Pop star Britney Spears’s father claimed his daughter has dementia when he filed paperwork to take control of her life in 2008.
The revelation comes in a documentary by BBC journalist Mobeen Azhar that is to air in Britain this week, according to the New York Post.
Azhar says that Jamie Spears, 68, claimed “dementia placement or treatment as specified” as justification for his conservatorship, which has allowed him to maintain control over the 39-year-old singer’s finances and every day life.
“There’s only two options with that. Britney might have dementia,” Azhar says in the documentary, “The Battle for Britney.” “Now I’m not a doctor, but if that’s the case, then the world isn’t aware of that. But the other option is actually more sinister.”
“That’s the idea that she doesn’t have dementia, but the conservatorship team have suggested that she has because they want to push the conservatorship through. And if that’s the case, then that’s terrifying.”
The documentary takes a look at the conservatorship and the “Free Britney” movement — a fan-based group that backs removing the elder Spears from the conservatorship.
“There is no way any dementia patient is going on world tours, doing Vegas residencies, is learning 27 back-to-back combo numbers, full choreography, fan Hayley Herms, who works with the group, said, according to The Sun. “No honey, that is not happening.”
Since the conservatorship began, the star has released four albums accompanied by four world tours and performed 248 shows in Las Vegas.
Jamie Spears took over control of his daughter’s estate in February 2008 in the wake of her public breakdown. The singer has since said that having a conservator saved her career and that she is not seeking to end the conservatorship — she wants her father removed from the equation.
While she has not been granted that request, late last year a court set her father and Bessemer Trust as co-conservators, and in February, the court denied Jamie Spears’s request to have sole control over the singer’s investments, ordering him to work with Bessemer Trust to establish a budget proposal, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Also last month, the singer’s attorney’s filed a motion hand over the sole conservatorship of her personal affairs to professional fiduciary Jodi Montgomery — who temporarily took over that position in September 2019 when her father stepped down to deal with medical issues.
Earlier this week, Britney Spears’s court-appointed attorney, said in a hearing that he planned to submit a request for her to “address the court directly” on an “expedited basis,” Fox News reported.
“The conservatee has requested that I seek from the court a status hearing at which she can address the court directly,” Samuel D Ingham III told Judge Brenda Penny on Tuesday.
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[Featured image: Jamie Spears, Britney Spears/AP Photos]
