Ex-husband of Britney Spears accused of harassment for breaking into the artist's wedding
A US court on Monday charged Britney Spears' ex-husband with felony harassment after she tried to crash the pop princess' wedding in Southern California.
Spears and her partner Sam Asghari were preparing to marry Thursday at their home in Thousand Oaks, California, when the wedding was cut short after Jason Allen Alexander, a childhood friend to whom the 40-year-old singer was married in 2004, crashed the ceremony.
The police had to come to solve the incident.
According to Ventura County court documents, Alexander was charged with felony harassment, as well as misdemeanor trespassing, vandalism and assault.
The 40-year-old man from Louisiana appeared in court via Zoom from jail and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The judge issued a restraining order requiring Alexander to remain more than 100 meters from Spears. The magistrate also set bail for him at $100,000.
The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Spears' attorney, Mathew Rosengart, told reporters that he was "satisfied" with how authorities had responded to Alexander's intrusion.
"This is a serious matter, this is not a 'wedding accident', it was an infiltration, as we all saw," Rosengart said as he left the courthouse.
According to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, Alexander also has an open warrant for embezzlement and possession of stolen property.
The wedding was attended by celebrities including Madonna, Selena Gomez, Drew Barrymore, Paris Hilton and Donatella Versace, who designed Spears' dress.
"Fairy tales are real," the pop princess had posted on Instagram, along with a video of the preparations in which the singer was seen posing in a horse-drawn carriage decorated with roses.
In November, a Los Angeles judge annulled the guardianship that Spears' father had over the artist for 13 years and that allowed him to control her estate.
The singer had said her father, Jamie Spears, had prevented her from removing a contraceptive IUD despite her desire to have more children, an allegation he has denied.
