American singer and songwriter Britney Spears has been living under conservatorship in California covering her person and her estate since 2008. The conservatorship gives her father, Jamie Spears complete control over her life and property including some deeply personal decisions.
It started in 2008 when Jamie filed a petition at the court for authority over his daughter after concerns about her mental health and potential substance abuse. Jamie oversees Britney Spears’ nearly $60 million fortune, alongside a professional wealth management firm she requested; a licensed professional conservator took over Spears’ personal care on an ongoing temporary basis in 2019.
Spears has now given a groundbreaking testimony in her conservatorship case to a court in Los Angeles. “I would like to get married and have a baby,” Spears said, explaining that she wanted to have her IUD removed so she could start trying to get pregnant. “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.” IUDs, or intrauterine devices, are highly effective contraceptives that must be placed, or removed, by a qualified healthcare provider.
“This conservatorship is doing me way more harm than good,” she continued. “I deserve to have a life.”
Spears called for the arrangement to end without her “having to be evaluated.”
“I shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if I can work. The laws need to change,” she added. “I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive. I don’t feel like I can live a full life.”
In March, Spears’ father Jamie said he’s not “the perfect dad,” but that everything he’s done was in the singer’s “best interest.”
“[Jamie] would love nothing more than to see Britney not need a conservatorship,” his lawyer Vivian Lee Thoreen said.
Spears however revealed that she is not even allowed to be driven around by her boyfriend, due to the conservatorship. Asghari, a personal trainer, showed support for Spears hours before the hearing by sharing a photo of him wearing a “Free Britney” T-shirt, a reference to the #FreeBritney movement, which aims for the end of her conservatorship.
Asghari had also criticized the conservatorship in February, saying “I have zero respect for someone trying to control our relationship and constantly throwing obstacles our way.”
Confidential court records obtained recently by The New York Times revealed that Spears had raised issues with her father’s role in the conservatorship as early as 2014, and had repeatedly asked about terminating it altogether, though the singer’s court-appointed lawyer in the conservatorship, Samuel D. Ingham III, had not filed to do so.
The renewed interest in Spears’ court-ordered conservatorship comes after the New York Times’ “Framing Britney Spears” documentary was released in February. The film highlighted Spears’ wish to remove her father from the conservatorship altogether.
For years, fans and observers had questioned how Spears has continued to qualify for a conservatorship, sometimes known as a guardianship, which is typically a last resort for people who cannot care for themselves.
