Jamie Spears, Britney Spears’ father, has agreed to step down from his role as his daughter’s conservator, filing documents with the Los Angeles Superior Court, voluntarily withdrawing himself from her management team.
TMZ was the first to break the news of the filing Thursday afternoon, which was submitted in response to Britney Spears’ petition to have her father removed — a petition that ultimately sparked a national controversy after Britney Spears’ broke her silence for the first time in more than a decade, testifying about what she considered to be her conservators’ dangerous mismanagement.
Jamie Spears’ lawyers maintain that there are “no grounds” for removing him as Britney’s conservator, but that the voluntary separation would avoid a “public battle with his daughter,” per Variety.
“There are, in fact, no actual grounds for suspending or removing Mr. Spears as the Conservator of the Estate under Probate Code section 2650. And it is highly debatable whether a change in conservator at this time would be in Ms. Spears’ best interests,” the document says, according to reports.
“Nevertheless, even as Mr. Spears is the unremitting target of unjustified attacks, he does not believe that a public battle with his daughter over his continuing service as her conservator would be in her best interests,” the filing says. “So even though he must contest this unjustified Petition for his removal, Mr. Spears intends to work with the Court and his daughter’s new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator. As the Court has likely surmised, before Ms. Spears’ new attorney arrived, Mr. Spears had already been working on such a transition with Ms. Spears’ former court-appointed counsel, Sam Ingham.”
The court has not yet ruled on Britney’s petition asking that her father be relieved of his duties handling her financial matters, and this filing pre-empts that decision, though it does not admit wrongdoing on the part of Jamie Spears. Day-to-day management of Britney’s estate, including management of alleged medical conditions, has been handled by a separate conservator since 2019, according to The New York Times.
Spears, who maintains that he has not benefitted financially from the conservatorship, appeared to address his daughter directly in his filing.
“Regardless of his formal title, Mr. Spears will always be Ms. Spears’ father, he will always love her unconditionally, and he will always look out for her best interests,” the filing notes.
Through his attorneys, Jamie Spears does, TMZ notes, take the filing as an opportunity to criticize Britney’s mother, Lynn, and says that he was responsible for rescuing Britney when she was in deep distress in crisis, desperately in need of help” in 2008: “Not only was she suffering mentally and emotionally, she was also being manipulated by predators and in financial distress. Mr. Spears came to his daughter’s rescue to protect her.”
Britney Spears’ has alleged, since at least 2016, that the conservatorship she is under is abusive, and the pop star has routinely claimed that her conservators have forced her to perform and record against her will. In an emotional testimony earlier this year, Spears also claimed that her conservators have made medical decisions for her and that they are preventing her from getting married or having more children.
In a statement to Variety Thursday evening, Britney Spears’ lawyer celebrated a victory.
“I announced in Court on July 14 that, after 13 years of the status quo, it was time for Mr. Spears to be suspended or removed as conservator and that my firm and I would move aggressively and expeditiously for that outcome,” Mathew Rosengart said in a statement. “Twelve days later, my firm filed a Petition for Mr. Spears’s suspension and removal based on strong, insurmountable legal grounds, which were unequivocally supported by the law and all parties involved, including Jodi Montgomery, Britney Spears, and her medical team.”
“We are pleased that Mr. Spears and his lawyer have today conceded in a filing that he must be removed. It is vindication for Britney. We are disappointed, however, by their ongoing shameful and reprehensible attacks on Ms. Spears and others,” he added. “We look forward to continuing our vigorous investigation into the conduct of Mr. Spears, and others, over the past 13 years, while he reaped millions of dollars from his daughter’s estate, and I look forward to taking Mr. Spears’s sworn deposition in the near future.”