Everything You Need to Know About Britney Spears' Conservatorship Battle

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Date: January 2008

In January 2008, Spears refused to hand over custody of her sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James, to ex-husband Kevin Federline’s representatives. She was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after police reported that she appeared to be under the influence. Spears’ visitation rights with her kids were suspended, and Federline was given sole custody. She was committed to the psychiatric ward and put on 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold under California state law. The court then placed her under a conservatorship led by her father, Jamie Spears, and attorney Andrew Wallet, giving them complete control of her assets. The conservatorship was due to end in December of that year.

In October 2008, her lawyers asked for it to be extended. Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Riva Goetz granted the request for the singer to remain under conservatorship permanently until she fully recovered. “The conservatorship is necessary and appropriate for the complexity of financial and business entities and her being susceptible to undue influence,” Goetz said at the time, according to reports. That ruling gave Jamie long-term control over his daughter’s assets, estate, and business affairs, while a group of professionals closely monitored the singer and her mental health. TMZ reported that her legal team said that a permanent conservatorship would increase her chances of regaining custody of her sons.

Date: April 2012

In May 2010, Spears’ representatives confirmed that she was dating her agent, Jason Trawick. However, the pair decided to split up professionally to pursue their relationship as a couple. The singer’s rep told People at the time that they “have decided to end their professional relationship and focus on their personal relationship.” The pair got engaged in December 2011, and in April 2012, Trawick gained legal control of Spears as his fiancée and became a co-conservator alongside her dad. In January 2013, Spears and Trawick called off their engagement, and he was also removed as co-conservator, restoring her father as the sole conservator.

Date: September 2013

Spears announced her residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, titled Britney: Piece of Me, in September 2013. The shows began in December 2013, continued until 2015, and then extended for two more years. During her court appearance, the singer said she was forced to do the Piece of Me Tour, which took place in July 2018 in North America and Europe. “I was on tour in 2018 [that] I was forced to do. My management said if I don’t do this tour, I would have to find an attorney, and by contract, my own management could sue me if I didn’t follow through with the tour,” she said in court in June 2021. “It was very threatening and scary, and with the conservatorship, I couldn’t even get my own attorney, so out of fear, I went ahead, and I did the tour.” A second Las Vegas residency show, titled Britney: Domination, was announced in October 2018, without allowing the “I’m a Slave 4 U” singer a break in between.

Date: September 2019

Andrew Wallet resigned as her co-conservator of her estate after 11 years in March 2019. Jamie also stepped down as his daughter’s permanent conservator in September 2019 due to “personal health reasons,” and licensed conservator Jodi Montgomery took his place temporarily. Less than a year later, in August 2020, Jamie filed a petition for himself and Wallet to regain powers in overseeing the conservatorship. He asked for the “power to obtain all documents and records” that are part of Spears’ estate, including “all contracts, information relating to credit cards, bank statements, estate planning documents, receivables, and any and all powers of attorney.”

The singer’s court-appointed attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, submitted court documents that same week saying that the “Gimme More” singer was “strongly opposed” to having her father return as her sole conservator. Instead, it said Spears “strongly prefers to have a qualified corporate fiduciary appointed to serve in this role” and that she preferred that Montgomery remained her sole conservator.

Date: January 2019 and February 2021

A fan podcast titled Britney’s Gram shared a voicemail allegedly from a former member of Spears’ legal team. They claimed that her father had canceled the second Vegas residency after she refused to take her medication. The source also alleged that Jamie placed his daughter in the facility against her will in January 2019. The claims raised red flags among Spears’ die-hard supporters, sparking the #FreeBritney movement. Her fans have since protested and raised awareness online to inform others of the abuse they believe the superstar underwent due to the conservatorship. In addition, they began pointing out inconsistencies on her Instagram account to prove that the singer was sending clues that her conservators were controlling her. According to TMZ, Spears confirmed during a hearing in May 2019 that Jamie committed her to the facility against her will and forced her to take drugs. 

Episode 6 of The New York Times Presents docuseries titled “Framing Britney Spears” aired in February 2021. It detailed the pop icon’s career, struggles, battles with the paparazzi, and how it all led to the legal conservatorship. The docuseries brought attention to the singer’s legal battles, and it got the attention of many celebrities and fans who spoke out to support Britney.

Date: June 2021

While fans were being vocal on social media on behalf of the singer, Spears was fighting back in court all along but keeping it quiet from the public. Her father has maintained that his daughter was unable to care for herself over the years, and that’s why he and his team use the conservatorship to protect her. However, he has also said that she had the legal right to end it whenever she wanted but “has never exercised it.” The New York Times obtained confidential court records in June 2021 that showed that the Grammy winner had repeatedly been expressing serious opposition to the conservatorship earlier on than previously reported. “She articulated she feels the conservatorship has become an oppressive and controlling tool against her,” a court investigator wrote in a 2016 report, adding that she said the system had “too much control.” The documents also revealed that everything from the people she dated to the color of her kitchen cabinets was decided by the co-conservators.

