What happened to Britney Spears? Full and updated conservatorship timeline
Yesterday, (12 August) it was announced that Britney Spears’s father has agreed to step down as her conservator.
According to court filings from his lawyers, Jamie Spears “intends to work with the Court and his daughter’s new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator”.
However, he has not specified when this change will occur, only stating that he will step down “when the time is right”.
In response to the news, the pop star’s lawyer Matthew Rosengart told TMZ that “we are pleased but not necessarily surprised” by the development.
Jamie’s recent announcement is the latest development in the singer’s long-running legal battle to have him removed as her conservator.
The “Toxic” singer has been under a legal guardianship since 2008, with her father and other legal guardians controlling her finances and personal life for the past 13 years.
However, Spears has shown resistance to the situation in recent years, with her lawyers stating that she wants the conservatorship to change and her father to be removed from it.
On 23 June, Spears delivered a powerful and emotional statement to the court, speaking out for the first time of her experience under the situation and calling for those involved to be “put in jail”.
Here’s a timeline of Spears’s conservatorship so far...
January 2007
Amid her divorce from Kevin Federline, Spears spends one day in rehab in Antigua. The next day, she infamously shaves her head at a salon and admits herself to a treatment facility in the coming weeks.
October 2007
Having split from ex-husband Kevin Federline the year before, Spears loses custody of her two sons to him. The reasons for the court ruling are not made public, but Federline claims that Spears has been behaving erratically and abusing substances.
January 2008
Spears is involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital for a second time. Her father Jamie Spears and attorney Andrew Wallet are granted temporary conservatorship the following month.
October 2008
Spears’s conservatorship is extended indefinitely, with a judge citing the complexity of her financial situation and stating that she is “susceptible to undue influence”.
November 2008
MTV releases the documentary Britney: For the Record, in which the singer compares her circumstances to a jail sentence with no end.
September 2016
Spears has released three albums – Femme Fatale (2011), Britney Jean (2013), Glory (2016) – with little public attention on her conservatorship. However, reports emerge that while filming The Jonathan Ross Show, the singer allegedly told the presenter about the conservatorship, saying: “I’ve been under this conservatorship for three years and I felt like a lot of decisions were made for me.” However, the rumoured comments do not air with the show.
January 2019
The singer is due to begin a new Las Vegas residency off the back of another, but instead announces an “indefinite work hiatus”, citing her father’s health after he “almost died” in hospital.
I don’t even know where to start with this, because this is so tough for me to say. I will not be performing my new show Domination. I’ve been looking forward to this show and seeing all of you this year, so doing this breaks my heart. pic.twitter.com/kHgFAVTjNA
— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) January 4, 2019
“It’s important to always put your family first… and that’s the decision I had to make,” she writes. “I had to make the difficult decision to put my full focus and energy on my family at this time. I hope you all can understand.”
March 2019
Andrew Wallet voluntarily resigns as Spears’s co-conservator, making Jamie the sole conservator. Over a year later, he asks to be reinstated, but the singer’s lawyers state he is “uniquely unsuitable” for the role. Jamie eventually withdraws petition for Wallet’s reinstatement.
May 2019
Spears reportedly appears in probate court to ask the judge to ease restrictions imposed by the conservatorship and give her more freedom.
August 2019
Spears’s teenage sons are granted a restraining order against Jamie after he is allegedly involved in a “physical altercation” with one of them.
September 2019
Jamie is replaced as his daughter’s conservator by professional conservator Jodi Montgomery, while citing health reasons for his temporary removal from managing her personal life. He still oversees her finances.
July 2020
Spears’s brother Bryan claims on a podcast that Spears has wanted the conservatorship to end for “quite some time”, adding: “She’s always wanted to get out of it.”
August 2020
Jamie calls the #FreeBritney movement a “conspiracy theory” and a “joke”.
Later that month, legal documents show that Spears is attempting to remove her father from her conservatorship, saying that she is “strongly opposed” to him returning to control of her personal affairs.
September 2020
The singer’s lawyers file an objection to the conservatorship case being closed off from the public, stating: “The world is watching.”
November 2020
Judge Brenca Penny does not remove Jamie as Spears’s conservator, but appoints the Bessemer Trust as a co-conservator.
February 2021
The New York Times’s Framing Britney Spears documentary is released, sparking public conversation about the treatment of Spears and other celebrities by the tabloids in the 2000s and reigniting interest in the #FreeBritney fan campaign.
Spears’s boyfriend Sam Asghari writes on Instagram that Jamie is a “total d***” who tried to control their relationship.
March 2021
Spears’s lawyers formally ask Jamie to resign from his role as conservator. Their statement also claims that Spears “expressly reserves the right to petition for termination of this conservatorship”.
Jamie’s lawyers claim that the performer can end the conservatorship at “any time” but has chosen not to.
Spears says in a since-deleted Instagram post that she felt “embarrassed” watching the beginning of Framing Britney Spears and cried for two weeks after it.
April 2021
Spears’s attorney Ingham says the singer wants to schedule a status hearing “on an expedited basis” in order to address the court directly. The date of 23 June is set and while no details of what she intends to say are revealed, the lawyer says it will pertain to the “status of the conservatorship”.
June 2021
Britney Spears addressed a Los Angeles courtroom on 23 June for the first time in 13 years of the conservatorship.
Spears took part in the hearing remotely and spoke to Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny for 24 minutes. Among the claims made were the allegation that she was forced to consume medications after declining to work, and that she wished to have another child but wasn’t permitted to by her “team”.
“The main reason why I’m here is that I want to end the conservatorship without having to be evaluated,” Spears said.
“I deserve to have the same rights as anybody does, by having a child, a family, any of those things, and more so.”
The Grammy Award-winner made a number of claims during her testimony, including that she was forced to take lithium after she announced that she was taking a break from live performances.The 39-year-old also revealed that she would like to have another baby but that her conservators allegedly won’t allow her to go to the doctor to have her IUD removed.“I feel ganged up on. I feel bullied and I feel left out and alone,” she told the court.
August 2021
Jamie Spears agreed to step down as her conservator “when the time is right”, according to court filings from his lawyers.
He “intends to work with the Court and his daughter’s new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator”, TMZ first reported on Thursday, 12 August, citing new legal documents.
According to the publication, the new documents state in part that “there are, in fact, no actual grounds for suspending or removing Mr Spears as the conservator of the estate... and it is highly debatable whether a change in conservator at this time would be in Ms Spears’s best interests”.
The singer’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart told the website “we are pleased but not necessarily surprised” by the development.
Jamie Spears has previously argued that the conservatorship was necessary and said in a filing earlier this month he has “dutifully and faithfully served as the conservator of his daughter’s estate without any blemishes on his record”.
Fans and friends celebrated the development, with Paris Hilton writing on Twitter: “I’m so happy to hear this news. It’s been so long overdue but I’m so glad that Britney is on her way to finally being free. Sending so much love!”
What is next?
Prior to Jamie’s announcement, Britney’s attorney filed a petition asking the court to remove Jamie as conservator and replace him with Jason Rubin, a professional accountant. The court is expected to decide at a hearing next month.
Rubin has practiced as a forensic accountant and consulting expert since 1993. He is the president of Certified Strategies, a company that deals with conservatorships. You can find out more information on what is expected to happen next here.
If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, Samaritans offers support. You can speak to someone in confidence over the phone on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website here.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
