Britney Spears’ dad has such total control over the 39-year-old pop star’s life that he even has final say over what color cabinets she has in her kitchen, according to a new report on her infamous conservatorship.
The “Toxic” singer allegedly told her dad, Jamie, that she wanted to re-stain the cabinets, but he thought such renovation work would be too expensive, the the New York Times reported, citing newly revealed confidential documents.
Spears’ conservatorship — of which her dad is a member along with a financial firm — has led the singer to complain to a court investigator in 2016 that she was “sick of being taken advantage of” and felt she was “the one working and earning her money but everyone around her is on her payroll,” the report said.
That year, the pop star also informed the investigator that she wanted the conservatorship terminated altogether, reportedly stating that her father was “obsessed” with controlling her life.
“She articulated she feels the conservatorship has become an oppressive and controlling tool against her,” the court investigator wrote, adding that Spears said, “Too much control … Too, too much!”
Britney’s father was named conservator of her person and co-conservator of her estate alongside attorney Andrew Wallet in 2008 following her public breakdown in 2007.
Wallet stepped down as estate manager in October 2020, and a financial firm named Bessemer Trust was put in his place. Jamie, 68, remains co-conservator of Britney’s money but not her personal affairs, which a licensed fiduciary, Jodi Montgomery, temporarily began overseeing in September 2019.
Jamie may have to split — or relinquish altogether — his duties as conservator of the person since Britney wants Montgomery, who’s been described as her care manager, to permanently take over the role.
There have been rumblings for months that Britney has been trying to push her father out of the conservatorship following her court-appointed attorney Samuel D. Ingham III’s November 2020 court filing, in which he said the “Toxic” singer is allegedly “afraid” of her dad.
Tuesday’s New York Times article further drives the narrative that Britney is not happy with Jamie overseeing her personal and financial affairs.
Documents obtained by the newspaper from a 2014 hearing stated that Ingham said the pop star had issues with her dad even back then, citing his drinking and a “shopping list” of other grievances.
The report also said the conservatorship has attempted to control all aspects of Britney’s life — even whom she dates. The report noted that Britney only had a $2,000 weekly allowance.
Britney also told the court during a closed-door hearing that she was forced to go to a mental health facility against her will in 2019, per the Times. She reportedly saw it as punishment for making an objection during a rehearsal for her Las Vegas residency, which she said she once performed with a 104-degree fever.
However, Jamie’s team has maintained that if Britney really wanted to end the conservatorship, she has had every opportunity to do so.
“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,” Jamie’s lawyer, Vivian Lee Thoreen, told People earlier this year. “Britney knows that her Daddy loves her, and that he will be there for her whenever and if she needs him, just as he always has been — conservatorship or not.”
The back-and-forth may likely end on Wednesday, as Britney is scheduled to address Judge Brenda Penny for the first time herself that day.
She, along with Jamie and their respective legal teams, will attend the hearing virtually.
A rep for Jamie did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.