Britney Spears’ dad has opposed her request to open her long-standing conservatorship case to the public.
I’m going to safely assume most people are pretty familiar with the #FreeBritney movement at this point, but if you’re not: Britney Spears has been under a conservatorship since 2008, meaning that she has no legal control over her finances and assets, and very little control over her personal life.
Recently, Britney publicly spoke out wanting to remove her dad as a co-conservator of her estate. Basically, she doesn’t want to be under a conservatorship at all, but if she is required to have a legal guardian, she doesn’t want her dad to have control over it.
“Britney wants someone who is respectful and considerate to be in charge of her conservatorship,” A source told PEOPLE. “Someone from the outside who is not her family. Someone who will treat her like an adult and listen to her. She will never have this relationship with Jamie.”
But now, she’s fighting for the conservatorship hearing to be made public following the huge support of the #FreeBritney movement.
“Britney herself is vehemently opposed to this effort by her father to keep her legal struggle hidden away in the closet as a family secret,” her lawyer revealed to TMZ. “Far from being a conspiracy theory or a ‘joke’ as James [Jamie] reportedly told the media, in large part this scrutiny is a reasonable and even predictable result of James’ aggressive use of the sealing procedure over the years to minimize the amount of meaningful information made available to the public.”
However, Britney’s dad Jamie has since filed documents (obtained by TMZ) claiming that the case shouldn’t be made public until the court has determined that Britney has “the capacity ot understand the consequences of her waiver.”
Basically, Jamie Spears’ argument for continuing to keep the details of the conservatorship confidential is that it could expose Britney’s private medical issues. However, her lawyers have since clarified that the pop star is strongly opposed to this, adding that “there are no medical issues at all in a conservatorship of the estate, nor are her children [sons Jayden, 13, and Preston, 14] involved in any way.”
“Britney strongly believes it is consistent not only with her personal best interests but also with good public policy generally that the decision to appoint a new conservator of her estate be made in as open and transparent a manner as possible,” Britney’s lawyers’ filing said. “[Jamie’s motion] is supposedly being brought by her father to ‘protect’ Britney’s interests, but she is adamantly opposed to it.”
Interestingly, the conservatorship is voluntary, which means that Britney can technically file a request to terminate the agreement at any time, but allegedly has not up until this point.
Her conservatorship remains in place until at least February 2021, when it will be reassessed.
