Britney Spears has praised her fans for their years-long campaign on social media and in real life to have her freed from her conservatorship.
Days earlier, on September 29, the ‘Lucky’ singer’s father Jamie Spears was suspended from his role as her guardian by a Los Angeles judge.
“#FreeBritney movement … I have no words … because of you guys and your constant resilience in freeing me from my conservatorship,” Spears wrote on Instagram alongside a short clip of herself. “My life is now in that direction!!!!! I cried last night for two hours cause my fans are the best and I know it … I feel your hearts and you feel mine … that much I know is true !!!!!”
Spears’ father has had control of her life and assets for 13 years following the singer’s 2008 mental break breakdown. The pop star has been in a legal battle to have her father removed from his role, claiming that the arrangement has been abusive and has kept her from working.
“I do believe that the suspension of James Spears as conservator … is in the best interest of the conservatee,” Judge Brenda J. Penny said. “The current situation is not tenable. It reflects a toxic environment, which requires the immediate suspension of Jamie Spears today.”
A hearing will be held on November 12, where the conservatorship is expected to be formally dissolved.
Spears’ fans have camped outside courtrooms with signs, trended the #FreeBritney hashtag and signed petitions in the past few years in their attempt to shed light on the issue.
“Her father doesn’t allow her to drive, all of her calls & messages are monitored, she’s not allowed to vote, hang with anyone or spend her money without permission. And if she breaks a ‘rule’ he threatens to have her kids taken away,” one petition had claimed, Page Six reported in 2020.
Spears’ explosive testimony this year and new documentaries confirmed some of those claims.
In ‘Controlling Britney Spears’, Alex Vlasov, a former Black Box Security employee who said he worked with the singer’s team for nearly nine years, said the company “mirrored” the pop singer’s phone on an iPad by logging in to her iCloud account. He told the filmmakers that he was asked to encrypt some of Spears’ text conversations so they could be sent to her father and an employee of a business management firm he had hired.
