What happened to Britney Spears? Full conservatorship timeline
Singer’s father will step down as her conservator ‘when the time is right’ in latest development
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Your support makes all the difference.Britney Spears is returning to court on Friday (12 November) as a judge decides whether her controversial conservatorship should come to an end.
On 6 September, Britney Spears’s father filed a court petition to step down as conservator of the pop star’s estate.
In the filing, Jamie Spears’s legal team said: “Recent events related to this conservatorship have called into question whether circumstances have changed to such an extent that grounds for establishment of a conservatorship may no longer exist.”
The filing observed that the “Oops I Did It Again” hitmaker sought “to live her life as she chooses without the constraints of a conservator or court proceeding”, including in making her own financial, personal and medical decisions.
Reiterating that he only wants the best for his daughter, Jamie said if the “Gimme More” hitmaker believes “she can handle her own life”, she should get the chance.
The Grammy winner’s lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, said in a statement to The Independent that the development was a “massive legal victory for Britney Spears” and “vindication”.
This court filing is the most recent development in the singer’s long-standing, bitter legal battle to have her father removed as conservator of her finances and estate.
The “Toxic” singer has been under a legal guardianship since 2008, with her father and other legal guardians controlling her finances and personal life for the past 13 years.
However, Spears has shown resistance to the situation in recent years, with her lawyers stating that she wants the conservatorship to change and her father to be removed from it.
On 23 June, Spears delivered a powerful and emotional statement to the court, speaking out for the first time of her experience under the situation and calling for those involved to be “put in jail”.
Here’s a timeline of Spears’s conservatorship so far...
January 2007
Amid her divorce from Kevin Federline, Spears spends one day in rehab in Antigua. The next day, she infamously shaves her head at a salon and admits herself to a treatment facility in the coming weeks.
October 2007
Having split from ex-husband Kevin Federline the year before, Spears loses custody of her two sons to him. The reasons for the court ruling are not made public, but Federline claims that Spears has been behaving erratically and abusing substances.
January 2008
Spears is involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital for a second time. Her father Jamie Spears and attorney Andrew Wallet are granted temporary conservatorship the following month.
October 2008
Spears’s conservatorship is extended indefinitely, with a judge citing the complexity of her financial situation and stating that she is “susceptible to undue influence”.
November 2008
MTV releases the documentary Britney: For the Record, in which the singer compares her circumstances to a jail sentence with no end.
September 2016
Spears has released three albums – Femme Fatale (2011), Britney Jean (2013), Glory (2016) – with little public attention on her conservatorship. However, reports emerge that while filming The Jonathan Ross Show, the singer allegedly told the presenter about the conservatorship, saying: “I’ve been under this conservatorship for three years and I felt like a lot of decisions were made for me.” However, the rumoured comments do not air with the show.
January 2019
The singer is due to begin a new Las Vegas residency off the back of another, but instead announces an “indefinite work hiatus”, citing her father’s health after he “almost died” in hospital.
“It’s important to always put your family first… and that’s the decision I had to make,” she writes. “I had to make the difficult decision to put my full focus and energy on my family at this time. I hope you all can understand.”
March 2019
Andrew Wallet voluntarily resigns as Spears’s co-conservator, making Jamie the sole conservator. Over a year later, he asks to be reinstated, but the singer’s lawyers state he is “uniquely unsuitable” for the role. Jamie eventually withdraws petition for Wallet’s reinstatement.
May 2019
Spears reportedly appears in probate court to ask the judge to ease restrictions imposed by the conservatorship and give her more freedom.
August 2019
Spears’s teenage sons are granted a restraining order against Jamie after he is allegedly involved in a “physical altercation” with one of them.
September 2019
Jamie is replaced as his daughter’s conservator by professional conservator Jodi Montgomery, while citing health reasons for his temporary removal from managing her personal life. He still oversees her finances.
July 2020
Spears’s brother Bryan claims on a podcast that Spears has wanted the conservatorship to end for “quite some time”, adding: “She’s always wanted to get out of it.”
August 2020
Jamie calls the #FreeBritney movement a “conspiracy theory” and a “joke”.
Later that month, legal documents show that Spears is attempting to remove her father from her conservatorship, saying that she is “strongly opposed” to him returning to control of her personal affairs.
September 2020
The singer’s lawyers file an objection to the conservatorship case being closed off from the public, stating: “The world is watching.”
November 2020
Judge Brenca Penny does not remove Jamie as Spears’s conservator, but appoints the Bessemer Trust as a co-conservator.
February 2021
The New York Times’s Framing Britney Spears documentary is released, sparking public conversation about the treatment of Spears and other celebrities by the tabloids in the 2000s and reigniting interest in the #FreeBritney fan campaign.
Spears’s boyfriend Sam Asghari writes on Instagram that Jamie is a “total d***” who tried to control their relationship.
March 2021
Spears’s lawyers formally ask Jamie to resign from his role as conservator. Their statement also claims that Spears “expressly reserves the right to petition for termination of this conservatorship”.
