Britney Spears’s life took a dramatic turn for the better on Friday, as a judge ended her 13-year conservatorship – opening up a whole world of opportunities.
Spears, who turns 40 next month, shocked the world in June when she laid bare the terms of her arrangement.
‘In California the only similar thing to this is called sex trafficking, making anyone work, work against their will, taking all their possessions away — credit card, cash, phone, passport card — and placing them in a home where they work with the people who live with them,’ she told the court.
Now that her conservatorship is officially over – Spears will find her horizons significantly wider, as we reveal all the thing’s she’s now free to do…
Judge Brenda Penny has ruled that a conservatorship placed on Britney Spears by her father Jamie (pictured) 13 years ago must now come to an end
Supporters of the FreeBritney movement rally in support of musician Britney Spears for a conservatorship court hearing, outside the Stanley Mosk courthouse, on Friday
ANOTHER BABY
Arguably the most shocking revelation from the June 22 hearing was that Spears was being forced to use birth control, to stop her having a third child.
She is the mother of two teenage sons – Sean Preston, 16, and Jayden James, 15, with ex-husband Kevin Federline. He has full custody of their boys.
Spears and Asghari are seen in Hollywood in July 2019
Spears told the court in June: ‘I want to be able to get married and have a baby.
‘I was told right now in the conservatorship, I’m not able to get married or have a baby. I have an IUD inside of myself right now so I don’t get pregnant. I wanted to take the IUD out so I could start trying to have another baby.
‘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, any more children.’
Spears met her fiance Sam Asghari, a 27-year-old Iranian-born actor and personal trainer, in 2016, when she cast him for the video of her song Slumber Party.
She has already teased photos of her in what appeared to be a wedding dress on Instagram, and confirmed that Donatella Versace was working on her outfit for the big day.
‘No … this is not my wedding dress – bahahah !!!!’ she captioned the picture.
‘Donatella Versace is making my dress as we speak.’
Britney is pictured with her fiance Sam as she celebrates the end of her conservatorship
SEE HER SONS MORE OFTEN
The singer’s struggles in 2008, when she was divorcing Federline, led to the judge in their divorce case to grant full custody to him.
Under the terms of the conservatorship, the conservators would arrange her visits.
Now she is free to liaise directly with Federline and see the teenage boys more frequently, without third-party obstacles.
The singer is pictured with her teenage sons, Sean Preston, 16, and 15-year-old Jayden James
SEE HER FRIENDS
The conservators put in place restrictions on who she could see, and when, and she has frequently cut a lonely and isolated figure.
The move was designed to prevent her from coming into contact with people who could take advantage of her, or otherwise harm her.
Spears’s father, Jamie, was particularly concerned about some of her ex-boyfriends, and worried that people were trying to get close to her for her money.
But Spears told the court on June 23 that she wasn’t allowed to see friends.
‘I’m not able to see my friends that live eight minutes away from me, which I find extremely strange,’ she said.
She also added: ‘I’d like for my boyfriend to be able to drive me in his car.’
DRIVE HER CAR
Under the terms of her conservatorship, she was prevented from driving – that has now changed.
Spears has in recent months been frequently spotted driving her white Mercedes-AMG SL 63 near her Los Angeles home.
She is now allowed to be alone in the $150,000 car, but bodyguards often follow behind in a separate vehicle.
In July, she posted a photo to Instagram and commented: ‘It’s been a while since I drove alone and well let’s just say it’s a DIFFERENT BALLGAME.’
Spears, 39, is now allowed to drive herself wherever she wants – a freedom she relishes
The Louisiana-born singer is known for her love of driving and has spoken often about the sense of freedom she feels behind the wheel.
In a 2008 documentary, made shortly after she was placed under a conservatorship, she revealed she was no longer allowed to drive alone.
A producer asked her, ‘When did you last feel free?’ to which she responded: ‘When I got to drive my car a lot.’
She added: ‘I love driving my car.
‘There’s something about being able to drive your car that allows freedom. I haven’t been able to drive my car.’
LIVE IN HER OWN HOME, AS SHE PLEASES
Spears has, since 2015, lived in a mansion on 21 acres in Thousand Oaks, in the Westlake Village community.
She purchased the property for $7.4 million but, her father always had the final say.
Jamie Spears, according to the New York Times, ‘restricted everything from whom she dated to the color of her kitchen cabinets.’
She and Asghari could be looking to make a fresh start.
On October 20 the pair were spotted house hunting, looking at a $16.5 million mansion in the upscale Hidden Hills neighborhood in Calabasas.
The house is currently owned by makeup mogul Jeffree Star and other residents include Drake, the Kardashians and Miley Cyrus.
The house, purchased by Star in 2019 for $14.6 million, has seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and boasts sweeping views of the Southern California hills.
MANAGE HER OWN HEALTH AND SELF-CARE
Spears shocked the court on June 23 when she said that she had been forced to take the powerful psychiatric medicine lithium.
