After 13 years of living lawfully under her father’s control, Britney Spears has finally been freed from her infamous conservatorship. But Britney’s fight was not as simple as one court hearing or a sudden end to her father’s management.
Britney became one of the most famous female pop stars in the world at just 16 years old, and her empire slowly progressed to a networth of $73 million five years later. It doesn’t take a Britney superfan to know the singer, her songs, and the reputation that she made for herself as a powerful woman in the music industry. She’s made a long lasting impact on several generations; just look at how many of her music video and award show outfits are still the perfect halloween costume.
In her Netflix documentary “Britney vs Spears,” close friends and colleagues talked about her work ethic and passion for what she did. Not only that, they called her “America’s sweetheart,” and it’s obvious that most of her fame came from her likeable personality and connection to her fans. She became close with journalists, everyone working for her, and even the paparazzi – one of whom she ended up dating for a while.
But eventually things started to go downhill. After her marriage and subsequent divorce to Kevin Federline, she lost custody of her two children. Soon after, she lost custody of herself. She lost that personality and passion that so many people loved, and it had nothing to do with her own actions. Instead, it had to do with her parents and the introduction of a conservatorship over her being.
To really understand the story, one has to understand that a conservatorship is meant for a mentally or physically impaired person in need of a legal decision-maker. It’s not meant for a young girl dealing with fame, but it is meant for a person with dementia at the end of their life. This brings out a more important side to the contract: her new legal guardian, her father Jamie, was given the rights to control her finances.
The complexity of the story brings out so many hidden relationships and deals between people in charge of Britney’s life and her business. It started with her father creating this image of a helpless and mentally ill girl in need of his help and grew into an entire organization of people in complete control of every part of her life. Everything was out of Britney’s authority: her friends and boyfriends, the medications she took, where she went, what she bought, and on and on. Britney was well aware of what was happening, but as a conservatee, the law kept her from getting her own attorney and objecting to the contract. Investigators and doctors were also on board, as they continued to deem the arrangement as being in her best interest. Her father had figured everything out, and, as seen by the amount of time Britney took to escape the conservatorship, she was pretty stuck.
Now, after years of fighting, her conservatorship is finally over. In 2019, the situation was looked at in a new light with a real lawyer, and the truth was accepted. Britney isn’t mentally ill. She’s fully capable of controlling her own life, and her father had managed to keep up this act for almost fourteen years. This sudden change is important for Britney, but it’s also important for understanding conservatorships and understanding the workings of Hollywood. Now that Britney is free, maybe some light can be shed on other innocent people struggling under the same conditions.
Works cited
Coscarelli, J., & Jacobs, J. (2021, November 13). Judge ends conservatorship overseeing Britney Spears’s life and finances. The New York Times. November 12, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/arts/music/britney-spears-conservatorship-ends.html. Britney vs Spears. Directed by Erin Lee Carr, written by Sloane Klevin. Netflix, September 28, 2021. https://www.netflix.com/watch/81177110?trackId=14170286&tctx=1%2C0%2Cad54a935-2b27-40b8-b521-c69f702199ee-186622747%2Cc1ff928c-ff43-4d67-89f4-07301357fd61_77097576X3XX1637542162630%2Cc1ff928c-ff43-4d67-89f4-07301357fd61_ROOT%2C