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Backstreet Boys star heartened by Britney Spears' fighting spirit

Backstreet Boys singer AJ McLean is glad his old friend Britney Spears is fighting to free herself from her conservatorship as it shows she's in a better place than when they last met.

The Toxic star was granted permission to hire her own legal team for her ongoing legal battle over the arrangement on Wednesday, during which she has accused her father and longtime conservator Jamie of abusing his position.

McLean is delighted to see Spears taking control, because the last time she saw him she wasn't herself.

"My thoughts and my prayers are with her; I am 100 per cent team Britney," he said during an appearance on Andy Cohen Live on SiriusXM on Wednesday.

"There's this amazing cupcake shop that she goes through, that I go to. The last time I saw her, it broke my heart. Last time I saw her, she was with a gentleman. I'm assuming it was security or maybe a driver. She just kind of had this glass face... She looked right at me and I was like, 'Hey, it's AJ!' She just didn't know who was there. It took her a minute.

"And then she realised it was me, and we hugged and we talked for a brief moment, but I could just see that this wasn't her. Like, I'm not looking at the person I knew from years and years ago."

Like many friends and fans, AJ was stunned by Britney's testimony in court last month, when she detailed the restrictions surrounding her conservatorship and explained that under the terms of the deal, which has been in place since 2008, she was not allowed to remove an IUD contraceptive device, despite her dreams of becoming a mum again.

"That, to me, is physical abuse," the Backstreet Boys star said. "Just the whole thing to me is just, it's grotesque. I really feel in my heart that she's going to break free of all of this, and I really hope that she does. She's a sweetheart."