Louis Walsh, Irish talent manager and long running judge on X Factor UK is frank when talking about the time he guest judged on the X Factor USA. In 2012, he served as guest panelist in St. Louis for an absent Simon Cowell.
She was on so much medication and other stuff…
And, he claims in an interview with the Irish Independent, that Britney Spears, who sat on the judges panel for one season, was there in her chair physically, but upstairs, nobody was home.
“I was sitting with Britney for two days and after every few auditions she would go…” He slumps over, neck flopping, in his chair.
“They would literally have to stop the show and take her out because she was on so much medication and other stuff. I felt sorry for her.
“Here she was, the biggest pop star on the planet, and she was just sitting there physically, but she wasn’t there mentally. She had a lot of problems.”
For what it’s worth, I attended the X Factor USA auditions in Providence, Rhode Island, the year Britney sat on the judge panel, and I don’t remember anything like that happening. The show took 3 hours to tape (the finished product was heavily edited). But while Britney didn’t have much to say after a hopeful performed, she wasn’t passing out in her chair. The show did take several breaks. But I figured that was more about Simon needing to run out and have a smoke.
In any case, Louis has no pity for celebrities who reach the pinnacle of their careers, only to fall apart. When the reporter asked Louis if Britney should have been receiving help instead of appearing on a reality show, Louis scoffed. “She was getting millions of dollars to do it, so why the f**k wouldn’t she sit there?”
Also, he doesn’t believe the show business industry bears any responsibility for taking care of the mental health of celebrities.
“I think their families have to do it. The mothers, the fathers the boyfriends, the girlfriends — they have to look after them. It’s not a nice business.”
Britney fights her conservatorship
Currently, Britney is fighting to get out from under a 13 year conservatorship. In particular, she wants to keep her father from having any control over her life. The New York Times reports that fight has been ongoing:
But now, confidential court records obtained by The New York Times reveal that Ms. Spears, 39, expressed serious opposition to the conservatorship earlier and more often than had previously been known, and said that it restricted everything from whom she dated to the color of her kitchen cabinets.
“She articulated she feels the conservatorship has become an oppressive and controlling tool against her,” a court investigator wrote in a 2016 report. The system had “too much control,” Ms. Spears said, according to the investigator’s account of the conversation. “Too, too much!”
Ms. Spears informed the investigator that she wanted the conservatorship terminated as soon as possible. “She is ‘sick of being taken advantage of’ and she said she is the one working and earning her money but everyone around her is on her payroll,” the investigator wrote.
