Andy Cohen opened up about his bizarre experience interviewing Britney Spears.
“I interviewed her for her album release party, I think for Glory and her manager at the time, I think it was Larry Rudolph, thought that it would be a good way for me to get to know her and then if I got to know her, maybe someday she would do Watch What Happens Live because she didn’t like going on shows where she didn’t know the host,” Cohen, 55, said on Thursday, October 26, during his SiriusXM show Radio Andy. “And this would be a way for me to build my relationship with her. So I flew to L.A. to just interview her.”
Before Cohen got the chance to meet Spears, 41, at the 2016 release party, he asked his friends Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey what he could expect from the pop star. The duo, who were filming a documentary about Spears at the time, warned Cohen that there was a woman “who is at Britney‘s side at all times” who would tell “her what to do and where to go.”
“And I get there and this woman was there and it was like Britney was her captive. She was her captor,” Cohen explained of Spears’ handler who is mentioned in her recently released memoir, The Woman in Me. “Now Britney mentions her by name in the book a lot and how much she hated her and I’m not gonna mention her name because I don’t want to get sued, but it was really creepy.”
As Cohen was getting ready to start the interview, the mystery woman approached the Spears to privately talk to her.
“We’re sitting up there on stage with me and Britney and Will.i.am and she comes up, says something in her ear and Britney‘s like, ‘Mm-hmm, mm-hmm,’” he said. “ And I remember they brought me in to meet Britney before the interview and I was in some room and they brought Britney a birthday cake and they’re like, ‘Happy birthday, Britney. Surprise,’ and Britney goes, ‘It’s not my birthday. My birthday was last month,’ and I’m like, ‘What are they doing?’ You know and it was clearly for the cameras, and it was just all so weird.”
Spears was under her controversial conservatorship for 13 years. Her father, Jamie Spears, was appointed as the conservator of Britney’s finances and personal life in 2008 after his daughter faced a series of public struggles. In her memoir, Britney revealed that her dad had complete control over her work schedule, dating life, social life, money, medication and diet.
“In my old life I’d had freedom: the freedom to make my own decisions, to set my own agenda, to wake up and decide how I wanted to spend the day,” she penned. “Even the hard days were my hard days. Once I gave up the fight, in my new life, I would wake up each morning and ask one question: ‘What are we doing?’ And then I would do what I was told.”
Britney’s conservatorship ended in November 2021. She has said writing her book helped her “find closure on all things for a better future.”
Andy Cohen Recalls Interviewing ‘Captive’ Britney Spears During Her Conservatorship