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Britney Spears’ father Jamie says he ‘would love nothing more than to see Britney not need a conservatorship’

Rachel Brodsky
Los Angeles
Tuesday 02 March 2021 16:51 EST
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Britney Spears wants to take time to "heal"

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Britney Spears’s father Jamie Spears has expressed through his lawyer that he “would love nothing more than to see Britney not need a conservatorship”.

The comment comes after last month's much-discussed Framing Britney Spears documentary and the renewed interest in the #FreeBritney movement, which seeks to extricate the performer from a legal guardianship, in place since 2008 and overseen by Jamie.

“Jamie is not suggesting that he is the perfect dad or that he would receive any ‘Father of the Year’ award. Like any parent, he doesn't always see eye-to-eye on what Britney may want. But Jamie believes every single decision he has made has been in her best interest,” Thoreen said in a comment to CNN.

Spears's attorney, Samuel D Ingham III, told CNN he “can't comment on a pending case”.

Last Thursday (25 February), Thoreen spoke to Good Morning America with Jamie's side of the story.

READ MORE: Britney Spears’s father Jamie responds to Free Britney movement: ‘People have it so wrong’

“I understand that every story wants to have a villain, but people have it so wrong here,” Thoreen told the programme.

She added: “This is a story about a fiercely loyal, loving, and dedicated father who rescued his daughter from a life-threatening situation. People were harming her and they were exploiting her. Jamie saved Britney’s life.”

Attorneys for Spears and her father recently attended a hearing over how Jamie should share power with The Bessemer Trust, a financial company recently appointed as co-conservator.

Thoreen had made the case that Jamie should not give up rights and powers that he previously held under the new agreement. A judge overruled Thoreen’s objection, and Thoreen later told The Associated Press that Jamie “looks forward to working with Bessemer ... in the best interests of his daughter”.

Ingham, meanwhile, indicated on that occasion that Spears wanted her father to be removed from the conservatorship, stating: “It is no secret that my client does not want her father as co-conservator. But we recognise that removal is a separate issue.”

READ MORE: Backlash at John Mayer for weighing in on Free Britney: ‘Apologise to Jessica Simpson and Taylor Swift’

In November 2020, Ingham said in another court hearing that Spears won’t perform live again as long as Jamie remains on the conservatorship.

“My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father,” Ingham said at the time. “She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career.”

Asked about those statements on Good Morning America, Thoreen said that Spears and her father had “many conversations” throughout 2020 and spent two weeks together “hunkered down in Louisiana” early in the pandemic.

“In that time, Britney never expressed those words to her father,” the attorney added. “She’s never asked him to step aside.”

Spears's next conservatorship court hearing is scheduled for 17 March.

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