Britney Spears Changes Instagram Name Amid Rumors of “Controlling” Relationship With Sam Asghari: What’s Going On Here?

Britney Spears has been inspiring a lot of tabloid headlines this week.

Because apparently, the mere act of going out to dinner is newsworthy when Britney is the one doing it.

Yes, Britney and husband Sam Asghari went to a restaurant last week (Joey’s in Los Angeles, in case you want to stake the place out in hopes of a repeat performance. Just kidding; don’t do that.), but the meal did not go according to plan.

Britney was forced to leave after overzealous fans wouldn’t stop recording her every move.

Bizarrely, the incident was reported by some media outlets as being Britney’s fault, with some going so far as to claim that Spears was behaving in a “manic” fashion.

Whatever the case, Britney fans are a deeply invested lot — perhaps a bit overprotective, but we guess that’s understandable given all that she’s been through.

So it makes sense that they’ve been dissecting her every move in the week since the restaurant incident.

(Yes, there’s an irony in the fact that she was chased from the restaurant by overzealous fans, and now her Instagram followers are basically subjecting her to the same treatment, but we guess their hearts are in the right place.)

And much is being made of the fact that Britney has changed her Instagram display name from Channel 8 to Red River.

She announced the change with a photo of the surface of Mars.

“A bright one … easy does it !!! Thank you, childhood friend, I found my ball … don’t underestimate the power of purity !!!” Spears captioned the photo, adding:

“see right through it all … it has liquid and is wet … it’s playful and has mass !!! I changed my name to River Red !!!”

Fans were quick to embrace the change — in fact, many took it as the sign of a new era in the pop icon’s career.

“Britney changing her insta name from Channel 8 to River Red is so interesting anyone know wtf it means? So cryptic,” one person commented, according to UK tabloid The Sun.

“The Channel 8 era is officially OVER. Britney Spears is now River Red,” another added.

“Wake me when, @RCARecords decides to start releasing albums of unreleased music.”

We’re not sure why a cryptic reference to Mars would mean that Britney is releasing new music, but it makes more sense than the second most common theory — that this is Spears’ way of announcing the end of her marriage.

Yes, following the restaurant incident, there were reports that Asghari was spotted behaving in a “controlling” fashion toward Brit.

And apparently, some fans think she got fed up and left the marriage.

Asghari spoke to TMZ this week in an effort to clear his name.

“No man, I don’t even control what we have for dinner!” the male model told the site.

“Oh man, you know in the past there has been a lot of stuff going on, so I understand where they’re coming from, they’re just being protective,” he added.

“If anything, they’re just being good fans,”

Yes, it seems that Sam fully understands the unusually intense protectiveness that Britney fans feel toward their fav.

But that doesn’t mean the whole thing doesn’t get a bit exhausting at times.