Britney Spears (L) and Iggy Azalea perform via video during the 2015 Billboard Music Awards. (Kevin Mazur/BMA2015/WireImage)
Iggy Azalea has claimed that she “personally witnessed” Britney Spears being mistreated by her father Jamie Spears, who tried to use “the same tactics” on her.
The Australian singer supported Britney’s claims that she is in an “abusive” conservatorship and said she is “not exaggerating” about Jamie’s control over her life.
Azalea said she has “personally witnessed the same behaviour” that Spears alleged in her bombshell 23-minute testimony last week.
The musicians collaborated in 2015 on the song “Pretty Girls“, and Azalea said in a Twitter statement Thursday (1 July) that Jamie made her sign a non-disclosure agreement before they performed the track at the Billboard Music Awards in 2015.
“Its [sic] basic human decency to at the very least remove a person Britney has identified as abusive from her life,” she said.
“This should be illegal. During the time we worked together in 2015, I personally witnessed the same behaviour Britney detailed in regards to her father last week and I just want to back her up & tell the world that: She is not exaggerating or lying.”
#FreeBritney pic.twitter.com/UPg7rkq0lW
— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) July 1, 2021
Iggy Azalea says Britney Spears’ dad forced her to sign NDA
During a court hearing on 23 June, Britney Spears called a permanent end to her conservatorship, the complex legal arrangement that oversees her personal care and finances. She said the setup was “abusive” and “traumatising” and compared it to “sex trafficking”.
Among other troubling claims, Spears said she was forced to go on a world tour in 2018 against her will.
“My management said if I don’t do this tour, I will have to find an attorney, and by contract my own management could sue me if I didn’t follow through with the tour,” she said. “He handed me a sheet of paper as I got off the stage in Vegas and said I had to sign it. It was very threatening and scary.”
Azalea alleged that Jamie Spears used similar tactics to the ones Britney spoke of.
“Her father conveniently waited until literally moments before our BMAs performance when I was backstage in the dressing room and told me if I did not sign an NDA he would not allow me on stage,” she said.
“The way he went about getting me to sign a contract, sounded similar to the tactics Britney spoke about last week in regards to her Las Vegas show.
“Jamie Spears has a habit of making people sign documents while under duress it seems, and Britney Spears should not be forced to co-exist with that man when she’s made it clear it is negatively impacting her mental health.
“This is not right at all.”
Iggy Azalea is the latest celebrity to come out swinging for Britney Spears, joining Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey and many more.
During her court testimony, Spears claimed she was forced into a rehabilitation programme as a “punishment” for speaking out against a piece of choreography and was “forced to take lithium”, leaving her feeling “drunk” for days. Her conservators also refused to set up a medical appointment to have her IUD removed, she alleged.
PinkNews contacted representatives of Jamie Spears for comment.