Britney Spears still has a conservatorship, legally controlled by her father solely. At one point, Jamie Spears attempted to make Britney’s fiance/manager Jason Trawick the co-conservator, but Jason and Britney broke up. Despite what Britney’s die-hard fans want to claim, this has always been an all-encompassing conservatorship – this is not just about Britney’s finances, it’s about her life, her meds, her doctors, her boyfriends, and her power of attorney. In 2018, Kevin Federline asked for a larger chunk of Britney’s income for child support, and Jamie made a lot of noise about how Britney would fight this tooth and nail and… Jamie caved. Because he knew Kevin would follow through on a full audit of Britney’s finances, sure, but also – Kevin still has full-custody of Jayden and Sean. Because Britney is still legally incapable of caring for her children, and any time she gets with her sons is through Kevin’s decisions. Rather than fight that, Britney and Jamie caved. That was just a few months ago.
Well, it looks like Jamie Spears was recently hospitalized, and now Britney is postponing/cancelling her latest Las Vegas show. Britney released this statement on her social media:
I don’t even know where to start with this, because this is so tough for me to say. I will not be performing my new show Domination. I’ve been looking forward to this show and seeing all of you this year, so doing this breaks my heart. However, it’s important to always put your family first… and that’s the decision I had to make. A couple of months ago, my father was hospitalized and almost died. We’re all so grateful that he came out of it alive, but he still has a long road ahead of him. I had to make the difficult decision to put my full focus and energy on my family at this time. I hope you all can understand. More information on ticket refunds is available on britneyspears.com. I appreciate your prayers and support for my family during this time. Thank you, and love you all… always.
According to reports, Jamie was hospitalized in November for a spontaneously ruptured colon. He spent 28 days in the hospital, with Britney by his side, and he’s now at home and expected to make a full recovery after a “long, complicated post-operative period.” Britney must feel unmoored – Daddy Spears has been micromanaging her life for more than a decade, and now, suddenly, doctors are asking her to sign here and make a decision about this, and should we move him there. I wonder about… so much of this. By that I mean, I wonder what the legal ramifications are, I wonder if she’ll be getting a new conservator, I wonder if she’s really managing to keep track of the doctors and the therapists and the in-home nurses and all of that.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram.
Why would Britney be asked to make decisions about her dad when she legally can’t make those same decisions for herself? Jamie has other children (and family) that could be involved in medical discussions if need be.
Like it’d be asking a child to make medical decisions! I know Brit isn’t a child but legally she kinda is….
Hopefully there will come a day when the conservatorship is no longer necessary. I want good things for her.
I hate to ask such a seemingly “uninitiated” (stupid) question? I’m not able to understand how Britney has emotional, mental health to put on grueling shows but not manage her affairs?? Not have some change in status after all this time and I presume solid therapy??
Anyone?? Thanks
She probably wasn’t the one taking any of these medical decisions since she’s not able to and another relative (or Jamie himself, he wasn’t unconscious for a month) was making them. While her message says that she’s cancelling/postponing her show to take care of her dad, the truth is probably closer to “the management team decided to call it off while the boss is on sick leave”.
She’s on a strict conservatorship and that means that any important life/financial decisions can only happen with the conservator’s agreement. A new show can be extremely stressful so I could imagine that they wouldn’t want to put Britney into a new routine while her conservator is sick, it’s too many things at once.
Of course she needs to be with her father, but why would she be the one making decisions? Doesn’t she have at least one sibling? Does he have other close relatives?
She has two siblings, one of whom is older IIRC. Britney is the last person to make decisions and I sincerely doubt she is being asked to. Someone who legally can’t make choices for themselves would also not be fit legally to make choices for others. It’s one of the big reasons Kevin still has full custody.
Thanks. I don’t think I even knew about her brother, and I’m not sure what her younger sister is up to these days but after a decade (?) or so of raising children she probably has some practice at making adult decisions.
Yeah when I read this I was immediately like…uhh who the eff is asking Britney to sign anything?! That should surely be a job for her older brother.
