”
Continuing, “Britney is not ‘asking for help’ or leaving secret messages in her social media. She is literally just living her life and trying to have fun on Instagram. My work on Britney’s social media does not involve her conservatorship in any way. That’s a court and lawyer thing … These are facts.”
A separate source close to Britney’s camp insists that the superstar wrote the social media post and alleged of Brasfield, “If he thinks he is speaking with Britney, he is not. He has no relationship with her. Maybe he is being catfished by someone pretending to be her.”
Jamie controlled Spears’ estate from 2008 until 2019 when he stepped aside due to health problems. Licensed fiduciary Jodi Montgomery temporarily replaced Jamie and has since taken steps to permanently succeed him at the star’s request.
Reps for Britney declined to comment, and her lawyers didn’t respond to us. Crowd Surf did not comment further.
Whatever source is speaking out that’s “close to Britney’s camp” isn’t doing the situation any favors with that little tidbit. It would suggest Britney doesn’t have control over her phone — which is exactly what most people suspect. Anyway, #FreeBritney.
