BRITNEY SPEARS SINGER WANTS FATHER REMOVED AS SOLE CONSERVATOR.
A Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — judge on Wednesday granted a motion to seal a hearing and transcripts in Britney Spears’ conservatorship case, a day after the singer’s request to remove her father as sole conservator of her personal and professional life a role he’s
— held for the past 12 years.
In a status hearing closed to the media and public, Judge Brenda Penny was set to evaluate the role of Spears’ temporary conservator, Jodi Montgomery, and her request to curb James “Jamie” Spears’ broad authority over his daughter’s life. Penny granted the motion to seal and cleared the courtroom, The Times has confirmed.
The 38-year-old entertainer has not had full control over her life or business affairs since her public unraveling in 2008. After psychiatric lapses, Spears was subject to a court-approved conservatorship — known in other states as a legal guardianship — that has given her father authority over her finances and many personal decisions.
Documents filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court by Spears’ court-appointed attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, gave the public a rare glimpse into the singer’s highly guarded life and her recently stated desire to no longer perform.
She asked the court to remove her father as her sole court-appointed conservator. She also requested that Montgomery, the temporary, licensed professional conservator overseeing her case since September, be named permanent conservator of the entertainer’s personal affairs.
Spears said that did not mean she would be waiving her right to seek an end to the entire arrangement. “We are now at a point where the conservatorship must be changed substantially in order to reflect the major changes in her current lifestyle and her stated wishes,” Ingham wrote.
Jamie Spears has been calling the shots on his daughter’s estate since his co-conservator, attorney Andrew M. Wallet, resigned in March 2019. Britney Spears is also opposed to her father continuing in that capacity by himself and prefers to have a “qualified corporate fiduciary” appointed to serve in the role, Tuesday’s court documents said.
Ingham said the conservatorship “rescued her from a collapse, exploitation by predatory individuals and financial ruin” when the case began in 2008. It also covered her resurgent performing years.