Britney Spears ‘on cloud nine’ after father’s removal from conservatorship
Britney Spears has said she is “on cloud nine right now” after a Los Angeles judge suspended her estranged father from the conservatorship that has controlled her life for 13 years.
The singer posted her remarks on Instagram alongside footage of her learning to fly a plane.
Judge Brenda Penny described Jamie Spears’s involvement with the conservatorship as “toxic” and “untenable” and ordered his removal from the arrangement.
The decision prompted an outpouring of support from fans and famous peers. “I’m more than thrilled 4 her,” Cher tweeted.
Dionne Warwick wrote: “This is wonderful news. She can now breathe. Congratulations, Britney. Enjoy your life!”
Bette Midler praised “everyone who helped bring this about, especially Britney, who, after 13 years in the wilderness, never gave up until she was finally heard”.
Songwriter Vanessa Carlton said she was “so thrilled to see that freedom and hopefully justice is finally coming to this brilliant lady”.
Spears’s boyfriend, Sam Asghari, shared his congratulations on Instagram Stories. “She did this. Her fanbase is called an army for a reason.”
After years of agitation by the #FreeBritney movement prompted renewed attention on the arrangement that has governed Spears’s life since her 2008 breakdown, the singer was revealed to have long objected to its constraints.
In June, she addressed the court for the first time, describing the conservatorship as “abusive” and alleging that her father and others had denied her wish to marry her long-term boyfriend and have a third child. “He loved the control to hurt his own daughter,” she said in her testimony.
Spears and Asghari have since become engaged.
A new documentary from the New York Times alleged that Jamie Spears had hired a security firm that monitored his daughter’s phone and bedroom as well as fans who lobbied for the conservatorship’s end.
A hearing on 12 November will discuss the complete termination of the conservatorship, a decision that appears to have support from both Spears and the controllers of her affairs.
After Spears addressed the court in June, she was granted the right to appoint her own lawyer, Matthew Rosengart, who insisted that Jamie Spears’s removal was necessary for his client’s wellbeing.
At the hearing, Rosengart said it was the first step towards ending a “Kafkaesque nightmare” for his client, adding that she “has been abused by this man not only for the past decade, but since her childhood”.
Mr Spears’s lawyer, Vivian Thoreen, objected to his suspension and cast aspersions on Spears’s prior testimony. “She wasn’t cross-examined. Nobody knows the veracity of those statements.”
Thoreen unsuccessfully argued that the conservatorship should be entirely terminated immediately so that the issue of suspension would be “moot”.
Rosengart previously described Mr Spears’s request to dissolve the arrangement in early September as an attempt “to avoid accountability and justice”.
Outside the court, Spears’ lawyer told fans and media: “Jamie Spears and others are going to face more serious ramifications for his misconduct.”
On Thursday morning, Thoreen circulated a statement on Mr Spears’s behalf, describing the outcome of Wednesday’s hearing as “disappointing” and “a loss for Britney”.
“Respectfully, the court was wrong to suspend Mr Spears, put a stranger in his place to manage Britney’s estate, and extend the very conservatorship that Britney begged the court to terminate earlier this summer,” Thoreen said.
“It was Mr Spears who took the initiative to file the petition to terminate the conservatorship when neither Britney’s former court-appointed counsel nor her new privately retained attorney would do so. It was Mr Spears who asked the court at yesterday’s hearing to immediately terminate the conservatorship while Britney’s own attorney argued against it.
“Despite the suspension, Mr Spears will continue to look out for the best interests of his daughter and work in good faith towards a positive resolution of all matters.”