LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears asked a Los Angeles judge on Wednesday to end her long-running conservatorship, which has dominated the pop star’s life for the past 13 years.
“I’m traumatized, I’m not happy,” Spears, 39, told a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. ”I can’t sleep. I’m so angry, It’s insane.”
Spears called the conservatorship “abusive,” and criticized her father and others who have controlled it, according to The Associated Press.
“I want to end this conservatorship without being evaluated,” Spears told the court via phone in a remote session. “I just want my life back.”
“This conservatorship is doing me way more harm than good,” she said. “I deserve to have a life.”
Spears told the court she wants to marry her boyfriend and have a baby, but the conservatorship is preventing her from doing so, the AP reported.
“I will be honest with you -- I haven’t been back to court in a long time because I don’t think I was heard on any level when I came to court,” Spears said about her 2019 appearance at a closed hearing.
Spears said she lied when she told the court she was happy, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Spears requested the court appearance in April through her court-appointed attorney, Samuel Ingham III, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Last year, Ingham began requesting major changes to the conservatorship, including stripping power from her father, Jamie Spears, 68, who had been overseeing her personal life and finances, The New York Times reported.
Confidential court records obtained by the newspaper revealed that Spears had raised issues with her father’s role as early as 2014 and has repeatedly asked about terminating the conservatorship completely.
In 2008, Jamie Spears gained control of all aspects of his daughter’s life after the singer publicly struggled with her mental health, NPR reported. Everything from her performances, finances and her relationships with her two now-teenage sons was under her father’s control, the website reported.
Jamie Spears oversees her daughter’s fortune, worth nearly $60 million, along with a wealth management firm she requested, the Times reported. A professional conservator took over her personal care on an ongoing, temporary basis in 2019, the newspaper reported.
In a 2020 court filing, Spears asked the court to suspend her father from his role as conservator and refused to perform if he remained in charge of her career, according to NPR.
Representatives for Jamie Spears and the conservatorship have said it was necessary to protect Britney Spears, and that she could move to end the conservatorship whenever she wanted, according to The New York Times.
Spears told the court she was unaware she had the right to petition to end the conservatorship and apologized, the Los Angeles Times reported.