Britney Spears is now #FreeBritney: Singer alleges her father forced her into hospital, report says

After Britney Spears spent the past several months telling fans on social media that she had voluntarily checked herself into a mental health facility, the singer reportedly has done an about-face and told a judge there was nothing at all voluntary about her recent 30-day rehab stay.

According to TMZ, Spears told a judge at a hearing this past Friday that her father, Jamie, committed her to the facility a month ago against her will and forced her to take drugs.

Britney Spears also wants to end the mental health conservatorship that Jamie Spears has had for the past 11 years, TMZ reported. The singer, 37, asked the judge to adjust the conservatorship so that she will have more freedom.

The judge on Friday declined to make a ruling on the conservatorship but has ordered an expert to evaluate the singer’s situation, TMZ reported.

Spears’ condition reportedly remains unstable, with the hearing ending in “bizarre” fashion, TMZ reported. The singer walked out of the courthouse barefoot, while fans chanted and held up signs saying “Free Britney.”

These fans no doubt are part of the #FreeBritney movement, an ad-hoc effort to raise questions about whether it’s still necessary for the singer to be under a conservatorship, which has been overseen by Jamie Spears since 2008. #FreeBritney-inspired rumors also have circulated online that allege that Britney Spears was held against her will in that treatment facility.

In the meantime, a family war has broken out, with Spears’ mother, Lynne, echoing some her daughter’s apparent new concerns about the conservatorship and her treatment, TMZ reported. Lynne Spears also is trying to reestablish a relationship with her daughter after the two had been estranged for nearly 15 years. Lynne Spears has been staying with her daughter at her home, and she attended Friday’s hearing after filing legal documents to gain access to Britney’s medical information.

The very public battle over Britney Spears’ mental and physical health began after she took a sudden break from her Las Vegas show in January, then reportedly checked herself into a mental health facility in April, supposedly to deal with stress over her father’s health. Last year, Jamie Spears, 66, underwent two emergency surgeries for a ruptured colon.

But there also were reports that Britney Spears sought a 30-day stay in the facility because the cocktail of meds she had been taking had become ineffective and left her unstable.

TMZ said Jamie Spears is widely credited with saving his daughter’s life when she had a very public mental health breakdown in 2007 and 2008. Contrary to many assumptions, Jamie Spears also does not have the power under the conservatorship to force his daughter into treatment or to take drugs she doesn’t want to take, TMZ said.

All along, Britney Spears — or someone acting on her behalf — has sought to allay fans’ concerns about her health or that she had been forced into treatment.

Last month, she took to Instagram to refute such rumors with a short video and caption that said, “I’m doing what’s best at the moment,” and “I am strong, and stand up for what I want.”

Spears also decried “all the crazy things being said” and claimed her family had become the subject of “death threats” over rumors being spread by some fans.

Spears alleged that Sam Lufti, her former manager, fueled some of those threats by taking to social media himself to spread rumors about her condition and to question whether her upbeat Instagram post was “staged” by her “barbaric handlers.”

“Continue to raise hell!” he declared in a tweet last month that has since been deleted. “Stop at nothing! Hold them accountable! Enough is enough!”

However, such exhortations prompted Spears — or attorneys saying they are acting on the singer’s behalf — to successfully seek a temporary restraining order against Lufti. The attorneys alleged that Lufti also had sent harassing and threatening texts to Spears’ family that had caused her “severe mental trauma.”

Amid all this legal, family and fan turmoil, Spears’ boyfriend, Sam Asghari, has kept churning out upbeat reports about his girlfriend, mostly recently on Sunday when he posted a Mother’s Day shout-out.

“Happy Mother’s Day to all the beautiful mothers out there doing the toughest job in the world!” Asghari wrote in a caption of a photo of himself with the singer. Spread is the mother of two boys — Sean, 13, and Jayden, 12 — with ex-husband Kevin Federline; they were married from 2004-07.