Judge denies Britney Spears’ request to remove father from conservatorship
By Jennifer McShane
01st Jul 2021
01st Jul 2021
The decision comes a week after Spears delivered a devastating testimony and, despite the appeal being filed late last year, it's significant in that it was signed by the same judge who Spears sat in front of on June 30th.
A judge has again denied a request by Britney Spears to remove her father as her conservator – for the time being at least.
New documents show that the judge has responded to a request made by Spears’ lawyer Samuel Ingham III in November last year, at which point he said the 39-year-old star was scared of her father, Jamie, and did not want him to manage her finances.
Though the decision was filed a week after Spears called for an end to the “abusive” arrangement in an emotional speech, it is, at least, not a direct response to the 39-year-old’s most recent criticism of her conservatorship. Though, significantly, it was signed by the same judge at last week’s hearing.
In November 2020, Los Angeles superior court judge Brenda Penny declined to remove Jamie Spears and added a trust as the co-conservator of her estate. The documents filed on Wednesday affirm this decision and underline that Jamie Spears is still a conservator.
Last week, Britney made a number of devastating claims, including that she was forced to take lithium after publicly announcing she was taking a break from live performing, and being under watch even while she gets changed. Britney isn’t just under “control” by a conservatorship — she is apparently forbidden from doing anything of her choosing in life, getting married, driving in a car with her boyfriend, everything from the life-altering to the completely mundane such as painting her kitchen cabinets.
Perhaps most heartbreaking is her claim that the team managing her decades-long financial and personal conservatorship used an IUD to prevent her from having more children.
“I have an IUD in my body right now that won’t let me have a baby and my conservators won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out,” she told the court. “I feel ganged up on. I feel bullied and I feel left out and alone.”
“I am not happy, I can’t sleep. I’m so angry, it’s insane. And I’m depressed,” she said.
“My dad and anyone involved in this conservatorship, including my management … they should be in jail.”
Her attorney has not yet filed to terminate the conservatorship.
“I didn’t know I could petition the conservatorship to end it. I’m sorry for my ignorance, but I honestly didn’t know that,” Spears told the court last week.
Fans have urged Spears to keep fighting as she encounters what is yet another setback.
Also Read
