P!nk is the latest pop star to extend their support to Britney Spears after watching the Framing Britney Spears documentary.
Spears entered into a conservatorship in 2008 after suffering a public breakdown in 2007, which gave her father, Jamie Spears, full control over his daughter’s financial and personal affairs. The New York Times documentary that premiered via FX and Hulu on Feb. 5 pulls back the curtain on the pop star’s ongoing legal battles while shining a light on the #FreeBritney movement — which has gained many A-list supporters after its premiere — and the misogynistic media scrutiny she faced in the early 2000s.
Around the same time, the “Beautiful Trauma” singer was coming into the same spotlight and even pitted against Spears and fellow pop superstar Christina Aguilera. P!nk told People earlier this month about the scrutiny they all faced and how “unfair” it was, especially when she was even labeled as an “anti-Britney” figure in music. Now, she’s proving just how pro-Britney she is.
In a new interview on Watch What Happens Live! With Andy Cohen on Thursday, P!nk described Spears as “a sweetheart.” But she noted that as someone looking at her situation from the outside, “None of us know what’s going on. We’re not there. I would like to. I think we would all like to, and we feel this fierce protectiveness over her, for good reason,” she said.
“I felt sad that back then I didn’t know — back in the day, in the early days — I didn’t know. … Like, I’m a strong person. I could’ve reached out more,” the 41-year-old pop icon added. “I don’t like feeling helpless or powerless, and I can only imagine how she feels. She could’ve used some support. The media tore her apart, and the paparazzi are scum. I just wish I could’ve reached out and gave her hug.”
The 39-year-old pop star has been reaching back out to her “empathetic and concerned” fans via Instagram about how she feels after watching the documentary. “My life has always been very speculated …watched … and judged really my whole life !!!” Spears wrote on on March 30 in her first response to the film. “I didn’t watch the documentary but from what I did see of it I was embarrassed by the light they put me in. I cried for two weeks and well …. I still cry sometimes !!!!”
Earlier this month, Spears weighed in on the subsequent movies being made about her life in a recent IG dancing clip from May 3. On the one hand, she wrote how “deeply flattered” she felt about the upcoming docs, while also condeming them as “hypocritical” for how “they criticize the media and then do the same thing.”
“Why highlight the most negative and traumatizing times in my life from forever ago ???? I mean DAMN,” she wrote.
At Sunday’s 2021 Billboard Music Awards, P!nk will perform and receive the ICON Award, an honor previously given to Stevie Wonder, Prince, Cher, Mariah Carey and more. The Billboard Music Awards — where The Weeknd is the leading finalist, with nods in 16 categories — air live Sunday on NBC at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
See P!nk’s Watch What Happens Live interview below.
