A conservatorship is when someone (appointed by a judge) controls the financial and personal decisions of someone else, according to the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School. While the conservator is usually looking after a close relative, conservatorships are most often established for someone of old age or struggling with a certain condition, making them unable to take care of themselves.
In the wake of a divorce from Kevin Federline and a custody battle involving their two children, Sean Federline and Jayden Federline, Spears shaved her head and later attacked paparazzi with an umbrella in a Tarzana, Los Angeles gas station. The incident caught headlines and the pop star was soon after placed in a mental health facility against her will, and thus her conservatorship began.
Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, claims he only wanted the conservatorship to protect his daughter, and he was her conservator beginning in early 2008 until it was recently terminated in November of this year. Despite James overseeing the conservatorship, Spears says her relationships with her mother and sister have fallen apart as they both did nothing to intervene.
There is no doubt that the conservatorship dictated every aspect of Spears’ life for her. With around-the-clock security outside her front door and regular mandated drug testing, many describe the situation Spears was in as being a prisoner in her very own home. She relayed the disturbing details during a court statement she delivered on June 23, 2021.
In the statement, she alleged she wasn’t allowed to get married, have more children, remove her IUD, etc. She also mentioned being drugged, involuntarily put on intense lithium medication, and forced to perform against her will (even when she was sick). Everything from purchasing a fast food meal to who she was allowed to see was predetermined for her.
“…I want changes going forward. I deserve changes…I don’t owe these people anything—especially me, the one that has roofed and fed tons of people on tour on the road…I just want my life back. And it's been 13 years…it makes no sense whatsoever for the state of California to sit back and literally watch me with their own two eyes, make a living for so many people…and be told, I’m not good enough. But I’m great at what I do.”
With Spears fans amplifying the #FreeBritney movement and the newly-released documentary Framing Britney Spears, she was able to hire her own lawyer, Matthew Rosengart. After many requests were heard and denied, Judge Brenda Penny ruled that her conservatorship be terminated effective immediately as of November 12, 2021.
As pink confetti filled the air and Rosengart addressed the media following the court’s decision, Spears penned a note of gratitude for her fans on Instagram, saying she loves them and that her conservatorship coming to an end was the “best day ever.”
Spears previously mentioned she thinks the people behind her conservatorship should be jailed and her lawyer, likewise, thinks they will face more severe repercussions pending an investigation. As Spears would say, Don’t you know that you’re toxic?
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