After years of virtual captivity, Britney Spears is finally free — sort of.
Britney is no longer under the control of the court-ordered conservatorship that governed her every move and decision for most of her adult life.
But she’s still one of the most famous people on the planet, which means that she may never know true freedom.
The pop icon received a sad reminder of that dilemma over the weekend, when she and husband Sam Asghari attempted to enjoy a quiet dinner at a local restaurant.
In footage obtained by TMZ, Britney is seen covering her face with a menu and holding up her middle finger to patrons who insisted on recording her during her outing at Los Angeles hotspot JOEY on Friday night.
Witnesses claimed that Spears began “talking gibberish” and one onlooker claimed that the singer was behaving in a “manic” fashion.
Eventually, Spears and Asghari stormed off mid-meal, and a bodyguard for the couple came back to settle the bill.
As you can see, Britney was obviously a little irate, but it looks as though she had every reason to be.
At first it looked as though she and Asghari would decline to address the situation, but he broke the couple’s silence on Saturday night.
“Don’t believe what you read online people,” Ashgari wrote in his Instagram Story.
Britney followed suit on Sunday night, but she was obviously and understandably more upset about the situation than her husband seemed to be.
“I know the news is all hyped about me being a little drunk at a restaurant … it’s like they’ll be WATCHING MY EVERY MOVE !!!” Spears wrote on Instagram along with a video in which she flipped the bird to the camera.
“I’m so flattered they talk about me like a maniac THEN have the balls to talk about all the negative things that happened in my past !!!”
Britney’s got a valid point there.
The tabloid media has been playing both sides of the fence, in that most outlets were unabashedly Team Britney during the singer’s battle to free herself from her conservatorship.
But as soon as Brit won the fight against her father, the press began gleefully reporting accounts of Spears’ “erratic”and “unstable” behavior, thus suggesting that Jamie Spears might have been right to essentially enslave his daughter.
It’s the sort of opportunistic nonsense that Britney has been contending with her entire life.
Add to that the fact that she can’t go out to dinner without amateur paparazzi documenting her every move, and it’s not hard to see why Ms. Spears might be feeling a little irritated.
All of this comes on the heels of claims from Kevin Federline that Britney is an unfit mom who goes months without speaking to her kids.
When Brit finally convinced a judge that she’s capable of making her own decisions, fans rejoiced and looked forward to witnessing a new chapter in the life of the long-suffering star.
Unfortunately, it seems that the freedom and happiness that Spears deserves have remained elusive.
Here’s hoping happier days lie ahead in 2023.