Britney Spears has been expressing ‘serious opposition’ to her controversial conservatorship for the the past 13 years, which she’s said to have called ‘oppressive,’ confidential court records reveal.
The New York Times report that while father Jamie Spears insisted the agreement was put in place to save the star after her 2007 meltdown, the 39-year-old singer later complained that it ‘restricted everything from whom she dated to the color of her kitchen cabinets.’
A court investigator who was assigned to her case wrote in a 2016 report that Britney ‘articulated she feels the conservatorship has become an oppressive and controlling tool against her’ during a time when she was regularly performing and releasing music.
Britney – who is worth an estimated $60million – said the system had ‘too much control’ according to the investigator’s account of a conversation with the mother-of-two. Spears added: ‘Too, too much!’
Overprotected: Britney Spears was forbidden from re-painting her kitchen cabinets as it’s revealed the singer has been opposing father Jamie’s role as conservator for the past 7 years
During the conversation, Britney allegedly told the investigator she wanted the conservatorship terminated ‘as soon as possible’ and was ‘sick of being taken advantage of.’
The investigator added: ‘She is the one working and earning her money but everyone around her is on her payroll.’
Control: Jamie Spears (pictured, 2012) has been in charge of Britney’s affairs since 2008
Jamie, 68, was appointed as Britney’s conservator in 2008, after she was admitted into involuntary psychiatric care twice, as concerns grew over her mental health and substance abuse.
However, the court documents reveal that Britney first raised concerns over her father’s fitness for the role as early as 2014, when she had begun her years-long residency in Las Vegas.
Her court-appointed lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III said at the time that Britney wanted Jamie to be removed as her conservator, citing a ‘shopping list’ of grievances that including his alleged drinking.
Britney also told a court in 2019, that she had felt ‘forced’ into staying at a mental health facility as well as performing against her will by her conservator.
The singer claimed the enforced stay was under ‘exaggerated grounds’, after she made an objection during rehearsal, and also claimed she was forced to perform in Vegas while suffering a 104-degree fever.
According to the court documents revealed by the New York Times on Tuesday, Britney was limited to a $2,000 weekly allowance despite generating millions of dollars with her Vegas show Britney: Piece of Me.
Free Britney: Spears fans protest outside a conservatorship court hearing at Los Angeles Superior Court in March this year
Britney reportedly said in the documents that the conservatorship ‘comes with a lot of fear’ and any mistakes would result in ‘very harsh’ consequences.
Jamie – who went to rehab for alcoholism in 2004 according to court filings – is known to be a strict parent, and Britney’s mother divorced him 2002 following troubles in their marriage.
Despite releasing her ninth album and performing more than 50 times in Las Vegas in 2016, Britney was privately fighting against Jamie having control of her life, the documents allege.
The pop singer told the investigator she was ‘very angry’ about how her life was being run, revealing she had security around her at all times.
She was forbidden from making cosmetic changes to her kitchen cabinets by Jamie who told her it was too costly.
But Britney is said to have been unwillingly footing the bill for the conservatorship that she is keen to get out of – having to pay lawyers on both sides of the argument with a recent bill from Jamie totaling $890,000.
In 2019, Britney dramatically announced she would be taking an ‘indefinite work hiatus’ which was originally put down to her caring for father Jamie after he almost died from suffering a ruptured colon.
Way back when : Jamie was appointed as his daughter’s conservator in 2008 following her very public mental and emotional breakdown (seen in 2002)
However, during a closed-door hearing that was mistakenly unsealed, Britney alleged that she had been forced into a mental health facility against her will, as punishment for standing up for herself during a rehearsal.
According to the NYT report, Britney’s father Jamie recently returned home to Kentwood, Louisiana, where he hosts crawfish boils and is living in an RV that is parked by a warehouse that holds memorabilia from his daughter’s career.
Tomorrow, Britney will virtually address the Los Angeles County Superior Court and Judge Brenda Penny about her desire to have her father Jamie removed as her sole conservator.
In a press release, the court confirmed that for the hearing on June 23rd ‘all parties, including Ms. Spears, are scheduled to appear remotely’.
It is not expected that Britney will ask to end her long running conservatorship at the hearing.
Rather, she will request that the judge permanently remove her father Jamie from being in control of her estate.
Britney has appeared to be in favor of the temporary conservator currently in place, Jodi Montgomery, who stepped in back when her father fell ill.
In court documents, the A-lister’s lawyers have explained that their client would like Montgomery to be permanently put in place in lieu of her dad Jamie.