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Britney Spears thanks #FreeBritney movement

By | Published on Tuesday 5 October 2021

Britney Spears

Britney Spears has thanked the #FreeBritney movement after her father was removed from his position overseeing her conservatorship last week, ahead of the planned termination of the entire legal arrangement after thirteen years.

“#FreeBritney movement – I have no words”, she wrote on Twitter. “Because of you guys and your constant resilience in freeing me from my conservatorship – my life is now [moving] in that direction! I cried last night for two hours cause my fans are the best and I know it”.

Spears’ father Jamie played a key role in running his daughter’s music business and personal life through the conservatorship ever since it was created by the courts back in 2008.

Legal wrangling over the running of the conservatorship began after Jamie temporarily stood down due to ill-health. On his return, it was argued that Britney no longer wanted her father involved as a conservator. It was during the subsequent legal back and forth that the fan-led #FreeBritney movement really started to gain momentum.

Following a court testimony earlier this year in which Britney criticised the conservatorship – and her father in particular – various people involved in the arrangement resigned, including Britney’s court-appointed lawyer. The attorney who replaced him, Matthew Rosengart, quickly got to work pulling the conservatorship apart, in particular demanding that Jamie be removed from his role as conservator of his client’s estate with immediate effect.

Jamie initially resisted calls for him to resign, but then said he would step down from the conservatorship when the time was right, insisting a smooth transfer was required to any new conservator. But then, last month, he suddenly filed new legal papers calling for the entire conservatorship to be terminated.

While dubbing that development a “victory” for Britney, Rosengart continued to argue for Jamie’s immediate removal, saying that his client’s father was only calling for an end to the conservatorship now in an effort to hide his “evident and ongoing” mismanagement of his daughter’s finances.

Last week, Judge Brenda Penny agreed to replace Jamie with a temporary conservator, and also indicated that she now plans to begin the process to completely terminate the arrangement. Jamie later criticised the decision, with his attorney Vivian Thoreen denying all the claims that have been made against her client.

“Mr Spears loves his daughter Britney unconditionally”, she said. “For thirteen years, he has tried to do what is in her best interests, whether as a conservator or her father. This started with agreeing to serve as her conservator when she voluntarily entered into the conservatorship. This included helping her revive her career and re-establish a relationship with her children”.

Calling last week’s court decision “a loss for Britney”, she said: “Respectfully, the court was wrong to suspend Mr Spears, put a stranger in his place to manage Britney’s estate, and extend the very conservatorship that Britney begged the court to terminate earlier this summer”.

Rosengart has said that he will be pushing for the conservatorship to end this autumn – earlier than had been expected after Jamie moved to terminate the arrangement.



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