Britney Spears’ father Jamie is no longer her conservator, but Britney is still under her conservatorship. The rules of the conservatorship are still the same as they’ve always been, for the past 11 years: constant monitoring of Britney’s physical and mental health, and control of her finances. Britney’s new conservator is her “care manager” of the past year, a woman named Jodi Montgomery. Jamie stepped down – temporarily, it has been stressed – in the wake of his assault on his grandson Sean Preston last week. While the nature of the conservatorship has not been changed, there’s an outside chance it could be changed in the weeks/months to come:
Britney Spears now has a new temporary conservator … and, as expected, it’s Jodi Montgomery. The appointment was made official Monday in an L.A. courtroom where a judge appointed Jodi after Britney’s father, Jamie Spears, formally requested to relinquish his powers of conservatorship due to personal health reasons. As we first reported … Jamie filed the docs last week to step down at least through January 20, 2020 — and handpicked Jodi, Brit’s care manager, to be his replacement, temporarily.
We know no one involved opposed Jodi’s appointment, but the bigger issue will come within the next week … once a court appointed evaluator files a report about Britney’s care and medications she was given. TMZ broke the story … Dr. Timothy Benson — who was responsible for her treatment — died from an aneurysm. The evaluation could be critical of Jamie’s stewardship and, if so, could open the door for Kevin Federline and/or Lynne Spears to launch a challenge to Jamie returning to the conservatorship.
Jamie’s asking the judge to give Montgomery the same powers he has, including:
1. The power to restrict or limit visitors by any means.
2. The power to retain caretakers and security for Britney on a 24-hour basis.
3. The power to prosecute civil harassment restraining orders.
4. The power to communicate with expert medical personnel regarding Britney and to have full access to her medical and psychiatric records.Monday in court, the judge appointed Jodi conservator until January 31, 2020, at which point Jamie could presumably return … barring a challenge.
It will be interesting to see what happens from here. I’m not trying to sound macabre at all – it will be fascinating to see what happens in the next four months. Will Jamie still try to exert a level of control over Britney? Will Brit break free of her dad in a meaningful way? Will Lynne manipulate her way back into Britney’s life and finances? Will Kevin Federline put up a bigger fight about custody if Jamie is around? And on and on.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
All so sad
yes really sad. I don’t understand how she can be expected to perform and still be “sick” enough to not be able to take care of herself and need a conservator?
I feel really sad for her. Saying that her psychiatrist died, wow, maybe that’s why she seems to be going off the rails a bit the past few weeks.
It would explain her strange little girl like posts. I imagine she shared a lot of personal stuff with her doctor and him dying suddenly probably affected her deeply.
I don’t even want to comment or speculate. It’s a sad situation, even sadder to be played out like this in public.
I agree, Jules.
Can they not find any party without a vested interest in her to be conservator? Anyone living off her or who previously lived off her should be excluded and then start anew. I don’t trust her parents or Federline (who only looks okay because the bar for treating Britney well is so ridiculously low).
At this point, they’d be better off putting the names of qualified individuals in a hat and drawing a name.
This. I do not understand why a psychiatrist, lawyer and accountant cannot be asked to organise this if necessary. I am at a loss to understand it.
I am a counselling psychologist and I must be clear that we rarely see anyone so affected that they need lifelong conservatorship. Those who do are not walking around, driving or performing.
This has always been very peculiar.
Thank you Ronald. I heartily agree.
This has perplexed me as well how someone with 11 yrs into a conservatorship can perform to the degree she has, and employ so many people depending on her for money and their livelihoods. And still have zero control over anything to do with her life. So very sad. I’m rooting for her and hope things work out to her benefit and not her detriment.
Why can’t they assign a neutral third party to be in charge and be done with it? Keep the other involved parties (Kevin, Jamie, Lynne) available for consultation because they’re intimately familiar with the situation, but it’s seems so obvious that the final say needs to be someone neutral. Poor Britney.
The final say is always the court. Conservators can’t just do whatever they want. There are a lot of protections.
Poor Britney. This is so sad. I just hope they can find an honest neutral third party to be a conservator for Britney. Ultimately, I hope Britney can be treated by a qualified physician who can diagnose her condition and prescribe her the most appropriate medications in the right combinations so she’s well enough and stable enough to emerge from the conservatorship at some point in the future.
Her boys turn 14 and 13 this week. Just four and five more years before they are legally adults. Then at least, no more court dramas about custody and child support.
I’ve got nothing to say on the Jamie/conservatorship stuff. So I’ll just say, can the new conservator get her some better wigs?
So sad. I wish her the joy that was stolen from her by everyone who wanted to make a buck off her. And who the hell is that sexy guy in the first pic? You do you, Britney. And do him.
The joy was stolen from her by mental illness. Medication needed for it also may be a problem for her.
She was actually ultimately lucky in her choice of the father of her children and her own father. I think Jaime’s recent behavior is a medical issue or something about medication. He did a lot of sensible things in the past after her dramatic public breakdown.
Work is therapy for her, she was always self-driven even as a child and adolescent. Her mother made a lot of mistakes, but don’t underestimate Britney’s drive when she was young, before the mental health problems began to surface.
I heart Kaiser. I enjoy your writing.