UPDATED 7/6, 9:45 p.m. ET: Britney Spears’ court-appointed attorney is looking for an out.
According to Variety, Samuel Ingham has submitted a petition to resign from the artist’s conservatorship case Tuesday, about a week before the singer’s next court hearing. It’s unclear why Ingham is seeking to remove himself from the role he has held throughout Spear’s 13-year conservatorship.
Last month, Spears delivered a bombshell testimony in which she detailed the alleged abuse she endured over the past decade. Although the bulk of her criticism was directed at her father, who is her co-conservator along with the Bessemer Trust, Spears also suggested Ingham had provided bad legal advice and failed to inform her of all her legal options.
“My lawyer, Sam, has been very scared for me to go forward,” Spears told the judge. “He told me I should keep it to myself.”
She continued: “I didn’t know I could petition the conservatorship to end it. I’m sorry for my ignorance, but I honestly didn’t know that.”
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Larry Rudolph, Britney Spears’ longtime manager, has resigned.
The announcement comes in the form of a letter to the revered pop icon’s current co-conservators Jamie Spears and Jodi Montgomery. The letter, sent Monday and first reported by Deadline’s Dominic Patten, sees Rudolph—who’s largely served as the singer’s main manager since the mid-1990s and has also worked with Backstreet Boys, Miley Cyrus, and others—revealing that he and Spears haven’t spoken in more than two and a half years.
“Earlier today, I became aware that Britney had been voicing her intention to officially retire,” Rudolph said in the letter. “As you know, I have never been a part of the conservatorship nor its operations, so I am not privy to many of these details. I was originally hired at Britney’s request to help manage and assist her with her career. And as her manager, I believe it is in Britney’s best interest for me to resign from her team as my professional services are no longer needed.”
Closing out the letter, Rudolph said he’s “incredibly proud” of what he and Spears worked on together for 25 years. He also wished Spears “all the health and happiness in the world,” as well as offered to resume his duties should circumstances change in the future.
The Free Britney movement took an emotional turn in June when Spears spoke to the court about her widely condemned conservatorship, saying it constituted an “abusive” situation.
“I feel ganged up on and I feel bullied and I feel left out and alone,” Spears said. “I’m tired of feeling alone. I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does, by having a child, a family, any of those things, and more so.”
Mariah Carey, Halsey, Tinashe, Christina Aguilera, and many more have since stepped up with public showings of support for Spears amid the continued push from fans (and beyond) for the conservatorship to be dissolved.