I think Brits brother would be next of kin in this scenario, and the most likely candidate to become her new conservator.
yep, he’s older than her and has always been stable, low-key, and quiet with the media
I hope he makes a complete recovery but it does raise questions about the conservatorship going forward and who will take over it if anything happens to him. I have thought that her brother would take over, it certainly shouldn’t be Lynne and/or Larry who are largely to blame for what happened to Britney – Lynne was the original stage momanger who has a lot to answer for.
I’ve often wondered if the conservatorship would end when the kids became of age.
The conservatorship has nothing to do with her children and how old they are (KFed has sole custody anyway), it’s only about Britney and managing her life. If she needs to be under a conservatorship because she doesn’t have the capacities to make choices for herself, that won’t change once her kids are of age, though they might then become the conservators if they want to (they’ll probably have to at some point, but I hope they can have a few years before handling such responsibilities).
I’m sure that everything about who’s taking over the conservatorship if/when dad can’t do it anymore has been sorted through and has been updated many times has the conservatorship itself has to be renewed annually
I didn’t get the impression she was going to be making the decisions on her fathers care but that perhaps he’d be staying at her home. Just because she may not be making medical decisions doesn’t mean she can’t be an active part of his care and recovery or have input into decisions.
I think it was just an assumption that Britney was making any decisions for Jamie. I don’t think she is considering she can’t make these decisions in her own life. Although she’s still under conservatorship, I think it’s more about legalities (money, contracts, etc) not her personal care.
I don’t really know much about her dad. People seem to have mixed opinions about him- some positive, some negative. But a hospitalization for something like this is a pretty dark way to start the year. Fortunately, this man’s situation won’t be considered too serious a subject to be discussed on a celebrity gossip site. People enjoy levity especially after the holidays, but that nice 50% of the time when there’s not a demand to be silent about heavy things for the sake of lightheartedness is always refreshing.
I highly doubt Britney served as next of kin for her father. Her dad, as sick as he was, may have been able to sign a consent for treatment. But then again, maybe not… Britney has been deemed legally incompetent to make decisions for herself let alone someone else.
I remember the discussion on this site a few months back about what could possibly happen should Jamie became very ill and/or pass. It’s a sad situation, but I imagine they probably already sorted this out years ago. It’s hard to imagine Britney will ever be removed from conservatorship since she’s been under for this long already. Unless she’s only staying under conservatorship until both kids reach 18.
I’m sure his family, including Britney, want to be around for him while he is ill and recovering. However, I’m pretty sure the cancellation of the show is as much to do with the fact that Jamie will not be able to oversee and (micro)manage Britney in the near future. Either the show literally can’t go ahead without him, or he thinks it can’t.
(This is just my take. I don’t mean this to sound critical of Jamie Spears at this time, I am genuinely sorry for anyone dealing with serious health problems of any kind.)
Britney is a daughter who’s father is having major medical problems. She has the financial means to put her work on hold to spend time with him. She’s not making any decisions regarding his treatment. As for her conservatorship, her dad is the primary but I’m sure there are at least two others named as backups when it was put into place. As long as her dad is incapacitated, someone else is acting conservator.
I remember when she was spiraling and with that Sam Lufti guy and had cut off her family. My two cents was her Mom played nice with Sam to get access to her, saw the abuse (he was crushing pills and feeding them to her) testified to it in court to get her ex/Britt’s Dad put into the conservatorship.
I can’t imagine what it would feel like to watch your child spin out of control and fall prey to these predators. I know there are those who feel that her parents are bad news and make her work. I do not think they are saints but I admired that they came together to get her out of that terrible situation. I also think her residency provided structure which is good for her and allows her to be healthy and have her kids more often.
I clearly do not know any of this, just my arm chair opinion. I hope the best for her Dad and her.
First, I wish Jamie Spears all the best for a complete and full recovery. Colon issues are very serious and can re-occur. It does take time to recover. Jamie also has a lawyer who manages the conservator-ship with him, so I don’t foresee any changes for the time being as long as he remains healthy.
