Court to finally hear from Britney Spears on conservatorship

Pop star Britney Spears is due on Wednesday to address the Los Angeles court handling the conservatorship, or guardianship, arrangement that has controlled much of her personal and business affairs since 2008.

Spears, 39, “requested a hearing at which she can address the court directly”, her lawyer Samuel Ingham told the court in April. 

“My client has asked that it be done on an expedited basis.”

The judge then set a June 23 hearing for Spears to speak to the court. It's not known which matters the singer plans to address.

The singer's father, Jamie Spears, was appointed his daughter's conservator in 2008 after the pop star was hospitalised for psychiatric treatment after a widely publicised breakdown.

As her highly anticipated appearance edges closer, here's a timeline of key events in the pop star's life:

1992: Cast in TV show The Mickey Mouse Club with Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling.

1997: Signs record contract at age 15.

1998: Aged 16, she releases debut single ...Baby One More Time, which tops the Billboard Hot 100 charts for two weeks. In 1999, her debut album of the same name tops the charts in 15 nations.

2000: Second studio album Oops! ... I Did It Again breaks records. Spears confirms she is dating Justin Timberlake.

2001: Spears performs as a guest at the Super Bowl halftime show, releases third album and sings with a python over her shoulder as her performances become increasingly raunchy.

2002: Spears stars in her first movie, Crossroads. Her relationship with Timberlake ends.

2003: Spears kisses Madonna on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards, causing a scandal. She releases her fourth studio album.

2004: Spears marries childhood friend Jason Alexander in a surprise ceremony in Las Vegas. Marriage is annulled three days later. Nine months later, she marries dancer Kevin Federline.

2005: Son Sean Preston is born. Spears wins her first and only Grammy award for Toxic.

2006: Second son Jayden James is born. Two months later Spears files for divorce.

2007: Spears enters and drops out of rehab twice in a matter of days, shaves her head at a salon in Los Angeles and goes back into rehab. Pursued by paparazzi, her behaviour grows increasingly erratic. Spears loses custody of her two sons, and releases fifth studio album. She performs Gimme More at the MTV Video Music Awards but appears dazed.

2008: Spears is twice hospitalised under psychiatric hold and is placed under a court-ordered conservatorship in which her father Jamie Spears and an attorney take control of her personal and business affairs. The nature of her mental illness is not disclosed. In December, her comeback album Circus is released and in 2009 she embarks on a world tour to promote it.

2011: Spears releases her seventh studio album and embarks on another tour.

2012: Spears joins the US version of The X Factor as a judge.

2013: Spears begins a two-year residency in Las Vegas and releases her eighth studio album. The residency is later extended for another two years.

20l6-2018: Spears releases ninth studio album, goes on the Piece of Me world tour, and announces another Las Vegas residency for 2019. She performs for the last time in public in October 2018 at the Formula One Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

2019: Spears announces an “indefinite work hiatus” and cancels her planned Las Vegas residency citing concern over the health of her father. She enters a mental health facility saying she is taking “a little me time”.

The #FreeBritney movement is started by fans who believe Spears is being held against her will under the conservatorship. She appears before the Los Angeles judge handling the conservatorship but her testimony is sealed. The judge orders an independent evaluation of the conservatorship.

August 2020: An attorney for Spears asks for the singer's father to be replaced as her conservator. Jamie Spears calls the #FreeBritney movement “a joke”. Spears tells her Instagram followers that she accidentally burned down her home gym after leaving two candles alight.

February 2021: The documentary Framing Britney Spears is aired, bringing wider attention to her career and the conservatorship. Timberlake issues an apology to Spears for his part in the media scrutiny she received when they were dating.

Spears says on her Instagram account that she hasn't seen the entire documentary but was “embarrassed by the light they put me in” and cried for two weeks. An attorney for Jamie Spears notes that the singer has never asked for the conservatorship to be terminated.

April 2021: Through her attorney, Spears asks to personally address the court handling her conservatorship but no reasons are given.

June 17 2021: Spears says on her Instagram page that she “has no idea” whether she will ever take the stage again and is “having fun right now”.

June 23 2021: Spears is scheduled to address the court. She is expected to appear remotely.