Judge Rules That Britney Spears's Dad No Longer Has Sole Control of Her Conservatorship

Following the premiere of the provocative film Framing Britney Spears, the singer had her first court hearing Feb. 11, to challenge her father Jamie Spears over the control of her conservatorship. Although Jamie will continue to have power over Britney’s finances and personal decisions, judge Brenda Penny ruled that he will have a joint conservatorship with financial services company Bessemer Trust.

Spears’s father has had sole control of his daughter’s estate since becoming her conservator in 2008. Since then, there have been no known objections from Britney until the rise of the #FreeBritney movement; thereafter Britney filed a petition to remove her father as conservator in August 2020. Los Angeles judge Penny delegated Bessemer Trust as co-conservator in November 2020 and denied Britney’s petition to remove her father as conservator. Afterwards, Britney’s attorney Samuel Ingham accepted the co-conservatorship proposal and Penny has finally agreed to grant co-conservatorship roles to Jamie Spears and Bessemer Trust.

Spears’ attorney released a statement that Jamie Spears and Bessemer Trust will have “an equal division of responsibility, in the hopes that they would sit down and figure out together the best way to handle this complex estate for the benefit of my client.” He continued that “it’s no secret that my client does not want her father as co-conservator, but we recognize that removal is a separate issue.”

The film Framing Britney Spears has been a huge hit, and has sparked renewed interest in the life of the pop diva. Spears has been a star alongside the likes of Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling, when she was cast with them in The Mickey Mouse Club, Disney’s all-singing, all-dancing children’s TV show, in 1992 at the age of 11. She went supernova at 16 with her debut single (and album), … Baby One More Time, and has remained tabloid fodder ever since.

Framing Britney Spears is the investigation into the controversy surrounding the conservatorship (a kind of imposed power-of-attorney-on-steroids) given to her father, Jamie, after Spears was involuntarily committed to a hospital psychiatric ward in 2008. “The only thing he ever said to me was: ‘My daughter’s gonna be so rich she’s gonna buy me a boat,’” recalled Spears’ record marketing director. “And that’s all I’m going to say about Jamie.”

The documentary provides a look at Spears’ career through a modern, post #MeToo lens. On one of her earliest TV appearances she beautifully belts out the song Love Can Build a Bridge at the age of 10, on the TV show Star Search. After her incredible performance, the 65 year old host Ed McMahon tells her she has pretty eyes and asks if he could be her boyfriend. You can see bafflement, discomfort and a desire to be polite on the young Britney’s face.

Questions about her breasts (implants? No implants?) and virginity followed as she hit her teens. And once the “bad boyfriend” years, marriage(s) and pregnancies followed, so did paparazzi pursuits and tabloid narratives about promiscuity, unfit motherhood and all the vicious rest. Then came the notorious – heavily watched – head-shaving breakdown, which only stoked the fire.

The film, produced by the New York Times, has a well-curated assembly of interview footage and commentary from people there at the time. A talent manager who had worked with most big boy bands noted that not one of their members was ever scrutinised to anything like the degree Spears was. It showcases the weird world she grew up in.

Prior to the film a group of fans had begun a successful viral online protest campaign under the hashtag #FreeBritney. To express their support, they had also gathered outside the Los Angeles court where Spears pushed to get her father replaced as conservator by an independent administrator. Britney’s fans have been incredibly loving and supportive of her.