Jamie’s lawyers claim that the performer can end the conservatorship at “any time” but has chosen not to.
Spears says in a since-deleted Instagram post that she felt “embarrassed” watching the beginning of Framing Britney Spears and cried for two weeks after it.
April 2021
Spears’s attorney Ingham says the singer wants to schedule a status hearing “on an expedited basis” in order to address the court directly. The date of 23 June is set and while no details of what she intends to say are revealed, the lawyer says it will pertain to the “status of the conservatorship”.
June 2021
Britney Spears addressed a Los Angeles courtroom on 23 June for the first time in 13 years of the conservatorship.
Spears took part in the hearing remotely and spoke to Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny for 24 minutes. Among the claims made were the allegation that she was forced to consume medications after declining to work, and that she wished to have another child but wasn’t permitted to by her “team”.
“The main reason why I’m here is that I want to end the conservatorship without having to be evaluated,” Spears said.
“I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does, by having a child, a family, any of those things, and more so.”
The Grammy Award-winner made a number of claims during her testimony, including that she was forced to take lithium after she announced that she was taking a break from live performances.The 39-year-old also revealed that she would like to have another baby but that her conservators allegedly won’t allow her to go to the doctor to have her IUD removed.“I feel ganged up on. I feel bullied and I feel left out and alone,” she told the court.
August 2021
Jamie Spears agreed to step down as her conservator “when the time is right”, according to court filings from his lawyers.
He “intends to work with the Court and his daughter’s new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator”, TMZ first reported on Thursday, 12 August, citing new legal documents.
According to the publication, the new documents state in part that “there are, in fact, no actual grounds for suspending or removing Mr Spears as the conservator of the estate... and it is highly debatable whether a change in conservator at this time would be in Ms Spears’s best interests”.
The singer’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart told the website “we are pleased but not necessarily surprised” by the development.
Jamie Spears has previously argued that the conservatorship was necessary and said in a filing earlier this month he has “dutifully and faithfully served as the conservator of his daughter’s estate without any blemishes on his record”.
Fans and friends celebrated the development, with Paris Hilton writing on Twitter: “I’m so happy to hear this news. It’s been so long overdue but I’m so glad that Britney is on her way to finally being free. Sending so much love!”
September 2021
Jamie Spears’s legal team filed a petition in the Los Angeles Superior Court to step down as conservator.
In the legal documents, he cited the “Toxic” singer’s “impassioned plea” in two separate instances in June and July to the court to terminate the 13-year-long conservatorship.
“As Mr Spears has said again and again, all he wants is what is best for his daughter,” the document said. “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.”
The pop star’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart said in a statement to The Independent: “Having exposed his misconduct and improper plan to hold his daughter hostage by trying to extract a multi-million-dollar settlement, Mr Spears has now effectively surrendered.”
Britney and Asghari became engaged, seemingly signifying progress and change being made in the singer’s life.
Later in the month, a follow-up documentary to Framing Britney Spears, titled Controlling Britney Spears, was released. It contained multiple new allegations, including that Jamie placed surveillance equipment in Britney’s room to listen to her conversations. It also alleges he had access to her calls and messages.
In response, Britney’s lawyer accused Jamie of “horrifying and unconscionable invasions of his adult daughter’s privacy”, calling for his immediate removal from her conservatorship. Jamie’s lawyer said that Britney or a representative for her had been aware of the recordings.
Jamie was later removed from his role as conservator of his daughter’s estate.
October 2021
With Jamie removed from the conservatorship, Britney’s fans turned their attention to her sister Jamie Lynn, who announced that she was releasing a memoir titled Things I Should Have Said. The book was originally titled I Must Confess, a lyric from Britney’s hit song “...Baby One More Time”.
As it was announced that the book’s name had been changed following backlash, Britney poked fun at her sister on Instagram. “Great news … I’m thinking of releasing a book next year,” she wrote. “But I’m having issues coming up with a title so maybe my fans could help !!!! Option 1, “S***, I really don’t know”... Option 2… “I really care what people think” !!!!”
In another post, she also appeared to accuse Jamie Lynn of not helping her escape the gruelling conditions she was placed under during the conservatorship.
On 26 October, Spears said that she would be seeking “justice” once the conservatorship ended.
“This message is to my family for hurting me deeper than you’ll ever know! I know the conservatorship is about to be over but I still want justice!” she wrote on Instagram.
November 2021
On 3 November, Jamie Spears filed a request for the “immediate termination” of the conservatorship, saying that he saw “no reason why the conservatorship should continue for any amount of time”.
What is next?
Britney’s lawyers will return to court on Friday (12 November) where judge Penny will decide whether or not to end the conservatorship after nearly 14 years.
Ahead of the hearing, Asghari shared a video to Instagram of he and his fiancé wearing “#FreeBritney” T-shirts that read: “It’s a human rights movement.”
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