Britney Spears’ Conservatorship battle continues, as the latest reports suggest that the singer called 911 to report conservatorship abuse one night prior to presenting her testimony in court. This was according to a New Yorker exposé published on Saturday by Ronan Farrow and Jia Tolentino
Farrow and Tolentino writing about the Britney Spears’ Conservatorship battle and in describing the events that followed, said:
“Members of Spears’s team began texting one another frantically,”
“They were worried about what Spears might say the next day, and they discussed how to prepare in the event that she went rogue.”
A source close to the Ventura County, CA-based pop star confirmed word of her 911 call to the investigative journalists. Law enforcement officials in the County also verified that it happened. But while emergency calls are typically made accessible to the public, the County has sealed that of Spears, citing an ongoing investigation.
The 39-year-old pop star was first placed in a comprehensive conservatorship in 2008, following a series of public incidents and hospitalizations. On June 23, she phoned into a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, to speak publicly about the conservatorship for the first time, expressing her desire for it to be terminated.
“It is my wish and dream for all of this to end. I want my life back,” Spears told Judge Brenda Penny. “I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive … I want to end the conservatorship without being evaluated. I want to petition to end the conservatorship.”
The report from Farrow and Tolentino comes on the heels of a number of major developments in Britney Spears’ Conservatorship battle.
On July 1, wealth management firm Bessemer Trust petitioned to withdraw as her co-conservator. The day prior, Judge Brenda Penny denied her request to have her father, Jamie Spears, removed from his position as her co-conservator.
Why is Britney Spears under conservatorship?
Britney Spears’ father James Spears, who goes by Jamie, took over as her conservator in 2008 after she was detained for psychiatric hospitalization following a custody dispute with Kevin Federline, her husband at the time.
“They are images not easily forgotten,” wrote the LA Times about the singer in September 2019. “Spears driving with a baby in her lap. Shaving her head. Speaking in a British accent. Being wheeled out of her Beverly Hills mansion on a stretcher.”
Jamie Spears was then appointed as the conservator of his daughter’s person and her business assets, together with Andrew Wallet, an LA attorney who was hired to help manage the estate.
According to California law, a conservatorship, or guardianship, is a justified legal arrangement for someone “who is unable to provide properly for his or her personal needs for physical health, food, clothing, or shelter” or for a person who is “substantially unable to manage his or her own financial resources or resist fraud or undue influence.”
Jamie Spears not only has the right to negotiate business opportunities or sell his daughter’s property, but also to restrict her visitors.
In the years under the conservatorship, the pop star has brought out several albums, appeared in TV shows like The X Factor and performed in a total of 248 shows for her Britney: Piece of Me residency in Las Vegas between 2013 and 2017, which brought in nearly $138 million (€116 million) in ticket sales, according to Billboard.com.