How Britney Spears Retook Control Of Her Life (And What Her Victory Could Mean For Others)

It took 13 years and a viral fan movement, but Britney Spears’ conservatorship has finally come to an end. And what a long, sad trip it was.

The troubles that led to the singer’s guardianship first came to the world’s attention in 2007, when she began behaving erratically in full tabloid view. She famously shaved her head, attacked a photographer with an umbrella, and had a standoff with police where she allegedly refused to surrender her sons to her ex-husband Kevin Federline according to the custody arrangements outlined in their divorce agreement.

These and other red flags over the state of her mental health led to two separate hospitalizations for psychiatric evaluations in 2008. As a result, a court established a temporary conservatorship, controlled by her father, Jamie Spears. The legal arrangement included two parts—one that gave the senior Spears control over his daughter’s estimated $60 million dollar estate and one that granted him decision-making powers over her as a person.

Typically, this kind of court-ordered control is reserved for people who have dementia or severe psychiatric disorders, and there were questions from the beginning over whether the pop star met this criteria. Those questions grew as she went on to release four albums, embark on a global concert tour that grossed tens of millions of dollars, and spent four years starring in a grueling Las Vegas residency.

The granular oversight her conservators employed went so far as requiring her to pre-submit social media posts. As The New Yorker reported, tweets and Instagram posts that “raised legal questions,” like discussing her guardianship, were deemed “too sensitive to post.”

Her conservatorship team of roughly ten people — headed by Jamie Spears — oversaw all aspects of her professional life, meeting regularly to discuss her legal affairs, public relations, and, of course, her financial situation, including merchandise deals and song-license requests. And nearly all of it was done without her.

So the arrangement continued for 13 years. But the change, when it came, was swift.

The first domino to fall in bringing about the conservatorship’s end was a New York Times documentary that traced the singer’s early career, including how, with her parents’ collaboration, the media machine sexualized and shamed her when she was barely old enough for a driver’s license.

As “Framing Britney Spears” revealed, Jamie Spears was known to enthusiastically tell music executives how wealthy he expected his daughter to become. “The only thing Jamie ever said to