Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images; Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images
Britney Spears has reached a confidential settlement with her father Jamie Spears and will avoid two previously scheduled trials over how money was spent during their highly controversial conservatorship.
“Although the conservatorship was terminated in November, 2021, her wish for independence has now truly been fulfilled,” her attorney Matthew Rosengart said in a statement Friday afternoon. “As she wished, her liberty now also includes that she will no longer be required to appear in court or be involved in or otherwise engage in legal proceedings in this matter.”
Jamie’s lawyer Alex Weingarten also confirmed the settlement on Friday, saying it resolved all outstanding disputes. “Jamie is thrilled that this is all behind him. He loves his daughter very much, and all he has done so far is to protect and support her.
The pop star – who has previously described the 14-year conservatorship managed by her father as exploitative and painful – was due to begin the first of two trials next month. It was determined in 2019 to focus on money taken from her estate to pay for everything related to the conservatorship. A second trial on the issue of fee petitions for several attorneys who worked for her father was scheduled for June.
In January 2022, after her conservatorship ended, Spears launched the first major attack in her legal war with her father. They objected to a fee petition from his latest law firm and included the filing of a sworn statement from Sherin Ebadi, the former FBI agent appointed to review alleged guardianship misconduct. In his statement, Ebadi said he interviewed conservatorship whistleblower Alex Vlasov after he asked him to new York Times That their former security company, which Jamie had hired, had placed a hidden listening device in Brittany’s bedroom. Ebadi said he found Vlasov “highly credible”.
talking to many times, Vlasov claimed that while Spears was in a residential mental health clinic in 2019, after she canceled her second Vegas residency and went on indefinite hiatus, she was trying to find a new attorney, While his phone was still being tracked. Vlasov said that Jamie was “keeping an eye on everything” at the time, including Spears’ “interactions with her friends, with her mother.” (Jamie’s attorney Weingarten has attacked Vlasov’s claims in court filings, calling them “reprehensible.”)
A source close to the situation says Rolling stone That Spears agreed to a settlement with her father to avoid a courtroom “circus.” With the new agreement, “everything has calmed down,” the source says. Spears has spoken out, has had her rights restored, and is ready to move on with her life.
In a blockbuster statement delivered to a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge in June 2021, Spears said she felt exploited and “bullied” by her father and the managers under her care. “I have lied and told the whole world that I was fine, and happy. That’s a lie. I thought, just maybe, if I say this, maybe I’ll be happy because I’ve been in denial. I am in shock. I am in shock. You know, ‘fake it until you make it.’ But now I’m telling you the truth, okay? I am not happy. I can’t sleep. I’m so angry, it’s crazy. And I am sad. I cry every day,” she said in her address, which lasted about 25 minutes.
In vivid language that confirmed the fears of her most ardent fans, Spears claimed that she was “forced” to agree to the 2018 release. My Part Visited under threat of “scary” legal action and was treated like a “slave” as she prepared for her second Vegas residency, dominance, When he protested some of the choreography and said he needed a break, his doctor “suddenly” put him on the powerful drug lithium, he said.
“I felt drunk. I can’t really do anything for myself,” she told the court. Spears said she was then sent to a private rehab program in Beverly Hills, which cost $60,000 a month. She had no phone, no privacy door to her room, and she had to sit in a chair for 10 hours a day, seven days a week, while presenting the program she wanted to avoid, she said. .
“I cried on the phone to (my father) for an hour and he loved every minute of it,” she said. “He had control over a powerful person like me. He loved having the control of hurting his own daughter 100,000 percent. “He really liked it,” she said, disdain evident in her voice. She said the conservatorship prevented her from having an IUD removed, marrying her boyfriend, trying for a second child, and contacting old friends.
Through his lawyers, Jamie has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. In her statement on Friday, Weingarten indirectly took a dig at her opposing attorney, saying, “It is unfortunate that some irresponsible people in Britney’s life decided to drag this out for so long.” In a ruling signed Thursday, Los Angeles County Judge Ana Maria Luna confirmed that “Mr. Spears has been completely and finally dismissed as the former custodian of the estate.”
Rosengart, meanwhile, used his Friday statement to praise his client as a “brave artist of historic and epic proportions.” He cited his “remarkable success” since leaving his father’s care, including his August, 2022 collaboration with Sir Elton John on the chart-topping hit “Hold Me Closer” and his best-selling book Is. the woman inside me,
“We reiterate our satisfaction to be in a position to help restore Britney Spears’ civil rights and liberties and to serve and protect Ms. Spears and achieve her goals in resolving the various legal matters in her thoughtful and pursuance of To receive respect and privilege. Wise instructions and requests, which are once again to his credit,” Rosengart said.
