It’s been more than a year since Britney Spears‘ longtime conservatorship ended — and now, her dad Jamie Spears is speaking out on the ways in which he believes the court order kept his daughter alive.

Jamie, 70, said in a new interview with Il Daily Mail that while he knows his opinion on the conservatorship is divisive (Britney has repeatedly called it “abusivo”), he still thinks it was the right move.

“Not everybody’s going to agree with me. It’s been one hell of a time,” Egli ha detto. “But I love my daughter with all my heart and soul. Where would Britney be right now without that conservatorship? And I don’t know if she’d be alive. I don’t… For protecting her, and also protecting [her two teenage sons], conservatorship was a great tool.”

Britney, 41, was placed under the conservatorship in 2008, when her erratic behavior culminated in two involuntary 5150 holds in a psychiatric hospital. Jamie was removed as the conservator of her estate nel mese di settembre 2021, and the entire conservatorship was terminated two months later.

The decade Britney spent under her father’s thumb has continued to face scrutiny, as she has claimed it was a traumatic, controlling period, while Jamie maintains that he was acting in his daughter’s best interest.

“My understanding of a conservatorship is to help someone regain their life and return back to society, and to be able to live normally. I want to say that I made a difference,” ha detto a Mail. “There were a few people behind me that really helped bring it to a point where we could help her.”

Jamie, who currently lives with youngest daughter Jamie Lynn Spears, 31, in rural Louisiana, also claimed that Britney “non aveva soldi” when the conservatorship began, and that the order gave her resources that “allowed the finances to be better.”

Since the conservatorship ended, Britney has married longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari and bought a new house. The singer regularly uses social media as an outlet, and has accused Jamie, così come sua madre Lynne e sua sorella Jamie Lynn, of abuse.

in agosto, la stella shared a 22-minute video to YouTube and Twitter that reflected on the “trauma” of allegedly being forced to work and spend time in a mental health facility under Jamie’s watch.

Il “Hold Me Closer” singer claimed, in parte, that after refusing to do a dance move during rehearsals for her Las Vegas residency, Jamie had her placed in a “facility.”

“The next day I was told that I had to be sent away to a facility and that I was supposed to say on my Instagram the reason why was because my dad is sick and I need treatment,” ha ricordato. “I remember my dad calling me on the phone and I was crying and I was like, ‘Why are you guys doing this?’ And I just remember him saying, ‘You have to listen to the doctors, the doctors are going to tell you what to do. I can’t help you now.'”

lei ha continuato: “And I remember his last words were, ‘Now, you don’t have to go, but if you don’t go, we’re going to go to court and there’ll be a big trial and you’re going to lose. I have way more people on my side than you, you don’t even have a lawyer. So don’t even think about it.'”

The pop star also said she felt as though “my family threw me away.”

During his interview with the Mail, Jamie said Britney’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart “doesn’t have a clue what the truth is,” and neither does the media.

Rosengart did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, but has accused Jamie of being “cruel” e “abusivo” nel passato. A gennaio 2022, he also filed court documents claiming that Jamie misused Britney’s money and secretly obtained phone records and therapy notes, which Jamie denied.

“They’ve heard the allegations from Britney. I don’t mind taking that beating because I know it’s not true, and because I don’t want to start something else,” Jamie ha detto. “For my daughter to end up going further down the hole than she had been.”