Britney Spears made it abundantly clear during the testimony she gave as part of her conservatorship hearing last month that she wants the legal arrangement she’s been stuck in for the last 13 years to immediately come to an end, and she’s not willing to do another mental health evaluation in order to make that happen.
In her prepared statement to the Los Angeles judge, Spears said unequivocally, “I truly believe this conservatorship is abusive…. I want to end the conservatorship without being evaluated.” According to a source “close to the situation” who spoke with People, that fear of having to undergo yet another mental health examination, which is typically a mandatory first step in this process, is one of the major reasons why her legal team has yet to file a petition to end the conservatorship. They explained, “She doesn’t have much trust for the doctors that she has worked with so far. She feels like they have failed her.”
In recent days a handful of Spears’s key team members have also resigned from their roles due to the concerning revelations she made in court. First the wealth-management firm recently installed as co-conservator of the pop star’s estate, Bessemer Trust, requested to officially resign from the role “due to changed circumstances.” The firm explained in the filing that it had been told Spears’s conservatorship was voluntary and that she had consented to hiring the company as her co-conservator. However, after she publicly spoke out against the arrangement so forcefully, the firm became “aware that the Conservatee objects to the continuance of her Conservatorship and desires to terminate the conservatorship,” adding that it “respects her wishes.”
That announcement was followed on Tuesday by the news that her longtime manager, Larry Rudolph, also tendered his resignation. In a letter written to Spears’s co-conservators—Jodi Montgomery and her father, Jamie—Rudolph revealed that it had “been over 2 1/2 years” since he’d last spoken to the singer and that he’d recently become “aware that Britney had been voicing her intention to officially retire,” thus rendering his services unnecessary. That same day Spears’s court-appointed lawyer, Samuel Ingham III, also requested to resign. Sources told TMZ that the attorney was “extremely upset” over Spears’s statement in court that she never knew she could file to end her own conservatorship. The insiders claimed that Ingham regularly gave her options about how they could proceed, which included requesting that the conservatorship be ended, but she only ever discussed having her father removed. Those sources also said to expect more resignations in the coming week.
Another court hearing over Spears’s conservatorship has been scheduled for July 14.
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