As you probably know by now, the legal battle over Britney Spears’ conservatorship seems to be never-ending, and every few months, we get new updates on the latest developments in this arrangement that has now lasted over a decade. The back-and-forth legal drama can be exceedingly difficult to understand, but overall, it’s clear that Britney is unhappy with the current situation.
This summer, there was a slew of updates. Britney requested that her temporary conservator, Jodi Montgomery, be made permanent, rather than her father Jamie being reinstated. (Due to health reasons, Jamie stepped down as her personal conservator in 2019, but has remained the conservator of her estate.) Jamie pushed back on this, requesting that he and his former partner Andrew Wallet (who stepped down in March 2019) be returned to their former positions. While Britney said she is fine with the conservatorship being extended until 2021, she and her father disagreed on whether the conservatorship proceedings should be made public, with Britney’s team opposing a motion to seal court documents. And around the same time, we also found out for the first time that Britney’s mother and sister are involved in her financial trust. A lot going on, to say the least, but it didn’t end there.
Since that tumultuous period in August, things have been fairly quiet in regard to Britney’s case, until this week. On Tuesday, Britney’s attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, spoke on her behalf in a court hearing, telling the judge, “my client has informed me that she is afraid of her father,” adding that Britney made it clear “she will not perform as long as her father is in charge of her career.” Capping off his statement in a way that really got the fans’ attention, Ingham said “we are really at a crossroads.” The good news? Now I know I’m going to rewatch Crossroads later. The bad news? Literally everything else.
Of course, it’s disappointing for Britney fans to hear that she likely won’t be getting back to music any time soon, but the revelation that she is afraid of her father is alarming. Ingham also added that Britney has not spoken to her father in “a long time.” Britney’s mother Lynne, who is divorced from Jamie, also issued a statement through her attorney, calling Britney and Jamie’s relationship “toxic” (no pun intended, I assume), and saying “it has broken Lynne’s heart that it has come to this point.”
Jamie Spears’ attorney fought back at these claims, blaming the lack of communication on Britney’s attorney, and arguing that there is not “a shred of evidence to support my client’s suspension.” For the time being, Judge Brenda Penny seemed to agree, declining the request to suspend Jamie Spears from his role in the conservatorship. She did, however, agree to “hear further arguments for his suspension or removal,” which Britney’s attorney said he would provide. Basically, this fight isn’t over yet.
But despite Jamie Spears remaining in his role in the conservatorship, there was one silver lining in the judge’s rulings this week. Previously, Britney had requested that corporate fiduciary Bessemer Trust be named a co-conservator in her finances, and that request was approved this week. For now, they’ll have to try to cooperate with Britney’s father, but that may be changing depending on the outcome of the additional upcoming hearings, the first of which has been scheduled for December 16.
Meanwhile, after a brief hiatus, Britney has been back on Instagram lately, posting more of her trademark chaotic content. She resurfaced last week with a video, in which she assured her fans that she’s “the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.” Good for Britney; that makes one of us!
Since then, she’s posted several times, including a video of her dancing, some inspirational messages, and a minute-long clip of her posing with a flower. Whatever Britney is going through in court right now, at least her social media is as delightfully strange as ever.
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Images: Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com; britneyspears / Instagram
Even though Britney Spears has been under a conservatorship since 2008, it wasn’t until the #FreeBritney movement gained traction in 2019 that it became publicly talked about. Since then, many fans have expressed concern about Britney’s treatment, and it appears we’re finally getting some clarity on the situation, directly from Brit. Last week, we broke down numerous new developments in her conservatorship situation, including her sister Jamie Lynn’s appointment as a trustee, and more importantly, Britney’s wish that her father not be involved in the future.
Last month, a judge extended Britney’s conservatorship for a further six months, leading the ACLU to offer her their services, but new paperwork this filed week suggests that she is actually fine with the current arrangement. On Monday, her attorney wrote that Britney’s conservatorship is “voluntary,” and that she “wishes to exercise her right to nominate a conservator of the estate.” Last month’s court filings showed that Britney was “strongly opposed” to her father returning to his previous role as her conservator, which he vacated in 2019 for health reasons. While Britney’s father controlled her finances for more than a decade, it was recently reported that she wished for a “qualified corporate fiduciary to fill that role,” and in this week’s filing, she officially requested that Bessemer Trust Company, N.A. be appointed her new conservator. Bessemer Trust is a worldwide financial management company that handles over a hundred billion dollars with thousands of clients.
Along with the question of Jamie Spears’ future involvement in the conservatorship, Britney and her father also disagree on whether or not these proceedings should be public. Jamie Spears recently filed a motion to seal court documents pertaining to the case, but Britney’s team opposed this motion. In a filing, they wrote “Britney herself is vehemently opposed to this effort by her father to keep her legal struggle hidden away in the closet as a family secret.”
Last month, Britney’s father spoke to The New York Post, calling the #FreeBritney movement “a joke,” saying that “these conspiracy theorists don’t know anything.” He also hit back at accusations that he’s stolen or mismanaged his daughter’s money, claiming that he has to “report every nickel and dime spent to the court every year.” Last April, as #FreeBritney became a trending topic, Britney spoke out on her desire for privacy, telling her fans on Instagram “what I need right now is a little bit of privacy to deal with all the hard things that life is throwing my way.”
But a lot has happened in the last year, and in a rare public comment on the fan support for Britney, her attorney wrote on September 3rd that the #FreeBritney movement is “Far from being a conspiracy theory or a ‘joke’ as James reportedly told the media, in large part this scrutiny is a reasonable and even predictable result of James’ aggressive use of the sealing procedure over the years to minimize the amount of meaningful information made available to the public.”
While Jamie reiterated that the court proceedings should be “private,” Britney’s attorney wrote in the latest filing that Spears “welcomes and appreciates the informed support of her many fans.” A final decision about Britney’s conservator going forward is expected this fall.
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Images: DFree / Shutterstock.com
