Britney Spears’ conservatorship ends after 13 years

Britney Spears is finally free. An L.A. judge ruled Friday to terminate the controversial conservatorship that has been in place since early 2008, ending the oversight of two conservators who have supervised the pop star’s person and her estate for nearly 14 years.

Judge Brenda J. Penny returned Spears’ legal rights, effective immediately. It was a decision that had seemed inevitable, though Penny gave no indication ahead of time about how she would rule.

The crowd of fans assembled outside Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown L.A. erupted in joyful cheers and confetti as the news spread. Then they sang and danced to Spears’ hit “Stronger,” hollering the lyrics, “Now it’s nothing but my way / My loneliness ain’t killing me no more.”

“History was made today. Britney is Free!,” Spears’ fiancé, Sam Asghari wrote on Instagram, captioning a pink square with the word “Freedom” written in white.

The parties will meet in court at a later date to tie up loose financial threads, and accountant John Zabel will remain in place as a temporary conservator of Spears’ estate to resolve financial issues involving outstanding payments. He has served in that position since the judge suspended James “Jamie” Spears as conservator of his daughter’s estate in late September.

The beginning of the conservatorship capped a tumultous few years as the pop musician — then in her mid-20s — lived in the brightest of spotlights.

Since her rise as a teenage pop star, she had been relentlessly pursued by paparazzi and under intense media scrutiny. She had her second son, partied with Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, divorced husband Kevin Federline and went to rehab. Her behavior in public became increasingly erratic, including shaving her head and attacking a photographer’s car with an umbrella.

After locking herself in a bathroom with her youngest child, she was taken from her home on a gurney and, for a second time, was put on an involuntary psychiatric hold. The court gave Jamie Spears temporary control of her person and her estate early in 2008 and made his supervision permanent soon after.

Fans started questioning the conservatorship almost immediately, and that grassroots effort evolved over the years into an increasingly vocal movement. In April 2019, the “Britney’s Gram” podcast released an episode titled #FreeBritney that featured insider information — a break from its usual humorous analysis of the singer’s Instagram account — and the movement coalesced around the hashtag.

While under others’ supervision, the “Oops!… I Did It Again” singer had continued to work, earning millions for herself and many others with albums, concert tours, fragrances, merchandise and a lucrative Las Vegas residency. Questions about that and other concerns were raised in the documentary “Framing Britney Spears,” which premiered in February 2021.

The avalanche of recent activity surrounding the conservatorship was triggered this past April, when Britney Spears’ court-appointed attorney, Ingham, told the judge, “My client has requested a hearing at which she can address the court directly.”

That hearing was set for June 23, where Spears — who turns 40 on Dec. 2 — spoke to the court for the first time in years. She declared the conservatorship “abusive” and rained fire on her father for how she said he had treated her over the years. She stunned fans when she said the conservatorship wouldn’t allow her to remove an intrauterine device from her body.

Unlike previously in the case, Spears’ blistering testimony was heard by the public, and the wheels of justice shuddered back to life.

In mid-August, Jamie Spears filed a petition saying that he would step down as conservator of his daughter’s estate — on his own terms. The document, authored by then-attorney Vivian Thoreen, actually argued that there were “no actual grounds for suspending or removing Mr. Spears as Conservator of the Estate,” but promised that he would eventually transition out of the role once a couple of lingering issues were resolved.

That wasn’t good enough for Team Britney, which swiftly accused Jamie Spears of scheming to swindle $2 million in payments before officially relinquishing control of his daughter’s finances.

In a surprise turn of events, Jamie Spears on Sept. 7 filed to end the conservatorship altogether, insisting that “all he wants is what is best for his daughter.”

Rosengart celebrated that filing as a “massive” legal victory for his client, then promptly accused Jamie Spears of surrendering in an effort to dodge consequences for his alleged misconduct amid mounting public scrutiny. After the documentary “Controlling Britney Spears” aired, alleging among other things that the singer had been surreptitiously surveilled in her own bedroom, the attorney said Jamie Spears had “crossed unfathomable lines” and noted that “the allegations warrant serious investigation.”

Britney Spears’ father — who had been removed as conservator of his daughter’s person in early 2019 — was suspended as conservator of her estate on Sept. 29. John Zabel, a certified public accountant handpicked by her team, temporarily succeeded him as interim conservator of the singer’s finances.

The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times staff writers Christi Carras, Nardine Saad and Richard Winton contributed to this report.