Dead, Locked Up, Delivered: The Wild Conspiracy Theories Surrounding Britney Spears

A bright white smile, long blond hair and a voice you recognize from the first note: Britney Spears was a pop star like no other in the 00s.

The singer is now 41 years old and the ‘News’ that is published about her is no longer about her music, but only about her turbulent private life. There are all sorts of strange conspiracy theories floating around about her persona – so that your pop culture knowledge is up to date, we explain what it’s all about.

The #FreeBritney movement has been around since 2008: the photos of her mental breakdown, including a freshly shaved bald head, went around the world in 2007 and marked the beginning of a years-long public battle against her family. As a result, she was committed to a psychiatric hospital against her will and placed under the custody of her father, Jamie Spears, a year later. For thirteen years, the pop star had no control over her finances, her professional and personal life, and even her body. However, she continued to produce albums and perform regular shows in Las Vegas. Her fans, meanwhile, are demanding that their idol be freed from what they see as an abuse of control over their father.

A court decided in 2021 to dissolve custody at Britney’s request. At trial, she testified that she had to act and involuntarily use contraceptives. After the successful trial, she publicly thanked her fans and the #FreeBritney movement for their support.

So Britney Spears was rescued from the clutches of custody, her fans cheered, and the world seemed to be right again. At the end of 2022, conspiracies arose that Britney was not free after all, but was being held captive. Or be dead, or be in a mental institution. Speculators disagree on what exactly is going on with Britney and where she is. But one thing is certain for her: she is not feeling well and urgently needs help.

The following is a list of things that parts of Spears’ fan base find so bizarre that they can only explain them with conspiracies.

Most of the “arguments” for her dark theories have been found by her hardcore fans on Britney’s Instagram channel. The photos and videos posted there are proof that something is wrong with the pop star. The conspirators are convinced that Britney’s account is not controlled by herself, but by people who want to cover up how she is really doing. The suspects: her family, her management and her now ex-husband. You have to dive deep into the technical tricks: with green screen and AI, such images are known to be easy to generate.

It’s fair to say at this point that her Instagram surprises to say the least. Malicious gossip might claim it’s even disturbing at times. Aside from the fact that Britney alternately deactivates her account and then floods her with photos and videos, her captions are also often muddled.

Her feed mainly consists of videos of her dancing (she constantly twirls half naked and stares apathetically at the camera), selfies and cheesy quotes reminiscent of the Facebook era.

There are Instagram pages specially designed for this purpose, which examine video by video for possible malfunctions. So moments when the filter slips, hands look weird or a tattoo changes position. For example, in the following video, her followers noticed that the yellow flower in the background suddenly disappeared in the second half of the video.

Another specialty of the passionate researchers is interpreting their captions.

There are thousands of posts on Instagram under hashtags like #Freebritney, #Whereisbritney, and #Britneyisnotfree, further cementing the conspiracy theories surrounding the “disappeared” Britney.

In June 2022, Britney married 29-year-old model Sam Asghari after five years of dating. Now she has let it be known that they already want to break up again. She wrote on Instagram: “Six years is a long time so I’m a little shocked. But I’m not here to explain it to myself, because frankly, it’s nobody’s business.”

With the divorce, the supporters of the Britney plot also bring back memories of the ‘fake wedding’. Britney would not have been present at this, but rather played by a body double (proof of this is provided by the tooth gap visible on the videos, which Britney never had). Videos are piling up on social media of conspirators analyzing the party’s photos in detail. They wondered why there were so many professionally shot portraits of the groom, but only grainy, semi-blurred images of the bride. Anyone who searches for the wedding photos online will quickly find what they are looking for and can get their own idea of ​​the “fake Britney”.

The guest list also raised eyebrows among the conspirators: their children were not present. Instead celebrities like Selena Gomez, who actually had nothing to do with Britney. The wedding at Spears’ home was also crashed by her ex-husband Jason Alexander. Equipped with a knife, he live-streamed his break-in via Instagram and then refused to leave the premises. The #FreeBritney community then called him a hero trying to protect their idol.

The deeper you dive into the wild theories, the more plausible they seem to become. The issues are real and Britney Spears’ Instagram looks messy compared to other celebrities’ channels. It may be that the pop icon is struggling with psychological problems. Given the restrictive and all-encompassing custody she’s experienced over the past decade, this should come as no surprise. And Britney may edit her videos with AI-generated filters, but how many stars do without at all these days? That there would be a diabolical plan behind it is far-fetched. Nevertheless, #FreeBritney supporters will go on and on and on about it, trying to further substantiate their point, arguments or not.