#FreedBritney As Conservatorship Ended
• After nearly 14 years of living under an increasingly oppressive conservatorship that dominated every aspect of her life, Britney Spears is finally free. As the New York Times reports, at a hearing Friday afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Brenda Penny said the conservatorship that has long overseen the singer’s life and finances should be terminated effective today. “The conservatorship of the person and estate of Britney Jean Spears is no longer required,” Penny stated. Judge Penny said Spears’s current estate conservator would continue working to settle ongoing financial concerns related to the case.
Shortly after the judge handed down her ruling, to the cheers of a large crowd gathered outside the courthouse, Britney tweeted, “Good God I love my fans so much it’s crazy!!! I think I’m gonna cry the rest of the day !!!! Best day ever … praise the Lord … can I get an Amen??? #FreedBritney.”
The controversial conservatorship began in 2008, when Britney’s father, Jamie Spears, first petitioned the court for authority over his adult daughter’s life and finances, citing her public mental health struggles and possible substance abuse. That temporary guardianship was made permanent by the end of that year. Since then, the conservatorship has entered into professional contracts on behalf of the pop star, dictated her travel and logged her every purchase down to a drink from Starbucks. It also drew questions from Ms. Spears’s increasingly invested fans and outside observers, who asked why an active global celebrity and musician was in an arrangement typically reserved for people who cannot feed, clothe or shelter themselves.
In June of this year Spears’s side of the case began to gain steam, as she told the court that the arrangement, which stripped her of control in nearly every aspect of her life, had traumatized and exploited her, claiming that those in charge forced her to take medication, work against her will and even use a birth control device. She asked for the conservatorship to end without her having to undergo additional mental evaluations and called for those in charge of it to be investigated and jailed, pointing to her father as “the one who approved all of it.”
Jamie Spears subsequently called for the conservatorship to be ended, and on Sept. 29 the court suspended him as conservator of his daughter’s nearly $60 million estate. Britney’s new lawyer, Mathew S. Rosengart, said he will push for Jamie Spears and the estate’s former business manager, Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group, to be investigated for financial mismanagement.
