#FREEBRITNEY Finally Realized

Written by Z Skarupa

#FreeBritney is no longer an activist rallying cry: It's now a fact. The conservatorship that had controlled Britney Spears' finances, personal life, and medical decisions since 2008, and which for many years was controlled by her father, Jamie Spears, was terminated Friday afternoon in a Los Angeles courtroom. Judge Brenda Penny said the conservatorship of Spears' person and her estate is "no longer required, effective immediately."

After 13 years, Spears' conservatorship is over. The judge ended the court-ordered arrangement during a hearing. Her ruling follows a tumultuous, lengthy, and highly publicized legal battle between the singer and her father, Jamie Spears, who was suspended as her conservator in September. He had held the role since 2008, overseeing his daughter’s estate and controlling much of her personal and professional life. For most of the time she was under the conservatorship, the singer has said, she masked her true feelings about the situation, but she began speaking out publicly this summer, asking for the legal arrangement to be terminated.

The conservatorship was split into two parts: the conservatorship of Spears' estate, which controlled all her income and financial decisions, and the conservatorship of Spears' person, which was in charge of her well-being and health. Jamie Spears had been suspended as conservator of her estate in late September, after the singer accused her father of exploiting her. Since then, the conservatorship of her estate has been placed with a certified public accountant named John Zabel, who will stay on briefly to transfer her assets into her trust. Since 2019, the conservator of Britney Spears' person has been a licensed personal fiduciary and care professional named Jodi Montgomery. The singer and her lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, had asked the court to end the conservatorship with no further medical or psychological evaluations of Spears, which was granted.

What Was The Conservatorship?

A conservatorship is granted by a court for individuals who are unable to make their own decisions, like those with dementia or other mental illnesses. Britney was put under conservatorship following her very public breakdown in 2008. Following a year of seemingly erratic behavior—such as shaving her head and attacking a paparazzo's car with an umbrella—the singer was put under a "5150 hold" in a psychiatric hospital for a mental health evaluation. The conservatorship had power over her finances and career decisions plus major personal matters such as her visits with her teenage sons and whether she could get remarried.

She told a court back in June: "I want to be able to get married and have a baby. I was told right now in the conservatorship I am not able to get married and have a baby." The conservators wouldn't let her have her birth control removed, she claimed. “…I have an IUD [intrauterine device] inside of myself right now so I don't get pregnant," she said. "I wanted to take the IUD out, so I can start trying to have a baby. But this so-called team won't let me go to the doctor to take it out, because they don't want me to have children, any more children." She also said she was forced to go on tour, made to take medication she didn't want, and go into rehab.

We look forward to seeing what comes from Britney in the coming years and we congratulate her on her new found freedom.

A special thank you to ET for Britney’s Statements about her conversatorship.

Murphy‍ Desiree. “Britney Spears Says Conservatorship Won't Allow Her to Have a Baby.” Entertainment Tonight, Entertainment Tonight, 23 June 2021, https://www.etonline.com/britney-spears-says-conservatorship-has-prevented-her-from-getting-married-and-having-a-baby-167822.