Although we haven’t seen much of her lately, Britney Spears has had a lot going on this past year. In August she separated from husband Sam Asghari; there were accusations of cheating on both sides along with reports that Britney had assaulted Sam. After the split was initially announced Britney seemed to quiet down, even a couple months later when her best-selling, headline-making memoir The Woman In Me came out. Britney didn’t extensively promote the book herself, so much as she let the book speak for and sell itself. (Along with Michelle Williams’ brilliant reading of the audio version.) So as 2023 closed with the success of her book, 2024 now sees Britney closing the chapter on the lingering legal dispute with her father Jamie. Yes, there was still an outstanding issue to be resolved over the 13-year conservatorship that officially ended in December 2021. Until now. Last week Britney and her father reached a settlement agreement:
Britney Spears and Jamie Spears have settled an ongoing dispute over legal fees after the first filing in December 2021.
More than two years after the conservatorship that had given the singer’s father control of her life ended, the pair settled the dispute over the legal fees pertaining to the conservatorship battle.
Both parties’ attorneys confirmed with PEOPLE that the pair settled for an undisclosed sum in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, April 25.
“Although the conservatorship was terminated in November 2021, her wish for freedom is now truly complete,” Spears’ attorney, Mathew S. Rosengart, said in a statement. “As she desired, her freedom now includes that she will no longer need to attend or be involved with court or entangled with legal proceedings in this matter.”
“Britney Spears won when the court suspended her father, and Britney Spears won when her fundamental rights and civil liberties were restored,” Rosengart continued.
Jamie’s attorney, Alex Weingarten, said that the two parties “reached a settlement agreement resolving all outstanding disputes.”
“I cannot comment on any specifics as the settlement is confidential. Jamie is thrilled that this is all behind him. He loves his daughter very much and everything he has ever done has been to protect and support her,” Weingarten continued in a statement to PEOPLE. “It is unfortunate that some irresponsible people in Britney’s life chose to drag this on for as long as it has.”
As a result of this settlement, the two have avoided going to trial over the alleged financial misconduct during her conservatorship. The trial was set to start in May, reports The New York Times.
The dispute followed the 13-year conservatorship that began in 2008. Jamie was removed as the conservator of her estate in September 2021, and the entire conservatorship was terminated two months later.
The following month, Jamie began a pursuit of court approval for more than $2 million in fees that he had paid to multiple law firms throughout the legal battle, as well as payment for his current lawyer’s legal bill, per The New York Times.
So basically, upon the end of the conservatorship in 2021, Jamie sued Britney to have his legal bills paid, both to cover the 13-year period during which he oversaw her finances, and for the current litigation (thus also giving King Charles a run for his money on dogsh–t father on the year). Britney’s team then tried bringing the receipts, countering that Jamie mishandled her money during the conservatorship. This settlement, then, means that Spears vs Spears won’t go to trial over Jamie’s mishandling of Britney’s money (which is a shame), and Jamie is probably also getting a tidy sum towards his legal bills (which blows). It seems like two wins for Jamie, but in balance I think it actually might be better for Britney to have the case wrapped up. The best possible thing for Britney would be to have a good team around her, who truly care about her financial, physical, and emotional wellbeing. Even if she had all of the evidence on her side, going through a trial is still hugely taxing. More than any other kind of win, I wish Britney peace of mind moving forward.
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I wish her peace and happiness,lately she has been giving the same erratic behaviour when she used to drive around LA with some dodgey characters acting strange. I am not a doctor but I feel Britney may have been misdiagnosed and overdosed during her conservatorship.
I think her father also had a major health issue, lost his leg or something? I understand why she was advised to settle since all the stress and additional public legal fight wouldn’t be good for her. But, I saw her latest post. She isn’t happy that she didn’t get any justice for what they did to her. She worked like a slave for years for everyone and was treated like less than a human being. Her body is keeping the score. I hope and pray peace for her.
Not only did she not get justice, her father will continue to find ways to abuse her until the day he dies. He is a truly despicable human being.
I hope this ultimately brings her a sense of closure and peace, but I’m sure at the same time she wanted him held accountable for anything dodgy he was doing with her finances at the time.
Her book was really hard to read IMO because it was so tragic – she did a really good job of showing how her family tried to control her from the very beginning of her career and how they all viewed her as their big meal ticket. When she talks about how her parents bought a beach house or condo in Florida and her mom and sister and her kids would go for long weekends etc and she was never allowed to go because she had to work – it was just infuriating. The entire thing just made me rethink every tabloid headline we saw about her, or about other celebrities.
Was the same Florida condo that Jamie Lynn tried to say was hers – LOL the whole lot of them leeched off her for years and they ALL stood by and did nothing to help as they didn’t want to loose access to her money.
I hope she finds peace but that will take a long time – settling this way means she can move forward but it also isn’t going to give her the sense of justice she feels she needs. She has every right to be angry at them but I don’t think she’s going to be able to recover much of the money her father and family took as its likely they’ve blown through it.
The person she should be going after to get money back from is Lou Taylor – SHE’S the one who has/had control of Brit’s fortune not her father. Jamie Spears was Lou Taylor’s front man – the puppet who did her bidding. From what I can remember of some of the receipts much of Brits money was funnelled into companies owned by Lou and her husband. I don’t think Jamie has or had control of her fortune – he gave it away to Taylor. Taylor was the one behind the conservatorship – she’d been trying to get control over Brit for years beforehand.
