Cher has urged the father of pop star Britney Spears to step down from his conservatorship role.
Since 2008, Spears’s affairs have been controlled by a court-ordered conservatorship that allowed her father, Jamie Spears, to oversee her financial affairs as well as her personal life.
While he no longer oversees her personal life due to health reasons, he continues to manage her estate, despite her telling a judge that she wants him removed from the role.
The battle between Spears and members of her family over the conservatorship was recently explored in the documentary, Framing Britney Spears.
Cher told the Press Association that she has not seen the documentary, but believes Jamie should step down from his role.
“I think her father should move over and let her have her life. I believe she's been paying long enough,” she said.
The performer said fellow artists had discussed the conservatorship on the Las Vegas strip – where Spears held a popular residency between 2013-2017 – “for a long time”.
Cher is one of several fellow celebrities to express their support for Spears, with others including Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton, and Chloe Grace Moretz.
On Tuesday 20 April, Spears’s mother Lynne Spears lambasted Jamie for what she claimed was “substantively improper” attorney fees for the conservatorship case.
According to a court document filed on Monday (19 April), Lynne objected to the four months’ fee of $890,000 from Jamie's law firm Holland & Knight, saying that several of the fees requested by Jamie's attorneys were both “procedurally and substantively improper”.
Samuel D Ingham, Spears' lawyer in the conservatorship, told PA that he cannot comment on a pending case.
In February, Jamie shared his side of the story via attorney Vivian Lee Thoreen, who spoke to Good Morning America: “I understand that every story wants to have a villain, but people have it so wrong here,” Thoreen told the programme.
She added: “This is a story about a fiercely loyal, loving, and dedicated father who rescued his daughter from a life-threatening situation. People were harming her and they were exploiting her. Jamie saved Britney’s life.”
The next hearing in the conservatorship is set to take place in Los Angeles on April 27.
Additional reporting by Press Association
