Britney Spears makes another bid to permanently ban dad Jamie from her personal affairs
Britney Spears with her father, Jamie, in Hollywood, California in 2008. (Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage)
Britney Spears‘ lawyer plans to file another petition to give the pop star her freedom back and permanently bar her father from her personal affairs and estate.
According to Today, Samuel D Ingham III said on Wednesday (17 March) that he intends to petition the court to bring Jodi Montgomery as a permanent conservator for Britney. Montgomery was briefly in charge of Britney’s estate after her father, Jamie Spears, took a break for personal health reasons.
Britney has been embroiled in a complex court-order conservatorship since 2008 after she went through a mental health crisis. Under the terms of the arrangement, her father has maintained significant control over the pop star’s wellbeing and estate.
In 2019, Spears had to take a break from being a conservator due to his health, and Montgomery briefly stepped in to take over. Spears returned and still maintains control over Britney’s conservatorship.
Ingham argued last year that Britney would rather have Montgomery remain in control of her estate and asked the courts to remove Jamie Spears from the conservatorship. However, a judge denied Ingham’s request in November.
Britney has been fighting to be freed from the arrangement for much of the last year. In February, a judge denied Jamie Spears’ request to retain the power to delegate investment powers for Britney’s estate.
The decision means that Spears will retain equal control with the Bessemer Trust, a firm that was appointed as a co-conservator in November 2020 by the courts after Britney’s legal team said she was “afraid of her father”.
This sentiment was further confirmed by Britney’s cousin and assistant who alleged that Jamie “100 per cent” threatened her life, and she did not speak to the star after the incident as a result.
Alli Sims, who worked as Spears’ assistant in the mid-2000s, told NBC News that Jamie “100 per cent was threatening me with my life” when he demanded she cut off ties with Britney. She alleged this happened in 2008, shortly after the star entered her conservatorship.
“I didn’t put it past him, so I didn’t answer [Britney’s calls again],” Sims admitted.
Ingham’s current petition does not appear to remove Jamie Spears from conservatorship but requesting that Montgomery be granted a conservator, based on the statement he made in court.
The court will review the new petition and other filings in a hearing on 27 April, according to NBC News.
Ingham declined to comment to NBC News about the petition, and an attorney for Jamie Spears did not have a comment on the matter either.
Jamie Spears’ attorney Vivian L Thoreen has claimed that Britney could have asked as “any time” to end her conservatorship. The lawyer told PEOPLE: “Any time Britney wants to end her conservatorship, she can ask her lawyer to file a petition to terminate it; she has always had this right, but in 13 years has never exercised it.”
Thoreen added that Jamie Spears has “diligently and professionally carried out his duties as one of Britney’s conservators, and his love for his daughter and dedication to protecting her is clearly apparent to the court”.
