As the #FreeBritney movement swells in public interest, Britney Spears reportedly doesn’t want her father in charge of her conservatorship, according to a new court filing. Spears has requested major changes to the complicated legal agreement that oversees her personal finances and well-being. Established in 2008, the conservatorship places her father in charge of her fortune and day-to-day life, but he temporarily turned control over to a professional conservator, Jodi Montgomery, citing health concerns in 2019.
On Monday, the lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III submitted a filing which stated that Spears believes her conservatorship “must be changed substantially in order to reflect the major changes in her current lifestyle and her stated wishes.” As first reported by The Blast, the filing provides that Spears not perform at this time and that she “strongly prefers to have a qualified corporate fiduciary appointed to serve in this role.” Emphasizing that she’s “strongly opposed” to her father overseeing the agreement, the filing anticipates resistance (per the New York Times):
Ingham added that he expected “any effort to achieve my client’s objectives as stated above will be aggressively contested by James,” and that Spears hoped to hire a law firm with “substantial expertise in handling contested litigation in a highly complex case such as this one.”
Earlier this month, Jamie Spears batted away #FreeBritney activism and claims that his daughter’s being held captive as “a joke” that misunderstands the family’s private dynamic. “All these conspiracy theorists don’t know anything. The world don’t [sic] have a clue,” Spears told the New York Post. “It’s up to the court of California to decide what’s best for my daughter. It’s no one else’s business.”
#FreeBritney supporters have decidedly involved themselves in the family business, Zoom-bombing a status hearing in July for over two hours. The protests assumed an in-person presence when several fans gathered outside an L.A. courthouse that same week, including one woman who flew all the way from Philadelphia to show her support. Considering the intense fan commitment and heightened legal stakes, the effort to change Spears’ conservatorship will not go away quietly.
