Britney Spears' former manager Sam Lutfi says the singer's parents 'have ruined both our lives'
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Debanjali Bose
Jul 16, 2021, 03:53 IST
Sam Lutfi with Britney Spears in 2007, a year before her conservatorship was put in place.
Chris Wolf/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Britney Spears' ex-manager Sam Lutfi told Insider via DM her conservators "ruined both our lives."
Lutfi was once in Spears' inner circle but she has since gotten two restraining orders against him.
Spears' parents have said Lutfi is responsible for Spears' 2008 mental health crises.
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Britney Spears' estranged former manager Sam Lutfi said her family and those behind the pop star's conservatorship "have ruined both our lives these past 13 years."
"The difference is that I have my freedom," Lutfi told Insider via Twitter direct message on Thursday. "I can drive my car, spend my money, the real difference is that I have a loving stable and supportive family."
More recently, Lutfi tweeted ahead of Wednesday's conservatorship hearing that he was "listening to that court recording," apparently referring to Spears' explosive June testimony where she asked a Los Angeles court to end her "abusive" 13-year conservatorship. Spears' conservatorship gives other people, including Jamie, power over her personal life and finances.
"If she hates me after she's free I won't blame her," Lutfi tweeted about Spears on Wednesday, ahead of her latest court hearing. "I failed her, I was supposed to protect her from all this, I let her down and we both paid dearly for it."
CNN reported in 2019 that while filing for the most recent restraining order against Lutfi, Spears' then-court-appointed lawyers said Lutfi falsely claimed he was the singer's manager "when in reality he was only a parasite attempting to gain attention by associating himself with her celebrity."
Spears' legal team also claimed Lutfi had attempted to "insinuate himself into Ms. Spears' life with disastrous results for her" and sent Lynne "threatening" text messages, Lisa Respers France reported for CNN.
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Once the restraining order was granted in 2019, Lutfi was ordered to stay 200 feet away from Spears and couldn't make any "disparaging" public comments about Spears, Spears' family, and her conservatorship team.
Lutfi told Insider on Thursday that he believed Spears' conservators had "falsely accused" Lutfi in the past "of doing exactly what they were doing to her all along."
"They were projecting their demonic tendencies onto me," Lutfi told Insider. "And gaslighting the world into believing they were her saviors ultimately they being the ones she needed to be saved from."
"The system that empowered this abuse is in critical and dire need of reform," he added.
While Lutfi didn't clarify what he meant by what the conservators "were doing to" Spears, Insider's Hillary Hoffower previously wrote that Spears' conservatorship was put in place to protect her from potentially toxic people and safeguard her finances.
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During her June testimony, Spears said she's allowed little freedom in her personal life under the conservatorship and made serious allegations, like being forced to work long hours and being denied the right to remove her IUD.
Representatives for Spears, Jamie, and Lynne didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment on Lutfi's allegations.
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