Britney Spears is shown in this frame grab from Hollywood.TV video as she is wheeled out of the ambulance on a gurney at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles late Jan. 3, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw violated the trust of Britney Spears' parents by making public statements about his abbreviated visit with the pop star in the room at Cedars-Sinai hospital following a standoff with police, a family spokesperson said in an interview Wednesday.
"This is another example of a trust being betrayed," Lou Taylor, the spokesperson, told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira. Rather than helping the family's situation, the celebrity psychologist caused additional damage, she said. "I think it's been compromised, because it's a measure of trust," she said of the relationship between Britney Spears and her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears.
Spears's parents have had a relationship with McGraw and his wife, Robin. Taylor said Lynne Spears did ask Robin if the psychologist could visit Spears in the hospital as a private favor.
McGraw arrived as Spears was packing to leave. He says he walked her out of the hospital, and issued a press release about the visit:
"My meeting with Britney and some of her family members this morning in her room at Cedars leaves me convinced more than ever that she is in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention -- I am very concerned for her."
"What's wrong with Dr. Phil's statement is that he made a statement," said Taylor, who is the business manager for Jamie and Lynne Spears and also for their other daughter, 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears. "The family basically extended an invitation of trust as a resource to support them, not to make a public statement."
McGraw has not backed off,, telling "Entertainment Tonight," "Somebody needs to step up and provide a vector to get this young woman into some quality care -- I do not apologize one whit, not one second."
McGraw also said he would devote one of his television shows to the Spears family. That plan was torpedoed by the family, who felt that he had gone way beyond what he was asked to do and was exploiting them and their daughter to further a television career that got started after numerous guest appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
(Xinhua/Agencies January 11, 2008)
