Britney Spears: what to know about the case of his guardianship
Placed under the tutelage of her father in 2008 after a descent into hell, Britney Spears fights against this control which she considers "abusive". Back to the essentials of this case.
Britney Spears - #FreeBritney. The slogan floods social media and is displayed on placards at rallies outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington or the courthouse in Los Angeles. Behind him, tens of thousands of fans - anonymous or famous - who demand that Britney Spears be "released" from his tutelage while the pop star of Toxic has been placed under this judicial regime since 2008.
Why was Britney Spears placed under guardianship? What does this special legal regime imply? What is the role of his father, Jamie Spears? Where is the process in which Britney Spears asks that he be removed from his life? Who are the singer's supporters and those who started the #FreeBritney movement? HuffPost answers these questions and provides an update on this decade-long affair.
When and why was Britney Spears placed in guardianship?
Among the most popular artists in the early 2000s after the success of the albums Baby one more time and Oops i did it again, Britney Spears also shows signs of psychological distress like this filmed sequence where she enters a living room hairdresser and shaves her head in 2007. In February 2008, and following two successive admissions to a psychiatric hospital, a judge in Los Angeles places the young woman under the “temporary control” of her father. A measure meant to ensure the safety and care of a person in danger.
In October of the same year, the courts decreed that the guardianship must fall within an "indefinite period". “Guardianship is necessary and appropriate due to the complexity of financial and business entities, and its condition likely to be under the influence,” the judge said in court.
This guardianship was "put in place during a moment of intense absolute distress," psychiatrist Jean-Victor Blanc told HuffPost. "It took her away from a toxic environment, it allowed her to be cured and undergo treatment." But for 13 years, the decision has been continually extended. And if "the situation seemed good at first", it is "not at all" the case, judges the doctor.
What does the guardianship regime involve?
The conditions of this plan are very strict and stipulate that the decisions concerning her are taken in particular by her father Jamie Spears, with whom she has had a long difficult relationship, as well as by a professional tutor, Jodi Montgomery. It gives these two people full control over the artist's finances and property, estimated at $ 60 million. This includes in particular income from albums, concerts or TV shows generated since 2008.
At a hearing in June 2021, Britney Spears also claimed to be forced to keep her IUD. “I want to be able to get married and have a child. I have just been told, just now, that under guardianship, I cannot get married or have a baby, ”she said, before asking the court for the possibility of removing her IUD. She also explains being forced to take drugs that make her feel "drunk".
“In short, she has the legal status of an 8-year-old,” HuffPost wrote Joachim Ohnona, author of Britney Spears on stage and Britney Spears: Iconic Still on the Star. “He needs parental consent to get on a plane or to make major purchases. She only has 30% custody of her children. "
Where is the case in court?
For about 10 years, Britney Spears never publicly commented on this guardianship regime. Yet a New York Times investigation published in June 2021 reports that the star has repeatedly spoken to forensic investigators about her concerns about her father's hold.
It was only recently that Britney Spears publicly opposed her guardianship in court testimony or in social media posts. On Wednesday, June 23, the American who will celebrate her 40th birthday this year delivered for the first time an explosive plea in front of a Los Angeles court saying she was “depressed” and “traumatized” by provisions she described as “ abusive ”.
"I just want to get on with my life, it's been thirteen years and that's enough," said the pop star, speaking at her request in an internet hearing. “I am not happy, I cannot sleep. I am so angry ”, saying that this judicial measure comparable to a guardianship regime does him“ more harm than good ”.
And if a previous request aimed at dismissing Jamie Spears last year had been rejected by Judge Brenda Penny, in mid-July 2021 a court for the first time allowed the interpreter of “Sometimes” to choose how she wanted to be defended in its fight to have its guardianship lifted. His new lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, has since assured him to take “aggressive and rapid” steps to dismiss Jamie Spears.
According to legal documents filed Monday, July 26, Britney Spears has launched legal proceedings to remove her father's controversial guardianship that gives him all control over his finances and replace him with an independent accountant. A new hearing is scheduled for September 29.
Where does the #FreeBritney movement come from?
It all started with a podcast of comedians around Britney Spears’s Instagram. In 2017, Tess Barker and Babs Gray, two American actresses, are quickly intrigued by the singer's guardianship and wonder if all this is not "Toxic" ("Toxic", one of the hits by Britney Spears).
“And it became an investigative podcast,” Tess Barker told AFP. With her sidekick, she then dives into the legal hearings on the issue to see more clearly. In 2019, Britney Spears disappears from social media and they receive an alarming audio message: the pop star has been forcibly confined to a mental institution. The informant presents himself as a former member of a cabinet working on this supervision.
The next podcast, titled “#FreeBritney”, goes viral and global. And the hashtag is still running, having been relayed half a million times when Britney Spears delivered her explosive testimony at the end of June. The slogan is also used on placards by pro-Britney protesters outside the Los Angeles court hearing the case and at rallies in other US cities.
And to become today a wave, to the aid of a megastar placed under trusteeship, which mobilizes worldwide on social networks beyond fans, from associations of vulnerable people to civil rights defenders.
Who are the supporters of the star?
While Britney Spears' father has indicated, through his lawyer, that he will not voluntarily withdraw from his trusteeship, “having been present 24/7 for the past 13 years” for his daughter, her mother Lynne Spears pleaded the opposite. According to court documents revealed by Page Six and TMZ, Lynne Spears asked the Los Angeles Superior Court to "listen to her daughter's wishes" and allow her to choose her own legal representative.
Among her many supporters, the singer can also count on famous personalities. “Give this woman her life before, slavery was abolished a long time ago!” Madonna exclaimed on Instagram, caption of a photo of her wearing a t-shirt on which he “Britney Spears” is written in pink letters. The star has been imitated by Miley Cyrus, Paris Hilton, Rose McGowan or even Christina Aguilera.
After the broadcast of the documentary Framing Britney Spears in which several witnesses claim that Justin Timberlake used his break-up with Britney Spears in 2002 to launch his solo career, the 40-year-old apologized to his ex-girlfriend. “I care about these two women [Britney Spears and Janet Jackson, Editor's note], I respect them, and I know I didn't do what I should have done. I feel sorry for those times in my life when my actions contributed to the problem, where I monopolized the floor, where I did not speak out for what was right, ”he wrote.
Has the White House responded to the affair?
In February 2021, the broadcast of the documentary Framing Britney Spears, produced by The New York Times, on the US channel FX brought the Britney Spears case back into the limelight. Before the artist herself delivers an unprecedented plea against this "abusive guardianship" in court in June 2021.
Across the Atlantic, the affair is now growing so much that even The White House has been asked to respond at a press conference. Jen Psaki, administration spokesman Joe Biden, said the White House was monitoring the situation “very closely”.
It must be said that the “case” Britney Spears is indicative of a system, that of guardianship regimes in the United States. Currently, it is estimated that between one and three million people, like the interpreter of "Toxic", go through this situation which is difficult, if not impossible to get out of it. Without there being any federal law to govern the relationship between a person and his guardian.
Inspired by the fight of Britney Spears, two deputies of the American chamber (one Democrat, the other Republican) have since tabled a bill aimed at better framing the regime and making illegal “abusive guardianship which can be a nightmare endless ”for those who are victims.
