Following a conservatorship court session in Los Angeles, California on April 27, 2021, supporters of the FreeBritney campaign rally in support of musician Britney Spears. Getty Images | Valerie Macon | AFP A request to remove Britney Spears’ father as conservator of her estate was dismissed by a judge on Wednesday. The Los Angeles Superior Court found that Spears’ request to suspend James “Jamie” Spears immediately upon the appointment of a financial institution as sole conservator of estate “is denied without prejudice.” For more than a decade, Spears, 39, has been under a legal conservatorship involving her father. In dramatic testimony last week, she claimed she was overworked with no breaks, medicated with lithium, and barred from having more children after her conservators refused to let her remove her birth control device — decisions she claimed were approved by her father and co-conservator, Jamie Spears. Jamie Spears filed a petition on Tuesday requesting the judge to look into the allegations made by his daughter when she asked the judge to revoke her conservatorship. Jamie Spears and his team asked the court to “examine the validity of Ms. Spears’ charges and assertions,” which he has categorically denied, claiming that he only has his daughter’s best interests in mind. On the same day as the petition, Britney Spears’ father filed a response, raising concerns about Jodi Montgomery, who was designated as her temporary conservator of the person in September 2019. Jamie Spears responded that he was “concerned about the administration and care of his daughter” and that Montgomery’s actions “did not reflect her intentions.” Montgomery was the lone conservator who handled the singer’s personal life and medical treatment since her appointment, according to him. Britney Spears’ lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the documents on Wednesday. Jamie Spears has remained silent over the judge’s verdict. Jamie Spears was named conservator of his daughter in 2008. After his co-conservator, Andrew Wallet, resigned in 2019, he was briefly appointed sole executor of his daughter’s inheritance. Britney Spears’ attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, filed a motion to have Jamie Spears removed a year after Wallet resigned. According to Ingham, his client is terrified of her father, would like to have her case handled by a professional, and will refuse to perform as long as her father is in charge of her affairs. Judge Brenda Penny of the Los Angeles County Superior Court refused the singer’s motion, although she did appoint Bessemer Trust as Jamie Spears’ co-conservator and Montgomery as Britney Spears’ person conservator. Britney Spears told a judge in Los Angeles that she had no idea she could ask for the conservatorship to be lifted, claiming that her father had punished her for not following his wishes and that she felt “enslaved” by his demands. The singer also expressed worries about her medical treatment’s privacy, claiming that she was monitored at all hours of the day. Following her testimony, Spears received an outpouring of support from actresses, singers, and media figures, including her sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, and Christina Aguilera, a fellow pop singer. Following the release of “Framing Britney Spears,” a documentary about her conservatorship in February, which fueled the #FreeBritney movement on social media, scrutiny of her case has increased. Despite the fact that most of her life has taken place in the public eye, the court has decided to keep a number of papers confidential due to concerns about the singer’s privacy. Last year, Ingham filed a motion to make her case public. Spears stated during her testimony, “All I want is my life back. It’s been 13 years, and it’s time to call it quits.” She remarked in her closing remarks: “I feel oppressed, bullied, excluded, and alone. I’m also bored of being alone. By having a child, a family, or any of those things, I deserve to have the same rights as everybody else.”/n
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