It wasn’t exactly convincing when Sam Asghari claimed “hackers” had been the ones to post a photo of an engagement ring to his Instagram account on Friday (which was quickly deleted). But we can now say with even greater confidence that this story is likely false because—less than 48 hours later—Britney Spears and Asghari are engaged.
Spears made the announcement on her own Instagram page on Sunday night, posting a video of herself showing off a large engagement ring and kissing Asghari on the cheek. For what it’s worth, the ring does not look dissimilar from the one Spears fans captured in a screenshot before Asghari took down the supposedly “photoshopped” post.
News of their engagement arrives on the heels of Spears’s father Jamie—her longtime conservator—filing a court petition to end the restrictive legal arrangement. In the document, Jamie Spears claims he was moved by his daughter’s testimony in court, which included a plea to the judge to free her from the conservatorship so she can “own [her] own money ... and [have her] boyfriend drive [her] in his fucking car.” Spears also spoke about wanting to get married and take out her IUD, which she said she had inside against her will to prevent her from having more children.
“Ms. Spears has told this Court that ...[s]he wants to be able to get married and have a baby, if she so chooses,” the petition read. “If Ms. Spears wants to terminate the conservatorship and believes that she can handle her own life, Mr. Spears believes that she should get that chance.”
Asghari has also alluded before to the constraints the conservatorship placed on their relationship of almost five years. In February, he told People that he was looking forward to a “normal, amazing future together.”
In this context, “normal”—we can presume—implies a scenario in which he and his longtime girlfriend can make decisions together without the surveillance (and alleged reproductive coercion) of her father. Now, it seems, they can.