Britney Spears’ Most Concerning Moments Over the Years

Britney Spears is one of the music industry’s most iconic artists, but her legacy has taken a few hits over the years.

Acting Out

Britney walked into a salon in Tarzana, Calif., in February 2007 and shaved her own head after the stylist refused to do it. Days later, she attacked a photographer’s truck with an umbrella. “Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back,” she wrote in her 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me, per People.

VMAs Performance

Her September 2007 performance of “Gimme More” at the MTV Video Music Awards was supposed to be a comeback moment — her first onstage appearance in three years. Instead, looking visibly dazed and out of sync, Britney was ridiculed by critics. According to People, she later revealed in her memoir she’d suffered a panic attack before taking the stage.

Psychiatric Holds

In January 2008, she was involuntarily hospitalized — twice — under a 5150 psych hold. First, Britney was taken to L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after isolating herself in a bathroom with her younger son. Weeks later, she was escorted to UCLA Medical Center by a motorcade of police vehicles and helicopters.

Losing Custody

Amid Britney’s mental-health struggles, a judge suspended the singer’s visitation rights with her sons and awarded sole custody to their father in early 2008. The heartbreaking move came months after she lost primary custody in late 2007 when a court declared her a “habitual, frequent and continuous [user] of controlled substances and alcohol,” per The Guardian.

Conservatorship Hell

A judge placed Britney and her estate in a temporary conservatorship at father Jamie’s request in February 2008. It was later made permanent, granting him near-total control over her life and finances for more than 13 years until a judge in November 2021 ended what Britney described as an “abusive” arrangement that left her “traumatized,” per Variety.

Scaring Fans

Authorities performed a wellness check at her home in September 2023 following calls from concerned fans after the pop star posted Instagram videos of herself dancing with knives. She later claimed they were “fake knives” and told her worried followers to “lighten up.”