Britney Spears is headed to court today in a hearing that could release the struggling pop star from a conservatorship that has kept her from living—and performing—independently for more than a decade.
Her virtual appearance before the Los Angeles Superior Court is the latest episode of the long-running struggle against the 2008 legal arrangement that put control of her financial, personal and health decisions into the hands of others. At stake is not only the right for Spears to make her own decisions about everything from when and where she will perform to home decorating, but also the $60 million she amassed after years as one of the world’s biggest musical acts.
Spears has sold nearly 150 million records worldwide, according to Billboard, and has mounted ten major tours, as well as a four-year Las Vegas residency that ended in 2017 and grossed $137.7 million. She also makes millions of dollars from licensing deals, including her endorsements for 19 popular fragrances. Her fortune consists of about $56.5 million sitting in investment accounts, business investments and real estate, while the rest is in cash. Still, her fortune lags far behind those of her peers, including Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez, who rose to fame at the same time and built fortunes Forbes values at more than $100 million.
“I don’t believe there is a shred of evidence to support my client’s suspension,” Vivian Lee Thoreen, Jamie Spears’ lawyer, said in November.
The star has rarely commented about the situation in public but has reportedly been fighting it behind the scenes since at least 2014 when, through her lawyer, she questioned whether her father was a good fit, in part due to his drinking. The latest revelations were published in a Tuesday New York Times report citing an August court filing that said Spears “is vehemently opposed to this effort by her father to keep her legal struggle hidden away in the closet as a family secret.” The Times also cited a 2016 filing in which she called the conservatorship “an oppressive and controlling tool against her” that prevented her from re-staining her kitchen cabinets and carrying her own credit card. She also claims she was once forced to perform with a 104-degree fever and sent to a mental health facility against her will.
Today she will face a new judge who was named to the case and in November assigned a wealth management firm to serve as co-conservator, while saying she would also consider permanently removing Jamie Spears—the villain of a fan-driven movement dubbed #FreeBritney on social media—as a conservator.
"My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father,” Spears’ lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III said at the time, according to the Associated Press. “She will not perform again if her father is in charge of her career.”
This article originally appeared on Forbes.
