Britney Spears' aunt claims brother Jamie manipulated, 'caged' pop star

Leigh Ann Spears Wrather is speaking up publicly against her half-brother Jamie for the first time following his suspension as conservator of Britney Spears' estate.

The 54-year old did not mince her words when she called the singer's father "barbaric" in an interview on Good Morning Britain on Thursday. She said he abused his position as conservator of his daughter's estate.

"He's barbaric. I mean who gets to do that to someone? You know she was just manipulated and used," Wrather said and she expressed her disbelief at Jamie's reasoning that he only wanted what was best for Britney's protection.

"He wants to say that he protected her? No, he caged her. He caged her," Wrather said.

She refused to accept that Jamie was trying to be "the hero" for his daughter. Instead, she believes that he "manipulated the situation and that he has benefited from the situation for over a decade."

Wrather, who now lives in Springfield, Tennessee, has previously spoken about how family history plays a part in Jamie's treatment of Britney. She said it is all about exerting control for the men in the Spears family.

She said the patriarch in the family, June Austin, had institutionalised her mother at Mandeville a
"few times and put her on lithium." She admitted that when she heard that Jamie had given his daughter the same drug, she "almost couldn't believe it but it made sense."

"Typical for this family and how they treat their women...the Spears men need to be accountable," Wrathe said last week in an interview with the New York Post.

"Thank goodness Britney got a good lawyer. Jamie did to her what my daddy did to my mom and Emma Jean (the singer's paternal grandmother). They are mean and they will destroy you if they can't control you. But I think Britney will survive. She's a beautiful person with a beautiful soul," she added.

Wrather's comments come a month after Britney scored a major court victory when Judge Brenda Penny suspended Jamie as conservator of her estate. She was under her father's conservatorship for 13 years.