The public support has been pouring in for Britney Spears since she publicly testified last week about what it’s been like to live under a conservatorship for the past 13 years, and now Christina Aguilera, Spears’ former co-star on The Mickey Mouse Club—and one of her contemporaries—is among them.
On Monday night, Aguilera posted a thread sharing her thoughts about Spears and what she’s going through. While Justin Timberlake, another one of their Mickey Mouse Club co-stars, posted a message of support immediately (which he was then dragged for because of his perceived role in the events that led to her conservatorship), Aguilera waited a few days before responding.
“These past few days I’ve been thinking about Britney and everything she is going through,” Aguilera tweeted alongside a photo of her and Spears when they were teenagers. “It is unacceptable that any woman, or human, wanting to be in control of their own destiny might not be allowed to live life as they wish.”
Aguilera highlighted the toll that the silence and lack of support must’ve taken on Spears, calling it the “most depleting, devastating and demeaning thing imaginable.” But she also pointed out the cruelty of Spears’ most disturbing allegation that her conservatorship is forcing her to keep an IUD in her body and refuses to let her get married or have more children.
“While I am not behind the closed doors of this very layered & personal yet public conversation—all I can do is share from my heart on what I’ve heard, read and seen in the media,” she continued. “The conviction and desperation of this plea for freedom leads me to believe that this person I once knew has been living without compassion or decency from those in control.”
Aguilera has first-hand experience with much of the media narrative that Spears had been subjected to. As two pop stars who broke out around the same time, Spears and Aguilera were often pitted against each other—Spears had a “wholesome” image while Aguilera was seen as a “bad girl.” But a feud that involved perceived slights and digs in the press also perpetuated their rivalry. By 2018, Aguilera said that their feud probably wouldn’t have happened today, noting that “if we had social media back then, we would have probably done a song together and just squashed it” and said she was open to collaborating with Spears. But in 2021, Aguilera is fully in Spears’ corner.
“To a woman who has worked under conditions and pressure unimaginable to most, I promise you she deserves all of the freedom possible to live her happiest life,” Aguilera said.