Name: Britney Spears' Conservatorship Case Is Complicated. Here's What You Need To Know.
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Britney Spears' Conservatorship Case Is Complicated. Here's What You Need To Know.

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Support for LAist comes fromWe Explain L.A.Stay ConnectedLAist is part of Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), a member-supported public media network. Hear our news on-air at our partner site:Our top stories delivered weeknightsShare ThisStories like these are only possible with your help!You have the power to keep local news strong for the coming months. Your financial support today keeps our reporters ready to meet the needs of our city. Thank you for investing in your community.Sign up for How To LA, delivered weekday mornings.he most recent hearing on Britney Spears's conservatorship went down on June 23. By phone, Spears to be put back in charge of her own affairs. She also revealed some startling conditions that she's living under, including that she has been forced to keep an IUD in place, despite wanting to have another baby.EDITOR'S NOTEIf you have no idea what we mean by "conservatorship" and don't understand how an adult can be required to live under such conditions, you're not alone.It's been a long and painful road for the 39-year-old pop star, a path outlined in detail by a documentary released earlier this year by The New York Times as part of its docuseries on Hulu and Fx.Support for LAist comes frompremiered in February and quickly became cultural zeitgeist fodder, generating thousands of tweets and think pieces.The main takeaway? Many viewers felt renewed sympathy for Spears after watching the film, not only because of the bizarre legal loophole that allowed an adult woman's life and finances to be controlled by her father, but also because of the way she was consistently belittled by American society for the better part of a decade.Here are the basics:If you're not a Britney superfan, you might not know that she's been in a legal conservatorship for the past 13 years.A conservatorship is a court-ordered guardianship arrangement, made when someone is thought to be If the conservatorship is granted, an adult, usually someone with a close relationship to the conservatee, like a family member or spouse, is given total control over that person's care, including physical needs like food, shelter and healthcare, financial affairs or both.Yup, Britney's father, Jamie Spears, is her court-appointed conservator.Interesting fact: Because Jamie controls Britney's finances, she is actually paying for her own legal team — and her father's legal team. She's also paying her father a salary to run the conservatorship.Support for LAist comes fromAccording to , Spears paid $1.2 million in legal fees in 2019. From that sum, Jamie was paid $128,000 as a conservator. And that's just for one year.A February 2021 describes the arrangement:The appointed conservators have control over everything from Spears's mental health care to where and when she can travel; the setup means that Spears's conservators are required to submit detailed accounts of her purchases to the court — even minor charges like $5 purchases at Sonic Drive-In or Target.Jamie Spears has said that the conservatorship saved his daughter from financial ruin and that his "sole motivation has been his unconditional love for his daughter and a fierce desire to protect her from those trying to take advantage of her."But the documentary raises questions about the father-daughter relationship. Jamie Spears was not very involved in Spears' early career; she actually had an older who took her to most of her auditions and accompanied her on tour when she was just starting out. Some people interviewed in the film also mention Jamie Spears' history with alcoholism.Spears had a string of public mental health breakdowns in 2008, the year her father was granted conservatorship. But that was obviously a long time ago.The singer didn't speak publicly about the conservatorship much, except in an MTV interview, where she said In 2019, Jamie Spears took a step back, citing health issues. A professional conservator, Jodi Montgomery, stepped in as a temporary replacement.In August 2020, Spears's court-appointed lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, said in a court filing for the first time that his client "" her father as conservator. Ingham requested that the temporary conservator be made permanent, adding that Spears would prefer that her father step down.In November 2020, a judge declined to remove Jamie as conservator. But the judge did grant Britney Spears' request to add a "corporate fiduciary," Bessemer Trust, as co-conservator.In a remote hearing in December 2020, Montgomery's temporary role was Meanwhile, the #FreeBritney movement gained traction. Fans protested outside multiple hearings in downtown L.A. and even to show support for the pop star. They also protested in West Hollywood in .Britney Spears . At the November hearing, her lawyer said that she is "afraid of her father" and "will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career."Spears hasn't performed since 2018.It's never been a good time to be a female pop star, but it becomes clear very early on in the documentary that the late 90's/early 2000s were basically a cesspool of misogyny, where slut-shaming was normal.Spears was consistently slammed by tabloids, talk shows (Jay Leno and Barbara Walters, in particular), and the media writ large for being, in approximate order of appearance, too sexy, too virginal, too young, a bad example for teenage girls, a bad mother, a liar, a cheater (), and a crazy, unhinged party girl.After years of being followed by paparazzi, starting when she was just 16, Spears was mocked as "crazy" and "out of control" for shaving her head during what we would now more respectfully refer to as a mental health crisis.That's when her legal troubles started, as Spears was deemed unfit to handle her own estate and put under a conservatorship, controlled by her father.Spoiler alert: Most of us were. Think back to 2008. Did you buy a copy of US Weekly and laugh about Britney's shaved head with your friends?The documentary includes some shocking clips of off-putting behavior, clips that a lot of us probably watched at the time and shrugged off.A few highlights:"Framing Britney Spears" features a clip of Justin Timberlake after the infamous breakup with Spears, telling a radio show that he had sex with her (at the time Spears said she had not slept with him). A later makes him look like a real stud for getting "in Britney's pants." New York Times culture critic Wesley Morris reflects on this in the documentary:"The way that people treated her, to be very high school about it, was like she was the school slut and he was the quarterback."Buzzfeed published an article titled, "." And a lot of people are also asking Timberlake to apologize, or at the very least, be held accountable in some way for his behavior.In a , Diane Sawyer channelled middle-aged moms everywhere when she looked at Spears, with a voice full of gentle, rehearsed empathy and asked her what she did to cause Justin Timberlake "so much pain," insinuating that the breakup was solely her fault.Sawyer also defended one woman's statement that she wanted to "shoot Britney" because "of the example for kids and how hard it is to be a parent." Some viewers are nowWatched the Britney Spears doc last night. Legal questions aside, it’s eye-opening. The documented societal treatment of this talented young woman was sick. Lots of people should come out and say what they regret. Looking at you, Justin Timberlake, Jay Leno, and Diane Sawyer.— Robert J. DeNault (@robertjdenault)The media harassment was something the film's director, Samantha Stark, wanted to highlight. In an interview with our newsroom's local news and culture show, , Stark explained:"It's important to look back at that and realize what that did, and also ask the question, 'Why?' Like why did nobody say anything when a late night host is making fun of Britney? Why didn't we bat an eyelash when all of these things were going on?"It's important to note that one late night host (ONE) refused to engage in making fun of Spears' mental health struggles. A refusing to hop on the bandwagon is now going viral.You know there should probably be several college-level courses on Britney Spears.Because we are not a university, we have some suggested reading.Listen: We talk with director and producer Samantha Stark about the New York Times documentary "Framing Britney Spears"Ask For HelpRelated Stories

Support for LAist comes fromWe Explain L.A.Stay ConnectedLAist is part of Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), a member-supported public media network. Hear our news on-air at our partner site:Our top stories delivered weeknightsShare ThisStories like these are only possible with your help!You have the power to keep local news strong for the coming months. Your financial support today keeps our reporters ready to meet the needs of our city. Thank you for investing in your community.Sign up for How To LA, delivered weekday mornings.he most recent hearing on Britney Spears's...

Britney Spears' Conservatorship Case Is Complicated. Here's What You Need To Know.

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