Britney Spears’ father is no longer in charge of her money, career and personal life
In July Britney Spears’ new lawyer filed a motion to have the judge presiding over her case remove Spears’ father Jamie as her conservator in a legal schematic that Britney says has exerted tight control over the smallest details of her work and personal life. “Every day Mr. Spears clings to his post is another day of anguish and harm to his daughter,” wrote her counsel, Mathew S. Rosengart. Today, the judge ruled to suspend Jamie Spears’ position in the conservatorship at a courthouse in Los Angeles where Britney fans had gathered to demonstrate their support for her freedom. “The current situation is not tenable,” Judge Brenda Penny said.
Jamie Spears had filed his own petition to have himself removed from the conservatorship after 13 years of making the major and minor decisions about Britney’s mental and physical health, her career, and her finances (the newest documentary about the pop icon’s ordeal says that she had to get approval on small expenses like books for her sons and that they okay would often take days to achieve). He also asked, via his lawyers, that the conservatorship be dissolved entirely. “If Ms. Spears wants to terminate the conservatorship and believes that she can handle her own life, Mr. Spears believes that she should get that chance,” said Jamie’s legal team in an earlier filing.
For now, the conservatorship remains in place with California accountant John Zabel as its temporary conservator at least in terms of Spears’ $60 million estate. Terminating the conservatorship itself appears to be a much longer and more involved process that is likely to include further psychiatric evaluations for Spears.
The catalyst for this seemingly long overdue change in Britney’s life was her own appearance in court last June when she told the court “I shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if I can work. The laws need to change. I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive. I don’t feel like I can live a full life.”
Among the most horrifying things Spears alleges she’s been subjected to is forced birth control by a conservatorship team who won’t allow her to have her IUD removed. “This so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out because they don’t want me to have children. I want to be able to get married and have a baby,” she explained. “I was told right now in the conservatorship I am not able to get married and have a baby.” Controlling Britney Spears, the follow-up documentary to the New York Times’ Framing Britney Spears also claims that her father and security team secretly surveilled her in her own bedroom and monitored all of her communications.
Earlier this week, Britney posted a photo of herself on Instagram captioned “wearing white for new beginnings.” The pop star got engaged to her longtime boyfriend Sam Ashgari earlier this month. Her lawyer has vowed to dismantle the conservatorship in its entirety at some point this fall.
