Britney Spears Wants Her Conservatorship Over by Fall

Spears. Photo: Getty Images

Britney Spears has told the court that she officially supports her father’s request to terminate her conservatorship. Her legal team, spearheaded by attorney Mathew Rosengart, filed the request Wednesday, September 22, in Los Angeles Superior Court. Rosengart said that Spears “fully consents� to the dissolution of her conservatorship and asked the court that it be done “expeditiously.� According to court papers, he expects the conservatorship to be terminated this fall. Spears has been under the care and control of a court-ordered conservatorship, which governs all aspects of her life, for the past 13 years.

Rosengart said that Britney plans to file her own formal termination petition after “her father’s toxic presence (and his ability to object to termination) was removed.�

In a statement released after the papers were filed, Rosengart said, “We are pleased by Mr. Spears’s recent forced concessions, and my client looks forward to the prompt termination of the conservatorship, and to her freedom. We have exposed Mr. Spears’s efforts to obtain a large quid pro quo payout, while also making clear that Britney Spears will no longer be bullied. In the interim, we are moving forward with our July 26, 2021 Petition for the Suspension of James P. Spears, which is a prerequisite to the immediate restoration of my client’s dignity and fundamental rights. Our investigation into the financial and other abusive conduct at issue is ongoing.�

Earlier this month, Britney’s father, Jamie Spears, made a stunning reversal in his stance and asked the court himself to end his daughter’s conservatorship, one that he has overseen since it was put in place in 2008.

In today’s court papers, Rosengart reminded Judge Brenda Penny, who is overseeing the case, that his client has been asking since July 22 that her father be removed from the case. He said that would be the first step, and a substantial one, toward Britney regaining her freedom and “ending the Kafkaesque nightmare imposed by her father, so that her dignity and basic liberties can be restored.� Rosengart cited Jamie’s recent apparent “180� in supporting the end of the conservatorship as evidence of the need to immediately remove and suspend Jamie from being part of his daughter’s case.

He said if Jamie actually had a “genuine epiphany� that it was welcome, but that there was reason to believe his motives are more about rehabilitating his reputation, avoiding suspension, and to impede Britney’s ability to further investigate his conduct since 2008.

“Britney Spears’s life matters,� states the petition. “Britney Spears’s wellbeing matters. And under the circumstances, every day matters because every day Mr. Spears clings to his post is another day of anguish and harm to his daughter.�

He also pointed out that to the judge that Britney’s father has even agreed that continuing to stay on as the conservator over his daughter’s finances wold be detrimental to her well-being. Rosengart also reaffirmed to the court that Jamie had been trying to “extract substantial quid pro quo payments� from his daughter and was seeking to avoid responding to extensive and detailed discovery. Rosengart has said previously that he’s determined to do a full forensic accounting of the spending of Britney’s money while she was in the conservatorship; he’s particularly concerned by the fact that Jamie billed Britney’s estate more than a $500,000 for “unspecified media matters,� presumably having to do with the recent intense media coverage of his daughter’s situation.

Rosengart said in court documents that Britney’s father was never actually qualified to serve as overseer his daughter’s vast estate. He pointed out that Jamie had no training in economics or finance, and that Jamie himself has filed for bankruptcy. He accused Jamie of taking “unwarranted commissions from his daughter’s work, totaling millions of dollars� and taking a salary larger than Britney’s. He also said that in August 2019, the court issued a multiyear domestic-violence order against him, requiring him to stay away from Britney’s two sons.

Rosengart also told the court that Britney is currently in the process of hiring a family lawyer to write a prenuptial agreement; Spears announced her engagement to boyfriend Sam Asghari on September 12, later “taking a break� from Instagram to celebrate their plans to marry.

The next hearing on Britney Spears’s conservatorship is September 29.