Andy Roesgen
13 November 2021•Update: 13 November 2021
CHICAGO, United States
A Los Angeles judge on Friday officially ended the controversial conservatorship that ruled over pop star Britney Spears' life for nearly 14 years.
A crowd of colorfully-dressed Spears supporters, many in pink, erupted in cheers and songs by the star were heard outside the court when Brenda Penny ruled that "the conservatorship of the person and the Estates of Britney Jean Spears is no longer required."
Spears was not in court for the ruling, which was expected.
But how it came about was not.
After years of speculation about Spears' well-being under the conservatorship, controlled by her father, James Spears, and multiple documentaries about accusations of mistreatment, the pop star shocked the world in June when she gave her first public comments in court.
"I've been in shock. I am traumatized," she told Penny. Spears called her conservatorship "abusive," said her father and others involved in the conservatorship should be in jail and "I just want my life back,” during her 24-minute testimony.
James Spears was granted the conservatorship, giving him control of his daughter's professional and financial affairs, in 2008 when she was 26 years old, and suffering a series of high-profile public meltdowns.
But a "Free Britney" movement grew among fans, suspicious of her father’s motives. Most conservatorships are granted in cases where a person is increasingly incapacitated in some way, such as with Alzheimer's disease.
But Spears continued producing hit music, padding her net worth to around $60 million. And when she canceled a planned musical residency in Las Vegas in 2019, suspicions increased about the decisions being made.
The older Spears has always maintained that he was only looking out for his daughter's well-being but after accusations that someone involved with conservatorship planted surveillance equipment in his daughter’s bedroom, pressure grew to end his involvement. And confidential court documents later revealed that the pop star had been trying to end the conservatorship for years.
Penny ended James Spears' involvement entirely in September, calling the arrangement "untenable."
Britney Spears' attorney told the court that an accountant will still have some limited say in Spears' financial arrangements, as part of a plan to end the conservatorship, and that she will have a "safety net" in her personal and financial decisions.
