Jamie Spears has been controlling his daughter’s career and finances since 2008, despite the singer stating she’s ‘strongly opposed’ to his position
Britney Spears’ father has defended his role as her conservator, despite mounting pressure for his removal, including from the singer herself.
Jamie Spears has controlled his daughter’s career and finances since 2008, after she was admitted to psychiatric hospital for five days. Despite the conservatorship scheduled to end in 2009, it’s still ongoing today.
The case has been handled mostly privately for the last decade, but has come to public attention in recent years, in part due to the #FreeBritney movement. The hashtag was started by concerned fans, who are campaigning for Britney to regain independence.
“I love my daughter and I miss her very much,” Jamie told CNN this week, revealing that the pair haven’t spoken since August. “When a family member needs special care and protection, families need to step up, as I have done for the last 12-plus years, to safeguard, protect, and continue to love Britney unconditionally. I have and will continue to provide unwavering love and fierce protection against those with self-serving interests, and those who seek to harm her or my family.”
On August 19, Britney’s lawyers filed a legal document stating she was “strongly opposed” to her father returning to his position as her legal guardian. Jamie stepped down as his daughter’s conservator in 2019 due to health issues, with Britney’s care manager Jodi Montgomery temporarily taking on the role.
In November, a judge declined to suspend Jamie from his central role in the court conservatorship. This move led to Britney’s lawyers asserting that she “will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career”, adding that the singer is “afraid” of him.
In an Instagram post shared on December 15, Courtney Love weighed in on the situation, after a fan asked if her father had ever tried to place her under a conservatorship (“Short answer is yes,” she said). “I’ve tried to lobby attorneys for years to take on Spears’ situation and they always pussy out,” she revealed, adding that she knows “more about the Spears case than almost anyone”.
She continued: “It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen done to another woman, and trust me I’ve seen it all.”
Britney’s conservatorship has now been extended until at least February 2021, though her former estate manager says she could be under it “for the rest of her life”. In September, Britney called for the case to be made open to the public, with her lawyers saying she is “vehemently opposed to this effort by her father to keep her legal struggle hidden away in the closet as a family secret”.