Britney Spears has insisted she was not intentionally body-shaming Christina Aguilera or her tour dancers in a recent Instagram post that mentioned the singer.
In a post uploaded earlier this week about the personal and career decisions she wasn’t allowed to make while still under her legal conservatorship, Britney wrote: “I wish I could have chosen the nannies for my children… my dancers… I mean if I had Christina Aguilera’s dancers I would have looked extremely small… I mean why not talk about it??
“Don’t you think my confidence would have been a bit better if I could choose where I lived, ate, whom I called on the phone, dated and who was on stage with me!!!
“It’s hard sometimes now I see how much of my womanhood was stripped away at that time and every person sat back and didn’t say a thing !!! Anyways… I will be here talking bout things people NEVER talked about.”
Her comments were accompanied by a quote attributed to the US comedian Rodney Dangerfield, which read: “I found there was only one way to look thin: hang out with fat people.”
Britney’s post sparked something of a backlash, with many interpreting her comments as an attempt at body-shaming Christina, with whom she was often pitted against in the media during the early years of their pop careers.
Many also pointed out that Christina appeared to have unfollowed the Piece Of Me star on Instagram in the wake of her post.
Responding to accusations of body-shaming, Britney wrote in a follow-up upload: “By no means was I being critical of Christina’s beautiful body, it is what it is!!! I flew to see her show once and the main thing I noticed was the difference of our people on stage!!!
“By no means did I even mention Christina, look at my post!!! I was inspired by her show and she is a beautiful woman of power… Thank you [Christina] for inspiring me!!!”
She added: “To be honest, I’m not trying to be critical of anybody. What I posted is a projection of the insecurities I deal with all the time as a result of how my parents and the media have treated me… I would never intentionally body-shame anybody because I know what it feels like.
“I struggle with this because of how I feel about myself, not because I hate how anybody looks… I feel like my family knew I was insecure and people were trying to purposefully feed into this insecurity by not letting me have a choice in the people who were on stage with me.
“I appreciate you all being understanding with me as I figure out this new life I’m living!!!”
During Britney’s fight to have the conservatorship she was under for 13 years lifted last year, she did receive public support from Christina, who tweeted: “It is unacceptable that any woman, or human, wanting to be in control of their own destiny might not be allowed to live life as they wish.
“To be silenced, ignored, bullied or denied support by those ‘close’ to you is the most depleting, devastating and demeaning thing imaginable. The harmful mental and emotional damage this can take on a human spirit is nothing to be taken lightly.”
However, Britney previously appeared to take a shot at Christina shortly after the legal arrangement was lifted, due to the way the Genie In The Bottle singer reacted to a question about the conservatorship during a red carpet interview.