‘I’ve had the same lady every morning for the past eight years give me my same medication,’ Spears told the judge.
But, she added, that was changed by her father, against her will.
‘He immediately, the next day, put me on lithium, out of nowhere,’ Spears told the court.
‘He took me off my normal meds I’ve been on for five years, and lithium is a very, very strong and completely different medication compared to what I was used to. You can go mentally impaired if you take too much, if you stay on it longer than five months.
‘But he put me on that, and I felt drunk.
‘I really couldn’t even take up for myself. I couldn’t even have a conversation with my mom or dad really about anything.
‘I told them I was scared and my doctor had me on — six different nurses with this new medication come to my home, stay with me to monitor me on this new medication, which I never wanted to be on to begin with. There were six different nurses in my home and they wouldn’t let me get in my car to go anywhere for a month.’
Spears is seen in October 2018, announcing her Las Vegas residency. She said she was forced to do the show
She has also complained about her compulsory psychiatric treatments.
‘They have me going to therapy twice a week and a psychiatrist,’ she said.
Spears acknowledged that she needs therapy, but said once a week is enough, and at her home – rather than suffer the ’embarrassing and it’s demoralizing’ experience of being photographed coming out of therapy crying.
During the pandemic, she said the controls were so strict that she was forbidden from carrying out her usual self-care routines.
‘For a year, I didn’t have my nails done — no hairstyling and no massages, no acupuncture,’ she said in the June hearing.
‘Nothing for a year. I saw the maids in my home each week with their nails done different each time.’
MANAGE HER FINANCIAL AND LEGAL AFFAIRS
At the heart of the matter is Spears’s money – she is worth an estimated $60 million. Her father was paid $16,000 a month to manage her finances; her mother was paid $150,000 a year for the upkeep of her $2 million mansion – which Britney also paid for.
And yet, while her finances were strictly dictated – she was given an allowance of $2,000 a week – she was raking in millions for others.
‘I shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if I can work and provide money and work for myself and pay other people,’ she said in June.
‘It makes no sense. The laws need to change. What state allows people to own another person’s money and account and threaten them in saying, ‘You can’t spend your money unless we do what we want you to do.’ And I’m paying them.’
Jamie isn’t the only Spears family member who’s been under fire from Britney. She also attacked her mother Lynne, 66 – whom she blames for ‘ruining her life’ through the conservatorship that so restricted her life
Mathew Rosengart, attorney for Britney Spears, is seen on Friday outside the courthouse on Friday
Her finances are currently under the control of John Zabel, a certified accountant and the owner of Media Finance Structures, who took over from her father in September.
Zabel is unraveling the financial system currently in place, and the money will be handed over to Spears in the next few weeks, in a trust.
She can also appoint her own legal representation, following a ruling earlier in the summer. Previously she was represented by the court-appointed Sam Ingham; now she has the lawyer of her choice, Mathew Rosengart.
PERFORM IF SHE WANTS… OR NOT
Spears complained in June that she was forced to work against her will, likening it to sex trafficking.
She told Judge Brenda Penny that she was repeatedly threatened if she did not perform – in particular, highlighting the stress of her Las Vegas residency.
‘I was on tour in 2018. I was forced to do,’ she said.
‘My management said if I don’t do this tour, I will have to find an attorney, and, by contract, my own management could sue me if I didn’t follow through with the tour.
‘Three days later, after I said no to Vegas, my therapist sat me down in a room and said that he had a million phone calls about how I was not cooperating in rehearsals, and I haven’t been taking my medication. All this was false.’
Spears has suggested that she might not return to performing at all.
She said she is looking forwards to an extended break.
‘Team wants me to work and stay home instead of having longer vacations. They are used to me sort of doing a weekly routine for them, and I’m over it,’ she said.
‘I’ve worked my whole life. I deserve to have a two- to three-year break and just, you know, do what I want to do.’
TELL HER OWN STORY
Spears said that she has been silenced by the conservatorship, and begged Judge Penny to allow her to speak.
‘For my sanity, I need you, judge, to approve me to do an interview where I can be heard on what they did to me,’ she said in June.
‘And actually, I have the right to use my voice and take up for myself.
‘My attorney says I can’t, it’s not good, I can’t let the public know anything they did to me, and by not saying anything, is saying it’s OK.’
She complained that she was prevented from giving her side of the story.
‘It’s not fair they’re telling me lies about me openly,’ she said.
‘Even my family, they do interviews to anyone they want on news stations. My own family doing interviews, and talking about the situation and making me feel so stupid, and I can’t say one thing.
‘And my own people say I can’t say anything.’
Spears will likely now be the subject of a massive bidding war, with television producers and documentary directors all vying to be the ones who sit down with her for her first interview.
‘By just keeping the conservatorship going and also keeping my dad in the loop made me feel like I was dead,’ she said in June.
The end of the conservatorship, fans and supporters hope, will see her begin a new life.
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