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- Britney Spears’ social-media presence has made fans theorize about her conservatorship.
- Cassie Petrey, who helps with Spears’ social media, said that Spears runs her own Instagram.
- Petrey said #FreeBritney rumors about Spears’ social-media posts are false.
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Britney Spears’ Instagram presence has frequently provided conspiracy-theory fodder for her fans who believe she is using her social media to share clues about her controversial conservatorship. But the woman whom Spears reportedly hired to help run her social media said the theories are “inaccurate.”
In a post on her own Instagram Wednesday, Cassie Petrey, whom Vanity Fair and People have reported is Spears’ social media manager, said that Spears, 38, has the final say over what gets posted on her Instagram, including her dance videos, selfies, and photos of flowers.
“Britney creates her own posts and writes her own captions for Instagram. She finds the google images, Pinterest images, quotes, memes, and everything else herself. Nobody is suggesting any of that stuff to her,” Petrey wrote, adding that Spears often edits her own videos.
The post comes after months of speculation from fans who theorize in TikTok videos and Twitter threads that Spears is asking for help through her lighthearted and unique posting style. Fans participating in the #FreeBritney movement, which seeks to free the star from the conservatorship, have also questioned whether Petrey herself was hired in relation to the conservatorship. Spears' father, Jamie Spears, continues to be her conservator, after the singer twice requested his removal and was denied.
Spears often posts clips of her answering questions she says followers want answers to, such as her favorite color or her goals for the new year.
"She is literally just living her life and trying to have fun on Instagram. She has a team to help strategize like any major celebrity generally does at this point in her career," Petrey said.
Petrey said that while she "adore[s] the Britney Spears fan base," followers who interpret her posts as secret messages related to her conservatorship - the guardianship she's been under since 2008 that gave her father control over her financial assets - are mistaken. "Britney is not 'asking for help' or leaving secret messages in her social media," Petrey said in the post.
Petrey added that her hiring had nothing to do with the conservatorship and that she was not hired by Lou Taylor, Spears' former business manager.
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Spears' fans have for more than a decade advocated for the end of the conservatorship, arguing that the 38-year-old is more than capable of running her own life.
The #FreeBritney movement has drawn support from celebrities including Paris Hilton and Rose McGowan, and hundreds of thousands of people signed a petition last summer urging the White House to put an end to the court-ordered conservatorship. When Spears has conservatorship hearings in Los Angeles, fans travel from across the country to protest outside the courthouse.
A publicist for Spears did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.