Meanwhile the tabloids have been speculating that Jamie’s illness is a convenient excuse to cancel Britney’s Domination Las Vegas residency since ticket sales have been tepid with only about 50% sold so far.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing for Britney to take some time off and relax a bit. She’s been working hard. Once Jamie fully recovers, hopefully within the next few months, they can regroup and figure out what’s next for Britney’s career.
I can see that, especially since he was discharged from the hospital some time ago and has already started a long recuperation period. If this decision was really primarily due to her father’s medical crisis, it would have been announced around the time he was discharged from the ICU to the hospital floor & they were discussing his long road to recovery
Yes many stars come up excuses for poor ticket sales. She had been doing rehearsals. She is in competition with Lady Gaga and I think Gwen Stefani. Her act does not have any fresh material and her lip syncing and unenergetic dancing are well known.
Yes, exactly my thinking that is convenient to save face about her show tanking.
I think it’s a combination of factors, TBH. Ticket sales for Domination are disappointing and Britney is getting a lot of competition. But a ruptured colon is very serious. A person can be on the mend and doing well and suddenly get what appears to be a minor infection that can turn serious in a short time and the person ends up back on the critical list. I have several friends that have had this happen.
Jamie has certainly taken the lead in handling Britney’s affairs and watching out for her over the last 10 years. She does appear much more stable over the last five years and enjoying life with her two boys and her current boyfriend. Even if her Domination residency was sold out, I’d still agree that it makes sense for Britney, given her history, to take time off and be with her family.
I think she thinks her dad might pass and she just wants to spend as much time with him as she can.
This. She can’t make decisions for him but I’m sure she wouldn’t want to be working if there’s a real risk she may lose him. Not worth the risk; she doesn’t need the money and time with parents is priceless.
“She” doesn’t need the money but the people who depend on her golden goose eggs do. Which is why they are perfectly willing to put a lethargic bipolar woman-child on stage every night to earn them paychecks. I hope for her sake she can just retire and live a quiet life. It’s always icky seeing her do interviews she is like a robot that just parrots answers to predetermined questions.
Appletartin– I wonder about this. If she were not doing the residency, what would she be doing otherwise? At home a lot, with a lot of free time not doing anything in particular? Structure is so important to mental health. I wonder if that’s part of the issue for so many entertainers. The nomadic lifestyle paired with short periods of intense work, followed by long periods of nothing with the hope that they will find another gig. That’s stressful. Lacking a sense of purpose is harmful too. Speaking to my own experience here (bipolar II), but I wonder if that’s the case with Britney.
Hopefully he recovers, that sounds brutal. Good luck to their family.
Weren’t there just talks of her show underselling? Something tells me this is just a cop out a la janet jackson when she “fell sick”.
I don’t think Britney is expected to take care of all the doctor stuff.
I follow Jamie Lynn Spears on Instagram and she has posted about going to medical appointments with her father so I am pretty sure she and their older brother Brian are involved in his care. I think he had also kind of reconciled with his ex wife at some point, no ? So she’s probably helping too.
I have think the low sales of the new show have a part in Britney’s decision to cancel the show. That, and I think she would love to take a break. She always looks to me like she loves being outside of the spotlight.
The whole family looks exhausted and at least a decade older than they are. I get tired even looking at them.
Seems like an excuse, her new run was underselling massively.
I would bet she didn’t cancel the show to care for her father. She took the opportunity to cancel because of lagging ticket sales in Vegas. I don’t know why anyone would pay to see a lethargic woman on stage who can’t sing, when there are truly talented people performing in Vegas.
Britney’s brother Brian is also a co-conservator along with an attorney. It’s not just her father Jamie.
Why wouldn’t Jamie’s wife Lynn (Britney’s mother) be the one making the decisions regarding his care? No where did it say Britney was making these decisions. Don’t turn this into a debate on her mental health status. She’s just taking time to be with her family. That’s all.