I thought all of the #FreeBritney people would be more excited about this week’s Britney Spears news. Britney has submitted papers to the court asking that her father be permanently removed from her conservatorship. Jamie Spears has exerted complete control over Britney and her business since 2008/09, with the only break coming a few years back when his health deteriorated. Jamie Spears has kept her performing, and he wanted her to do another Vegas residency (which she does not want to do), and he even confined her to a mental health facility against her will (by her own account). Now Britney still wants the conservatorship in place, she just wants Jodi Montgomery to control it, with help on the financial side from a bank. Weirdly, the ACLU posted this yesterday:
People with disabilities have a right to lead self-directed lives and retain their civil rights.
If Britney Spears wants to regain her civil liberties and get out of her conservatorship, we are here to help her. https://t.co/uLRakw7c4C
— ACLU (@ACLU) August 19, 2020
Again, Britney has told the court that she wants her conservatorship to remain in some capacity, her issue is with her father as her conservator. But it would be interesting if the ACLU did make this into a bigger deal. Us Weekly has a story about how Britney does want the conservatorship to end eventually though:
After Britney Spears requested to remove her father, Jamie Spears, as her conservator, some fans speculated that the move indicated she did not want to end the legal arrangement entirely. However, a source tells exclusively Us Weekly that is not the case.
“Britney does want the conservatorship of her as a person to end, but she was concerned that Jamie could attempt to have the temporary conservator removed,” the source explains, referencing the 38-year-old pop star’s care manager, Jodi Montgomery, who assumed the role in September 2019 after Jamie, 68, relinquished his powers due to “personal health reasons.” Montgomery has since had access to all records regarding Britney’s medical treatment, diagnosis and testing, although Jamie is set to take over again beginning on Saturday, August 22, unless Britney’s request is approved or Montgomery’s role is extended.
“There has been significant improvement in Britney’s overall medical treatment plan, which has been attributed to no longer having her father in charge of her personal life,” the source tells Us.
The Grammy winner was placed under the court-approved guardianship in February 2008 after her public breakdown. As a result, she cannot make personal or financial decisions without the approval of her conservators. Her attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, said in the court filing on Monday, August 17, that Britney “is strongly opposed to having [Jamie] return” and “prefers” that Montgomery permanently replace him.
“Britney and her dad have a complicated relationship,” the source tells Us. “Jamie stepped in at a time in Britney’s life when she was extremely vulnerable to predators seeking to exploit her for financial gain. Over time, Britney began to resent her dad, who was truly in a no-win position. Jamie couldn’t be her dad, and it just got even worse when Jamie had health problems [in November 2018].”
It’s not shocking that Britney resents her dad, nor is it surprising that she’s doing better without her dad as her conservator. Jamie needed to step aside years ago, or make better provisions for the conservatorship’s terms to be eased here and there so that Britney could have more autonomy. The fact that he still wanted to have such control over Britney was always going to be a problem.
Photos courtesy of IG, Backgrid, WENN.
I really hope Britney Spears is granted the autonomy to have Jodi Montgomery guiding her conservatorship.
I still don’t understand why her father allowed her to do high pressure things like LA residencies etc… like I have no idea what Britney’s condition is. But removing unnecessary stress is the number one for mental health management. Anyhow, him doing dodgy things financially is the only way it makes sense to me. If Britney loves performing she could just could do one off concerts and dance casually at classes etc… The whole situation is ODD. I hope Britney is okay.
It’s interesting to see the ACLU get involved.
I know I have no right to know and its none of my business but admit I’m intensely curious about what Britney’s diagnosis actually is. Most people say what they have, for example Demi and bipolar, but I’ve never heard a peep of what Brit has.
On the court document for her conservatorship, it says she’s has dementia. I find that hard to believe because how could a person with dementia have a Vegas residency where she has to consistently remember complicated dance routines and the words to her songs? I know her mental heath challenges are none of my business, but I would also be interested to know what she has that requires such a long and strict conservatorship
Thanks for the reply. I also don’t understand how it could be dementia for the reason you gave. We may never know.
I work in mental health and I have NEVER heard of a person her age with dementia. It’s literally unheard of. I’ve always assumed bipolar 1, maybe with psychotic features.
Wishing her the best with this! I will always have a soft spot for Britney.
Her camp has always promoted this idea that Britney loves to perform and make music and that the concerts and albums and Vegas thing were her idea. It’s sort of sad to see that that was not the case – it seems a lot more like Britney wants a quiet, calm life and her father is the force standing against it. I’ve said it before on here – nobody with a financial interest in her should be a conservator. A neutral 3rd party is always the best option. If Jamie cannot make the best decisions for his daughter, free of financial motive, then he needs to be removed. End of story.
