Everything to Know About Britney Spears's Conservatorship Case, As the Singer Finally Testifies for Herself
Britney Spears will testify Wednesday as she asks the court to remove her father, Jamie Spears, as conservator
CelebritiesNews
In April, Variety reported that Britney Spears and her lawyer, Samuel Ingham, had formally set a date to address Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny on her legal conservatorship. Namely, that she personally would request the court remove her father Jamie Spears from his role as conservator officially, after years of tumult about how he was executing that conservatorship. The date of the hearing, June 23, is finally here, just one day after the New York Times published a report detailing some of the ways Jamie Spears allegedly mishandled his power, including a “shopping list” of grievances Britney had against him, including his drinking and her belief he was “obsessed” with her.
Back in March, Spears’s counsel filed a motion to bring Jodi Montgomery on as her permanent conservator. By all accounts, this will be the big ask at court Wednesday, as filings by Ingham as well as tabloid sources reveal that Spears likely doesn’t want out of her conservatorship altogether—she just wants her father gone. As the Times wrote, any mistakes made by Spears in the arrangement were met with “very harsh” consequences from her father.
In 2019, Montgomery stepped in as Spears’s temporary personal conservator, after TMZ broke allegations that Jamie Spears had allegedly had an altercation with Britney’s son, Sean. The news followed a long-winding narrative in the press that year as well as the rise of #FreeBritney, a self-dubbed “movement” that claimed Spears was held against her will in her conservatorship. Spears’s ex-husband, Kevin Federline, also filed a restraining order against Jamie, who remained Britney’s financial conservator while Jodi Montgomery took on the personal aspects of the role. TMZ also reported that Spears and her father had a falling out after the alleged altercation, although prosecutors declined to press charges, and the investigation was dropped. Jamie Spears later returned to his duties.
A year later, in August 2020, news formally broke that Spears would like her father to be permanently replaced, confirming a long-standing open secret. In a motion filed by her legal team, Britney requested a “qualified corporate fiduciary” to replace Jamie. She later lost that bid in November 2020, even after her lawyer, Ingham told Judge Brenda Penny that Spears was “afraid” of Jamie, and that “She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career.” Penny declined the application for a new conservator, but did not rule on whether or not Britney could submit a new petition at a future date. Jamie was also assigned a co-conservator, Bessemer Trust Co., over his own choice for fiduciary, Wallet. Britney’s team claimed the latter was “uniquely unsuited” to be a co-conservator.