“Oh baby, baby…” why won’t they let Britney go?
The 1990s international pop star we all know and love, Britney Spears, and her legal team, have fought relentlessly to free Spears from the conservatorship placed upon her by her father following her highly publicized mental health crisis over a decade ago.
A conservatorship is where a judge appoints a person or organization to help manage someone’s finances or themselves. In this case, Spears’ father controlled both until 2019, when he had a care professional supervise Spears while still being in charge of her finances.
While the Kentwood native is now doing a lot better in the years after her breakdown, she has still lost a great deal of autonomy from the guardianship her father placed and is ready to fight back.
However, it was recently announced that Spears’ father said he would be stepping down from the conservatorship after about 13 years of handling her and her estate.
With this news came a lot of excitement from hardcore Spears fans, all celebrating her freedom and hopeful return to music. While this past summer seemed to be easier for Spears, things may have taken a turn for the worse when one of Spears’ housekeepers claimed that the singer had hit her on Aug. 16.
There were no reported injuries from the incident when deputies responded to her Southern California home that night. The staff member reported that Spears had “slapped” the housekeeper’s phone out of her hand.
In an email to NPR, Spears’ attorney Matthew Rosengart has denied this happening, claiming this accusation is another form of “tabloid fodder” against Spears since there was no harm essentially done after the report.
The slap was allegedly caused by another fairly recent situation regarding Spears’ dogs going missing. TMZ reported that the singer’s dogsitter took the two dogs to the vet in early August and never came home with them, claiming that they were sick and were neglected.
Spears’ housekeeper showed her a photo of one of her dogs looking ill and apparently assumed that these photos were sent to her father. This allegedly caused Spears to “slap” the phone out of her hand, thus inciting the housekeeper to file a report against her. The stress of not knowing where her dogs were caused a great deal of stress to the singer, sources claim.
While the battery investigation ensues, Spears’ die-hard fans are still giving the pop star a wave of support during this series of events.
#FreeBritney is still actively being used on Twitter and other social media sites as well. The campaign was bolstered by claims of Spears checking into a mental health center in 2019 after citing emotional distress from her father canceling a Las Vegas residency.
Spears is now backed by a new generation of fans as well, following the release of the 2021 documentary, “Framing Britney Spears,” detailing her rise to stardom and subsequent fall into her conservatorship.