I am currently reading it, and it’s just such an awful story.
I remember the sleazy journalists asking about her brest (HEELLO PERV) and her public meltdown. Going through that under such a pressure ? Unbelievable.
Her family trying to control every single move, because money…and she makes valid points about being treated like crap by the press while men celibrity who did the same or worst were always the good guy. Sad, and infuriating.
Britney bought the condo herself, not her parents.
Yeah I know that, I’m not sure why I typed her parents there, LOL. It’s not egregious if her parents used a condo they bought themselves, lol. But Britney bought it and then was barely “allowed” to use it.
I hate that no one was held accountable, but at least it’s over. I want nothing but for Britney to be able to live her best life!
That’s a shame, I wished she’d drag her dogsht father through the mud.
So basically Rosengart caved and is going to force Britney to pay all if not some of her dad’s legal bills? We can read between the lines of this PR bullsh*t statement. If I were Britney, I would be pissed beyond reason. Her father gets away with mishandling and losing her money and SHE has to pay his legal fees??!!! Sorry but NO. Britney continues to be abused by the court system. This is NOT justice. This is NOT accountability. This is another example of a mediocre white male getting away with abuse and walking away scot-free.
I don’t think “Rosengart caved”, rather, he couldn’t prove anything wrong was done. A judge had overseen Jamie’s financials for the conservatorship every year, so it’s not surprising they were ok.
My heart goes out to Britney, but she’s an unreliable source of information.
Her Instagram posts are so sad and cringe. Her eyes are dead, looking like she’s been in a manic state for days or high on something. People say she’s doing the choreography from her shows, but the constant tugging her shorts down or pushing her boobs together makes it seem like she has no awareness of what she’s doing. Honestly she may as well start an only fans – she’d make a mint. It’s so sad she has no one looking out for her and is instead surrounded by shady people who take advantage of her.
While I personally don’t love what she is doing with her socials, the bigger issue at hand is, she has the right to do those things without interference (not that you’re saying anything different).
I couldn’t say what kind of people are around her, but it’s really sad that she lost so much of a critical growth period to the conservatorship. I can’t tell if she has a little arrested development from being infantilized for so long, if she is going a little overboard in reclaiming her independence, or if she would be exactly like she is now regardless of everything else that’s happened. But at any rate, they’re her choices to make. I really don’t want to judge her, especially since we don’t know why she does what she does. She has had to put up with far more scrutiny than she ever deserved already.
“she lost so much of a critical growth period to the conservatorship”
– A lot of people who followed her story closely from 2008 agree she’d be dead and/or broke if the c’ship hadn’t been put into place. She was broke at that time thanks to grifters like Lufti. It’s not nice to deprive a grown woman of her liberties and have her father controlling all the details of her life but it was justified for a time at least.
Did it have to go on for so long? Could she have been given other treatment options other than modern psychiatry (drugs)? Not for me to say. She was a danger to herself and her sons and hope it never happens to her again.
I agree, her IG is hard to see. I’m 39 so I was in middle school when she blew up and I have a soft spot for her after seeing all the crap she went through with the media. She seems to childlike in the way she writes and what she thinks, but then her pictures and videos are hyper sexual so it’s a strange juxtaposition. Part of me is happy she can finally do what she wants but the other part is sad that she looks like she’s living what should have been her cringey teenage/young adult years as a 42 year old woman and doing it very publicly. The dance videos, outfit videos, photos where her hair and makeup is a mess, stream of thought captions…it’s all just very sad. She’s also usually alone. I wish she had some real, true, ride or die friends to support her and take her out for lunches and give her advice but if she does, she doesn’t post about them. It seems like a very lonely life.
I thought about Britt Britt yesterday when I was getting my nails done.
Imagine being Britney Spears and your conservatorship lies any Covid restrictions and won’t allow you to get your roots touched up or your nails done?
After a few months of watching her cleaning ladies with their nice manicures, she finally put her foot down and got a manicure.
Her whole family is dysfunctional; the two girls were pushed out by the showbiz mum to become breadwinners and the mum left 15-yr-old Britney to tour (party, drugs, etc.) alone once she was famous and it was time to work on making Jamie-Lynn the next star.
Dad had an atrocious temper and is probably still verbally abusive but he probably did a job no on else in that family could do and at least she’ll never have to work again (unless she burns through her cash again). I do think he gave lucrative contracts to his buddies but overall, his pay and actions as a conservator were overseen meticulously by the court. TL; DR: he did a good job overall as a conservator but is probably a horrible parent along with his ex-wife. It’s partly on them that Britney had her breakdown in the first place.
Plus, she had a very competent court-appointed lawyer all these years, right up until it was lifted (Samuel Ingham). He was initially appointed as an investigator by the court, to review her situation, and later the court appointed him to be her lawyer, so he wasn’t someone appointed by the father but an objective third party who could represent her best interests.
I think she probably has bipolar PD and possibly histrionic PD as well. I wish her well in her healing journey and hope there won’t be a repeat of 2008 or whatever year that was.