LeAnn Rimes has urged people to “leave Britney alone” amid the star’s ongoing mental health troubles.
Like Spears, Rimes shot to fame in the Nineties while still in her teenage years.
In 2000, Rimes became embroiled in a lawsuit with her father, Wilbur C Rimes and her former manager, Lyle Walker, alleging they had cheated her out of around $7m worth of earnings from the previous five years. With Rimes still a minor, her mother Belinda Rimes, filed the suit on her behalf.
In a new interview with The Independent, Rimes said she sees “a lot of similarities” between herself and the embattled pop star.
“When you’re in the public eye, everybody wants to make money off of that at the end of the day,” the “How Do I Live” singer said.
“You become a commodity instead of a human being and that’s what breaks my heart. And I’ve been there – I’ve experienced a lot of the same things. My heart deeply goes out to her.”
Referring to the recent interview between Spears’ 16-year-old son Jayden with ITV, Rimes added: “I just saw something about her ex-husband and his family doing an interview about her and my first thought was, ‘Leave this poor woman alone! She’s been through enough!’”
During the interview, Jayden revealed why he and his 17-year-old brother Sean Preston missed Spears’s June wedding to Sam Asghari and defended his grandfather Jamie, who was Spears’ conservator for 13 years.
Spears responded to her son’s comments on Instagram, writing: “My love for my children has boundaries and it deeply saddens me to know his outcry of saying I wasn’t up his expectations of a mother… and maybe one day we can meet face to face and talk about this openly!!!!”
She also urged her younger son to “remember” where he “came from”.
