Britney Spears’ troubled life after conservatorship examined in new doc

Britney Spears once slept with a knife under her bed, and her husband should “be afraid to sleep without one eye open if she gets pissed” because she’s “super capable” of harming him. And the “ship has sailed” on her performing in concert again.

Those were among the bombshells revealed in “TMZ Investigates: Britney Spears, The Price of Freedom,” an hourlong doc that premiered on Fox Monday night, which goes inside the “Baby One More Time” singer’s life since her conservatorship ended in November 2021.

After her public meltdown in 2007, Spears was first put into conservatorship in 2008 by her now-estranged father, Jamie Spears,.

The documentary explores her relationships with her family and kids, her marriage to Asghari, a failed intervention and concerns that those closest to her have observed since the conservatorship was lifted.

“The Price of Freedom” alleges that not only does Spears live in “virtual isolation” from the outside world — tanning by her pool, reading fiction, driving aimless around her neighborhood and making those solo dancing videos she frequently posts on Instagram — but she hasn’t even seen her two sons “in well over a year.”

“Britney Spears has had a year and a half of freedom since the conservatorship ended, but there are big problems,” narrator and TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin said in the doc.

The doc, also streaming on Hulu, uncovers some of the advice those taking care of Spears offered during the conservatorship — including to “keep knives away from her.”

“The Price of Freedom” also alleges that Spears guzzles caffeinated drinks such as Red Bull, Celsius and  coffee “almost nonstop” — to the point that sometimes she stays awake for three consecutive days. She can also sleep for days at a time, according to the doc.

Experts — including media personality and addiction medicine specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky — told TMZ that those who suffer from mental illness often crave the high they get from caffeine, although it’s not healthy for them.

Spears responded to the caffeine claims on social media, claiming that she does “what makes me feel most alive and gives me interest.”

“My mind gets busy and sometimes that can be an easy target to mess with,” she captioned the Instagram post. “I was told for years I can’t have coffee and now that I can it’s my pride”

In the doc, multiple sources also alleged that Spears’ 1-year-old marriage to Sam Asghari is in “deep trouble” — and that the “Toxic” singer has reportedly gotten “physical” with her husband, who is reportedly “pretty passive, so he just takes it. But he does get angry.”.

Sources claimed that Spears, 41, and Asghari, 29, often get into screaming arguments — and that security has even had to intervene in their fights.

The doc alleges that Asghari — who Spears has relied on as her “only pillar” since her conservatorship ended — does not even stay at their home much anymore, raising cause for concern.

But Asghari recently went on his Instagram Stories to slam the TMZ doc and defend his wife.

“I found it absolutely disgusting that people that were in her life at the time, when she didn’t have a voice, they went and told her story like it was theirs. It was absolutely disgusting,” Asghari said in the video.

“How are you gonna take the most influential person of our generation, the princess of pop, America’s sweetheart, and put her in prison where her father tells her what to do, what water to drink, who to see, and use her as a money-making machine?”

He continued, “Then, all the sudden, after 15 years when she’s free, after all those gaslighting and after all those things that went down, how are you gonna put her under a microscope and tell her story? No. That’s also disgusting.”

While Spears’ June 2022 wedding to Asghari — attended by the likes of Madonna, Selena Gomez and Drew Barrymore — has been the highlight of he post-conservatorship life, the doc examines how that momentous occasion was skipped by her sons Sean Preston, 17, and Jayden James, 16, with ex-husband Kevin Federline, with whom they have lived full-time for years.

“By the end of last summer, tensions between them had gotten so bad, the boys weren’t even responding to her texts,” said once source. “And she was furious.”

Spears’ nude Instagram posts are allegedly a major point of contention for her two teenage sons. “I don’t think I would have wanted to worry about all of my friends and schoolmate accessing social media and seeing pictures of my mother half or full unclothed,” said one source.

Spears — whose music inspired the new Broadway musical “Once Upon a One More Time,” which began previews at the Marquis Theatre on Saturday — has been the subject of several recent documentaries surrounding her conservatorship and the #FreeBritney movement. However, she has not been involved in any of it. 

“With 4 documentaries released about me last year with people I adore speaking about my past !!” she wrote in a previously deleted Instagram post. “Unfortunately, the way my past was portrayed in those documentaries was extremely embarrassing !!! It felt semi-illegal !!!”

Spears is also working on a tell-all autobiography — but it has reportedly been delayed over concerns among the A-listers mentioned in the book.

Simon & Schuster has put the memoir, which was originally expected to be released this past February, on hold after receiving letters from two of Spears’ famous exes, according to the Sun.

“Britney is brutally honest in the book — there are a lot of nervous A-listers,” a source told the outlet. “Strongly worded legal letters have been sent to the publishers by people who know Britney and who fear what she has written. There is no movement at the moment, and there are concerns over when it will eventually be able to come out.”