Britney Spears hearing: Jamie Spears suspended as conservator
Judge has ruled to suspend Jamie Spears from his role with immediate effect
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A judge has ruled to suspend Britney Spears’s father from the conservatorship that has controlled her business and personal affairs for 13 years.
On Wednesday 29 September, Judge Brenda Penny was pressed to make major decisions on whether to end the conservatorship at Los Angeles Superior Court, or – if the system remains in place – whether her father James Spears should remain as his daughter’s conservator.
Judge Penny ruled to suspend Jamie from the conservatorship. Ahead of the hearing, Spears said she wanted the conservatorship to end and for her father to no longer oversee it.
Her attorney Mathew Rosengart, whom Spears was allowed to hire in July, has aggressively pushed for Jamie Spears to be removed from the conservatorship. Rosengart previously requested an emergency hearing on the issue, but Penny ruled that it could wait until this week.
A further hearing will take place later this year to petition to end the conservatorship completely.
The liveblog is now closed.
The hearing on Britney Spears’s conservatorship case is another major development in the singer’s efforts to end the system, which has ruled over her life and finances for 13 years.
Spears vocally denounced the conservatorship when she spoke at a hearing in June.
Britney Spears’s father James Spears (also known as Jamie Spears) has filed a petition to end the conservatorship altogether. He was the one who first sought the conservatorship in 2008, and the latest filing constitutes a major reversal in his position.
James Spears has urged Judge Brenda Penny to make a decision on the matter today.
In a subsequent filing, Britney Spears and her attorney Mathew Rosengart agreed that the conservatorship should end. This marked the first time that Spears formally made the request in court documents.
However, she and Rosengart stressed that it is more important to her that James Spears be removed from the arrangement.
It’s not known for certain whether Britney Spears will attend today’s hearing, but TMZ reports citing “multiple sources with direct knowledge” that she’s not expected to do so.
Here is a full timeline of the conservatorship and the singer’s efforts to bring it to an end:
A comprehensive timeline of Britney Spears’s conservatorship
What is a conservatorship and why is Britney Spears under it?
Britney Spears’s conservatorship is a two-part system in which others oversee her life decisions and her finances.
In 2019, James Spears stepped aside from the former aspect, ending his time as the so-called conservator of his daughter’s person.
He maintained his role as conservator of her estate, with control over her finances. He and his attorneys have contended that renders many of his daughter’s complaints about his control over her life meaningless.
Jodi Montgomery, a court-appointed professional, now acts as conservator of Britney Spears’s person, and Britney Spears’s attorney Mathew Rosengart said in court documents that Montgomery also consents to ending the conservatorship so long as it can be done safely and smoothly.
(Additional reporting by AP)
The documentary Britney vs Spears was released yesterday, on Tuesday (28 September).
Netflix has described it as “[telling] the explosive story of Britney’s life and her public and private search for freedom”, “featuring years-long investigative work, exclusive interviews, and new documents”, and “[painting] a thorough portrait of the pop star’s trajectory from girl next door to a woman trapped by fame and family and her own legal status.”
You can read our review below:
Britney vs Spears is irresponsible, boring and a waste of everyone’s time – review
Netflix film features more hypocritical finger-wagging over the past and revelations that only raise more questions
Britney vs Spears, which arrived on Netflix on Tuesday 28 September, has received mixed reviews from critics but sparked another wave of support ahead of the singer’s next conservatorship hearing.
“The ending made me cry,” one fan wrote of the documentary, while another described it as “heartbreaking”.
Read more about fans’ reactions to the documentary here:
Fans react to latest Britney Spears documentary
New documentary was released ahead of the singer’s next conservatorship hearing
The most recent post shared on Britney Spears’s Instagram account reflects on one of the documentaries recently released about her:
Britney Spears recently became engaged to her longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari.
This means she will be putting together a prenuptial agreement that her father should not be involved in, her court filings have said.
James Spears has denied acting in anything but his daughter’s best interest, and has declined Rosengart’s demands that he resign immediately, saying in a court filing that in his 13 years in the conservatorship, “to the best of Mr Spears’s knowledge and belief, not a single medical professional nor the report of a single probate investigator has recommended that Mr Spears’s presence as Conservator was harming Ms Spears or that he should be replaced."
(AP)
Here is a primer on today’s hearing, which will start in a few hours:
What time is Britney Spears’s conservatorship hearing today?
Judge expected to decide whether to end conservatorship altogether
Earlier this month, Britney Spears announced her engagement to her longtime boyfriend Asghari.
In a video posted to Instagram, she is seen showing off her engagement ring.
She wrote next to the clip: “I can’t f****** believe it.”
Britney Spears announces engagement to Sam Asghari
Singer posted a video on Instagram showing off a diamond ring, captioning the post: ‘I can’t f***ing believe it’