Hulu's New Britney Spears Doc Claimed Her Dad Monitored All Her iPhone Activity
Well, that explains why she was so excited to get an iPad this year.
Britney Spears' dad Jamie Spears is inciting even more anger in the #FreeBritney movement. Hulu dropped a surprise documentary to Framing Britney Spears on Friday, Sept. 24, following up its buzzy Framing Britney Spears doc at the beginning of 2021, and it made several allegations against Jamie Spears' abusive role in her conservatorship, which has been in place since 2008. One of the most shocking revelations from Hulu's Controlling Britney Spears' was the claim that Jamie monitored her phone activity.
The surprise drop of The New York Times Presents: Controlling Britney Spears on FX and Hulu shocked fans in more ways than one. In the documentary, one of Spears' former security team members, Alex Vlasov, claimed that his boss asked him to "put parental controls" on the singer's cell phone. "Britney wanted to get an iPhone … and that was a big deal. Everybody was worried," Vlasov said.
The employee worked for Black Box Security from 2012 to 2021, and at the time, said he was shocked when his boss asked him to put parental security controls on Spears' phone. "[My boss] Edan [Yemini] approached me and asked me, 'Is there any monitoring services for an iPhone that you are aware of?' And I'm like, 'What do you mean?' And he's like, 'Well, parental controls. Is there any way you can put parental controls on an iPhone?'" alleged Vlasov.
Yemini then told Vlasov why they wanted to monitor Spears. "Edan explained to me that Britney's communication is monitored for her own security and protection," he said. Vlasov claims he promptly asked his boss Yemini "about the legality" of monitoring the singer's cellphone activity.
"[Edan] said, 'Yes, the court is aware of this. Britney's lawyer is aware of this. This is for her safety. It's for her protection,'" he continued.
The team reportedly synced an iPad to the iCloud account connected to Spears’ phone. Once in place, this iPad gave Spears' father Jamie complete access to his daughter's phone, allowing him to see all of her messages, browser history, and photos.
The ex-security team member explained that they reportedly kept that iPad in a safe. Vlasov then detailed just how far that monitoring went. "Their reason for monitoring was looking for bad influence, looking for potential illegal activity that might happen, but they would also monitor conversations with her friends, with her mom, with her lawyer Sam Ingham," Vlasov added. In addition to Jamie, Robin Greenhill of Spears’ management team also had monitoring access.
Hulu's Controlling Britney Spears documentary noted that monitoring Spears' text messages "without the consent of both parties could be a violation of the law" in the state of California, and it's unclear if the court knew of the issue or gave its approval.
Spears' attorney, Mathew Rosengart, said he would work "aggressively" to investigate the claims. "Intercepting or monitoring Britney's communications, especially sacrosanct attorney-client communications, represents a shameful and shocking violation of her privacy rights and civil liberties," Rosengart said.
Jamie has yet to comment on the allegations, but his lawyer, Vivian Lee Thoreen, released a statement for her client. "[Jamie Spears'] actions were done with the knowledge and consent of Britney, her court-appointed attorney and/or the court," said Thoreen.
Meanwhile, attorneys for both Black Box Security and Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group have denied involvement in anything illegal, with Tri Star's calling the claims "false."
The new information sheds a whole new light on Spears' recent excitement to own her very first iPad, which she shared in an enthusiastic Instagram post in August. Here's to hoping the #FreeBritney movement gives Spears all the freedom she could want.
