Britney Spears’ legal team has accused her father Jamie of trying to “extort” money from her as they once again called on him to step down as her conservator.
The chart-topping singer has been under the legal guardianship of her dad for the last 13 years, during most of which he’s been in charge of both her finances and various aspects of her personal life.
While Britney has mostly remained silent on the matter in the time since the conservatorship was instated, she’s spoken out against it on a number of occasions in 2021, branding the arrangement “abusive” at a hearing over the summer.
Having changed her legal representation in July, Britney’s new lawyer Mathew S Rosengart has said he is “aggressively” moving for Jamie’s removal as conservator.
In new legal filings, Rosengart called for Jamie Spears’ immediate resignation, and accused him of trying to “extort” her.
Rosengart said: “Mr Spears and his counsel are now on notice: the status quo is no longer tolerable, and Britney Spears will not be extorted.
“Mr Spears’s blatant attempt to barter suspension and removal in exchange for approximately $2 million (£1.45 million) in payments, on top of the millions already reaped from Ms Spears’s estate by Mr Spears and his associates, is a non-starter.”
He added that Jamie’s resignation would be the “legally correct, decent and graceful thing to do”, adding: “[Jamie’s] idea of ‘orderly’ is to hang on until someone first brands him ‘father of the year’ and awards him a gold star for his ‘service’.
“In other words, although Mr Spears has, at last, been forced to recognise that it is best for his daughter if he departs now, he claims the right to drag his feet because it is best for him to cling to this conservatorship until he feels sufficiently-vindicated.”
Britney Spears has twice given testimony about the conservatorship in recent history that has been made public, in which she’s made a string of shocking claims.
This included being forced to take lithium in place of her regular medication and be on birth control despite her hopes to have a child with her boyfriend, Sam Asghari.
More recently, she said she wanted her father to be charged with conservatorship abuse.
Last month Jamie Spears expressed his intention to step down as his daughter’s legal guardian, though he did not offer any specifics about when he would do so.
He also insisted that there were “no actual grounds for suspending or removing” him from the arrangement, stating he’s been the “unremitting target of unjustified attacks” regarding the conservatorship.
“[Jamie] does not believe that a public battle with his daughter over his continuing service as her conservator would be in her best interests,” his legal team said in court documents.