Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Britney Spears' Dad ‘Would Love Nothing More Than To See Britney Not Need A Conservatorship,’ Lawyer Says
Jamie Spears' attorney Vivian Thoreen has placed the impetus on Britney Spears and her legal team when it comes to terminating the conservatorship she's lived under for more than a decade.
Britney Spears’ father would love for his pop legend daughter to no longer “need a conservatorship,” his lawyer says.
Jamie Spears’ attorney Vivian Thoreen told CNN on Friday that her client “would love nothing more than to see Britney not need a conservatorship. Whether or not there is an end to the conservatorship really depends on Britney. If she wants to end her conservatorship, she can file a petition to end it."
However, Britney would have to prove she no longer requires one and in the recent documentary New York Times documentary “Framing Britney,” Thoreen acknowledged that she has never been involved in a case in which the subject of a conservatorship has successfully terminated one.
The documentary questions whether the 39-year-old still needs to be under the legal conservatorship, which is largely maintained by her father. A court instituted the arrangement in 2008, not long after Spears endured what appeared to be a very public mental health crisis. Under it, Jamie Spears plays a key role in Britney's finances, business dealings and other legal matters. Conservatorships are typically employed for people who are deemed unable to make key decisions for themselves, yet the fact that Britney has never really stopped working, including spearheading an enormously successful multi-year Las Vegas residency, has fans crying foul at the constraints she's been placed under. That's led to the "#FreeBritney" movement, which has become increasingly critical of Jamie Spears' role in his daughter's life.
"Jamie is not suggesting that he is the perfect dad or that he would receive any 'Father of the Year' award,” Thoreen told CNN. “Like any parent, he doesn't always see eye-to-eye on what Britney may want. But Jamie believes every single decision he has made has been in her best interest.”
Thoreen has not responded to Oxygen.com’s request for comment.
Spears’ attorney Samuel D. Ingham III also hasn't responded to Oxygen.com’s request for comment. He has made it clear, however, that Britney doesn't want her dad in control of her finances or anything else.
“My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father,” lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III told the judge last year, the Associated Press reported. Earlier this month, that judge sided with Britney, granting a third-party financial institution, Bessemer Trust, an equal share of control over her finances as Jamie Spears.
That same judge denied an attempt from Britney's legal team to completely remove her father from the conservatorship back in November. Jamie told CNN in December that he had not spoken to his daughter since last summer.
The next hearing regarding the conservatorship has been scheduled for March 17.
