- Britney Spears' ex-manager Sam Lutfi told Insider in a DM her conservators "ruined both our lives."
- Lutfi was once in Spears' inner circle, but she has since gotten two restraining orders against him.
- Spears' parents have said Lutfi is responsible for Spears' 2008 mental-health crises.
Britney Spears' estranged former manager Sam Lutfi said her family and those behind the pop star's conservatorship "have ruined both our lives these past 13 years."
"The difference is that I have my freedom," Lutfi told Insider in a Twitter direct message on Thursday. "I can drive my car, spend my money, the real difference is that I have a loving stable and supportive family."
Lutfi acted as Spears' manager and was part of her inner circle in the early-to-mid 2000s, but Spears' parents, Jamie and Lynne, have been vocal about how they hold Lutfi responsible for the pop star's public mental-health crises in 2008 that ultimately led to Spears' conservatorship that year.
Spears was granted two restraining orders against Lutfi, one in 2009 and one in 2019.
Lutfi, in turn, sued Jamie and Lynne Spears after the two accused him of negatively affecting Britney Spears' mental health, but the three ultimately settled the case.
More recently, Lutfi tweeted ahead of Wednesday's conservatorship hearing that he was "listening to that court recording," apparently referring to Spears' explosive testimony last month in which she asked a Los Angeles court to end her "abusive" 13-year conservatorship. Spears' conservatorship gives other people, including her father, power over her personal life and finances.
"If she hates me after she's free I won't blame her," Lutfi tweeted about Spears on Wednesday ahead of her latest court hearing. "I failed her, I was supposed to protect her from all this, I let her down and we both paid dearly for it."
"Head in hands..I'm so sorry," he added.
—Sam Lutfi (@SamLutfi) July 14, 2021
CNN reported in 2019 that while she was filing for the most recent restraining order against Lutfi, Spears' court-appointed lawyers said Lutfi falsely alleged he was the singer's manager, "when in reality he was only a parasite attempting to gain attention by associating himself with her celebrity."
Spears' legal team also alleged Lutfi had attempted to "insinuate himself into Ms. Spears' life with disastrous results for her" and sent Lynne Spears "threatening" text messages, Lisa Respers France reported for CNN.
Once the restraining order was granted in 2019, Lutfi was ordered to stay 200 feet away from Spears and couldn't make any "disparaging" public comments about Spears, Spears' family, or her conservatorship team.
Lutfi told Insider on Thursday that he believed Britney Spears' conservators had "falsely accused" him in the past "of doing exactly what they were doing to her all along."
"They were projecting their demonic tendencies onto me," Lutfi said. "And gaslighting the world into believing they were her saviors ultimately they being the ones she needed to be saved from."
He added: "The system that empowered this abuse is in critical and dire need of reform."
While Lutfi didn't clarify what he meant by what the conservators "were doing to" Spears, Insider's Hillary Hoffower previously wrote that Spears' conservatorship was put in place to protect her from toxic people and safeguard her finances.
During her testimony last month, Spears said she was allowed little freedom in her personal life under the conservatorship and alleged that she was forced to work long hours and denied the right to remove her IUD.
Lutfi frequently tweets about Spears' conservatorship and shared a "celebratory post" on Wednesday after Judge Brenda Penny allowed Spears to appoint her own lawyer, Mathew S. Rosengart, for the first time since the start of the conservatorship in 2008.
—Sam Lutfi (@SamLutfi) July 14, 2021
Representatives for Britney, Jamie, and Lynne Spears didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment on Lutfi's allegations.