Britneys’ mother ‘tried to get her away’ from Sam Lufti
Britney Spears self-styled manager Sam Lufti has been accused of crushing drugs into the singer’s food and disabling her phone lines during her infamous breakdown five years ago.
The ‘Toxic’ singer’s mother Lynne testified on Friday that her daughter’s companion told her he hid drugs in the pop singer’s food to help her sleep and disabled her phone lines.
According to Reuters, Mrs. Spears told the Los Angeles jury in a civil trial that Sam Lutfi described his actions to her in January 2008 at her daughter’s Los Angeles home:
“Those were his exact words,” she said on her first day on the witness stand.
“I was very worried and I didn’t know what to do so I tried to get her away from there.”
Lutfi is suing Lynne Spears for defaming him in her 2008 book “Through the Storm,” in which she related some of Lutfi’s actions in 2007 when he became the singer’s closest friend, moving into her house with her.
Lynne Spears admitted under cross examination that she did not call police despite her concerns about her daughter. She also acknowledged she had been estranged from her daughter for months in 2007, and that Lutfi told her he wanted to help reunite them.
Lynne’s claims in the tell-all book that Lufti tried to cut the singer off from her family, portraying him as controlling and manipulative.
Lutfi, who met Spears in a nightclub in 2007 and has said he tried to wean her off drugs, testified tearfully earlier this week that he received death threats after the book was published. He further alleges Britney’s father, Jamie Spears, punched him in the chest in 2008, during a period when the singer was twice held in a psychiatric ward in a Los Angeles hospital.
The week-long trial has explored Spears’ infamous breakdown in 2007 and early 2008, in which she went through a divorce, lost custody of her two kids, shaved her head and wielded an umbrella at paparazzi.
Lutfi is also suing Spears for a portion of her earnings at that time, claiming the “Toxic” singer hired him as her manager.
Britney’s father Jamie has since been named conservator of his daughter’s personal and business affairs, and the family took out restraining orders against Lutfi.
Meanwhile, Spears is working on her comeback with world tours, hit albums and a new job as a judge on ‘The X-Factor’.
