FREE AT LAST! BRITNEY’S DAD DUMPED FROM ’TOXIC’ ROLE

LOS ANGELES: Britney Spears’ father has been removed from his controversial role as his daughter’s guardian by a Los Angeles judge, ending a long and bitter legal battle by the pop princess. Jamie Spears was suspended with immediate effect and replaced with a temporary conservator “in the best interests” of the singer, said Judge Brenda Penny, calling the present arrangement “untenable”.

She also ordered Mr Spears to turn over all the conservatorship assets. Britney’s father has controlled her life for the past 13 years, under a legal arrangement the 39-year-old US singer has slammed as “abusive”. The ruling on Thursday came after a years-long campaign that played out in public, and after the emergence in the past week of two new powerful documentaries featuring allegations Mr Spears bugged Britney’s phone calls. Dozens of fans had gathered outside the court ahead of the hearing, many carrying colourful signs with slogans such as “Jail Jamie” and “Free Britney” – the plea that has been taken up around the world by her supporters on social media. The singer’s lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, described her father as “cruel, toxic and abusive”. “Britney deserves to wake up tomorrow without her father as her conservator,” he said. “It is what my client wants, it is what my client needs, it is what my client deserves”. Britney’s fiance Sam Asghari reacted to the ruling on Instagram, posting: “FREE BRITNEY! CONGRATULATIONS !!!!!!!!! ”