I remember Britney saying years ago that she would love to retire and move back to Louisiana or Hawai and be with her babies,I think this was even before her breakdown. How on earth they managed to spin that perfoming every night and working as a judge is suppose to bring her normalcy and routine. That environment makes most people lose it why would ahe want that.
I think she’s enormously conflicted. I think at some stage she did love performing up until recently but she’s over all that now. She was pushed into showbiz and hasn’t stopped working (until one or two years ago) since she was a tiny kid. She’s probably been supporting the whole family since then. I think there is/was a side to her that did want to be a super diva or whatever – she admires Madonna and Beyonce – but the family aspect just made it all really complicated. She is just not mentally or emotionally fully developed, by my amateur’s assessment. You need that stability and grounding and astute parental guidance to ensure kids’ brains develop properly up until they’re 18 or even 25. I hope she completely retires, signs up for a college degree, and finds a second, fulfilling career and finds herself away from the leeches in her family.
Read one of her sons going on about how his mother said she might just give it all up and him telling her “do you realise how much you bank from your career” and it was disturbing. I think the child is just 13. His father probably talks to him the same way. I hope she gets away from her family as they all seem to see her as an ATM. The father did well by her but also got a base salary (around 130K) and reported 1.5% of her gross earnings from her residency, apparently.
I’m glad the ACLU is stepping in. I don’t know or even pretend to know whether she needs a conservatorship. I do know that the New York Times article from 2016 raised some important questions. At that point, the article says she’d paid almost $9 million to the “conservators and other lawyers who have helped manage Ms. Spears’s affairs under the current arrangement.” If fees stayed the same, people will have made $13.5 million. The NYT article also says this: “As long as she is bringing in so much money and as long as the lawyers and conservators are getting paid, there is little incentive to end it,” said Elaine Renoire, president of the National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse, an advocacy group. “Usually, the conservatorship just keeps going unless the conservatee makes a fuss or the family does.” This is just my personal feeling, the people who put her to work at the age of 8 proved themselves unqualified to make choices for her mental well-being. Just because she was/is a commercial success doesn’t mean that was a responsible thing for a parent to do.
She also has a court-appointed lawyer, an independent third party, to double check what her conservator(s) are doing. I think she is still under a conservatorship simply because her healthcare professionals agree she has to have one. And she is such a high profile example; there’s no way the courts are going to be biased in some way or be swayed by lawyers who just want it to continue. The only change has to come from Britney herself, demonstrating she’s a responsible, mature adult. You look at her IG and it’s just sad. She has had everything done for her, through an entourage of staff, since she was a teen and I don’t believe her brain ever got a chance to develop normally. Plus she might be genetically predisposed to drug dependency and mental disorders through her father (grandmother attempted suicide three times before succeeding; father was alcoholic). I really do hope she finds the determination to fully develop herself and become her own person.
Her father is certainly not perfect, but he kept her busy and protected her. There must be a happy medium somewhere. I can’t say that the lady that is overseeing her life now is the best choice for that given how unwell Britney appears in her IG posts.
Agree with those commenters who say she’d be dead if it weren’t for her father specifically (the mother seems shady) stepping in. Keeping busy seems to be important for her wellbeing. Reportedly when her father got sick she wanted to stop taking her meds and that’s why her residency was cancelled, proactively by her father – I say proactively because it’s a condition of her residency that she takes her meds, it’s reported. From an outsider observer’s point of view, she does seem to need to keep busy and distracted. Her IG was relatively normal when she was keeping busy. Also her long-term psychiatrist died quite suddenly – around the same time if I recall correctly.
I have no mental healthcare training whatsoever but those books on neuroplasticity suggest even people who’ve lost half their brains can come back if they’re determined enough and have the right training and guidance. I’m just wondering if she could, for example, gradually lighten her medication and really focus on developing her brain. She might have damaged her brain with drugs, have had poor formal education, plus have genetic-related setbacks or vulnerabilities, but it’s possible if you are absolutely focused to grow and develop your brain even in adulthood when the mainstream rhetoric is all, “Oh, it’s all downhill as our brain cells start dying off at a faster rate.” This woman deserves to regain her independence one day, but she has to put in the work herself.
Haven’t paid much attention to Britney gossip in years. Did a lot of catch-up reading and my conclusions – all *speculation* obviously – are:
1) She is extremely unwell. The rumours are bipolar disorder, disassociative personality disorder, etc, but I am also *guessing* lingering damage from crystal meth she was *rumoured* to have been using regularly. I speculate she is seriously ill from alleged drug use.
2) The father can be trusted and the sister too, but not too sure about the rest of the family. They might be more self interested.
3) She needs round-the-clock personal care to avoid getting into trouble. Her “boyfriends” are usually chaperones and guards though she might have actual intimate relationships with them as well. Her father has to approve and vet them first as she cannot make a sound judgment as to whom she can trust. See her history of hooking up with ppl like Sam Lufti and that Adnan pap guy for more information.