Date: June 2021

Seemingly emboldened by the widespread support the megastar received following the release of the Framing Britney doc, the “Stronger” singer gave a powerful 23-minute long testimony remotely in court on June 23, 2021. The singer expressed how “angry” she was about her situation and compared her father forcing her to work to sex trafficking. “My dad, and anyone involved in this conservatorship and my management, who played a huge role in punishing me when I said no—ma’am, they should be in jail,” she reportedly said to the judge. “They need to be reminded that they actually work for me.”

Spears shared in detail some of the freedoms that have been taken away from her, including not being able to get her hair or nails done during the pandemic and some limitations regarding her reproductive rights. “I want to be able to get married and have a baby. I was told right now in the conservatorship, I’m not able to get married or have a baby, I have an (IUD) inside of myself right now so I don’t get pregnant. I wanted to take the (IUD) out so I could start trying to have another baby. But this so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out because they don’t want me to have children–any more children,” she reportedly said. “I deserve to have a life. I’ve worked my whole life. I deserve to have a two to three-year break and do what I want to do.”

She added: “I feel ganged up on and I feel bullied and I feel left out and alone. 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. I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does, by having a child, a family, any of those things.” Read the full transcript here.

Date: June 30

Iggy Azalea wrote a two-part letter on June 30 where she said she personally witnessed “abusive” behavior from Jamie Spears toward the pop star when they worked together on their 2015 song “Pretty Girls.” Azalea also said she saw the singer being restricted from “the most bizarre and trivial things,” including how many sodas she could drink. “It’s basic human decency to at the very least remove a person Britney has identified as abusive from her life,” the “Fancy” rapper wrote. “This should be illegal. During the time we worked together in 2015, I personally witnessed the same behavior Britney detailed in regards to her father last week and I just want to back her up and tell the world that: She is not exaggerating or lying.”

According to the rapper, the elder Spears allegedly intimidated her into signing an NDA before her performance with his daughter at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards. “Her father conveniently waited until literally moments before our BMAs performance when I was backstage in the dressing room and told me if I did not sign an NDA he would not allow me on stage,” Azalea said. “The way he went about getting me to sign a contract, sounded similar to the tactics Britney spoke about last week in regards to her Las Vegas show. Jamie Spears has a habit of making people sign documents while under duress it seems, and Britney Spears should not be forced to co-exist with that man when she’s made it clear it is negatively impacting her mental health.”

Date: Aug. 12, 2021

Despite reports, Spears has not fully stepped down as his daughter’s estate conservator but said he would “when the time is right.”  Jamie’s attorney Vivian Lee Thoreen filed new court documents on Aug. 12 announcing his willingness to step down, as a response to his daughter’s petition for his removal as her conservator two weeks prior. “There are, in fact, no actual grounds for suspending or removing Mr. Spears as the Conservator of the Estate,” a court doc obtained by People reads. “And it is highly debatable whether a change in conservator at this time would be in Ms. Spears’ best interests.”

“Mr. Spears is willing to step down when the time is right, but the transition needs to be orderly and include a resolution of matters pending before the Court,” the document reads. “In order to reach that result, the Court should encourage all interested parties to meet and confer in order to resolve those pending matters in the best interests of Ms. Spears.” The document says he “intends to work with the Court and his daughter’s new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator” and says they were already working on a transition with Britney’s previous lawyer, Sam Ingham, before attorney Mathew Rosengart was approved as her new lawyer in the case in July.

Date: Aug. 12, 2021

The singer’s new attorney, Mathew Rosengart, responded to Spears’ announcement of his plans to step down in a statement to Variety. “I announced in Court on July 14 that, after 13 years of the status quo, it was time for Mr. Spears to be suspended or removed as conservator and that my firm and I would move aggressively and expeditiously for that outcome,” Rosengart said. “Twelve days later, my firm filed a Petition for Mr. Spears’s suspension and removal based on strong, insurmountable legal grounds, which were unequivocally supported by the law and all parties involved, including Jodi Montgomery, Britney Spears, and her medical team.”

“We are pleased that Mr. Spears and his lawyer have today conceded in a filing that he must be removed. It is vindication for Britney. We are disappointed, however, by their ongoing shameful and reprehensible attacks on Ms. Spears and others,” Rosengart continued. “We look forward to continuing our vigorous investigation into the conduct of Mr. Spears, and others, over the past 13 years, while he reaped millions of dollars from his daughter’s estate, and I look forward to taking Mr. Spears’s sworn deposition in the near future.”

Date: Sept. 29, 2021

Fans gathered outside of a Los Angeles courtroom to celebrate after it was announced that Jamie Spears was removed as Britney Spears’ conservator on Sept. 29. Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny suspended Spears as conservator of his daughter’s estate, immediately removing him from the conservatorship after a 13-year guardianship. This means he will no longer have control over the singer’s finances and personal life. CPA John Zabel will temporarily step in as Spears’ conservator of her estate for the time being until the next steps to fully terminate the conservatorship are determined. Jodi Montgomery will remain as conservator of the pop star’s person, managing her day-to-day life and medical decisions.