Britney Spears’s father Jamie agrees to step down as her conservator

Britney Spears’s father has agreed to step down as her conservator after 13 years and an appeal by the pop star to have him removed, according to reports.

Jamie Spears, who has since 2008 been the main conservator of the singer’s estate, in a legal response due to be filed on Thursday said that he would forfeit his role as he did not believe a “public battle” was in his daughter’s “best interests” .

“Despite the unremitting target of unjustified attacks, he does not believe that a public battle with his daughter over his continuing service as her conservator would be in her best interests,” her lawyers wrote in documents due to be filed to Los Angeles court and seen by CNN.

“So, even though he must contest this unjustified Petition for his removal, Mr Spears intends to work with the Court and his daughter’s new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator.”

He claims to have helped his daughter “in crisis, desperately in need of help” in 2008, following two involuntary stays in psychiatric facilities, adding: “Not only was she suffering mentally and emotionally, she was also being manipulated by predators and in financial distress. Mr Spears came to his daughter’s rescue to protect her.

Mr Spears, 69, said he loved his 39-year-old oldest daughter and that he has never forced her to do anything, including performing.

“Regardless of his formal title, Mr Spears will always be Ms Spears’ father, he will always love her unconditionally, and he will always look out for her best interests,” the documents read.

She previously called the conservatorship, and the control her father was able to wield over her life, as “abusive”.

Mr Spears stepped down as the conservator of his daughter’s personal matters in 2019 and was going to share power over her finances with an estate management firm, but it has withdrawn from the arrangement.

Earlier this month, Ms Spears’s lawyers petitioned the court to remove Mr Spears from her conservatorship, complaining she “continues to suffer ongoing harm each day that Mr Spears remains in place as the Conservator of the Estate – emotionally, psychologically, and financially,” the petition said.

Mathew Rosengart, Ms Spears’s lawyer, told the court that the removal or immediate suspension was critical to his client’s wellbeing and for a possible investigation into her father’s use of her money, the filing said.

The appeal was due to be heard in late September.

Ms Spears’s attorneys appealed to replace her father as conservator with Jason Rubin, a certified public accountant.

Mr Rosengart told the website TMZ: “We are pleased but not necessarily surprised that Mr Spears and his lawyer finally recognise that he must be removed. We are disappointed, however, by their ongoing shameful and reprehensible attacks on Ms Spears and others.”

He went on: “We look forward to continuing our vigorous investigation into the conduct of Mr Spears, and others, over the past 13 years, while he reaped millions of dollars from his daughter’s estate, and I look forward to taking Mr Spears’s sworn deposition in the near future.”

Mr Spears, who is reported to have had no contact with his daughter for nearly a year, has been paying himself $16,000 a month to manage her estimated $60 million dollar fortune.

Mr Spears also dedicated more than half of the 13-page filing to targeting his ex-wife and Ms Spears’s mother, Lynne Spears, accusing her of not accepting “the full extent to which Ms Spears has had addiction and mental health issues or the level of care and treatment she needs.”

“Instead of criticising Mr Spears, Lynne should be thanking him for ensuring Ms Spears’s wellbeing and for persevering through the years-long tenure requiring his 365/24/7 attention, long days and sometimes late nights, to deal with day-to-day and emergency issues,” his lawyers wrote.