Sorry, #FreeBritney protesters—the battle wages on. According to the BBC, Britney Spears has lost her court bid requesting her father Jamie Spears be removed from her conservatorship. Jamie has been her legal guardian for 12 years and views the #FreeBritney movement—which consists of fans who believe she has been held captive and exploited by her conservatorship since 2008—as “a joke.” “All these conspiracy theorists don’t know anything. The world don’t have a clue,” he said earlier this year. “I have to report every nickel and dime spent to the court every year. How the hell would I steal something [from her]?” Jamie was her co-conservator up until last year, when he became the sole conservator—attorney Andrew Wallet resigned in 2019.
On Tuesday, Britney Spears’s attorney Samuel D. Ingham III told Judge Brenda Penny in Los Angeles superior court, “My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father. She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career,” Variety reports. While Penny denied Britney’s application, she did not rule out future petitions for his removal, so maybe hope isn’t lost yet. However, financial company Bessemer Trust Co. has been named her co-conservator after Jamie attempted and failed to rehire Wallet in September, who Britney said was “uniquely unsuited” for the job. According to Variety, Wallet said Spears will be under conservatorship for the rest of her life.
In court documents acquired by AP, Britney claimed that Jamie had no interest in working with Bessemer Trust, but aspires to “retain full functional control of her assets, books, and records in the face of Britney’s objections.” Consequently, Jamie’s attorneys have stated that his “sole motivation has been his unconditional love for his daughter and a fierce desire to protect her from those trying to take advantage of her.” I suppose we’ll have to wait and see about that—though it doesn’t look good, considering Jamie’s ex-wife and Britney’s mother Lynne Spears has said their relationship is “toxic,” and she should be free of his demands.