(crowd cheering)
- It's a great day for Britney Spears,
and it's a great day for justice.
(crowd cheering)
- [Anne] On Wednesday, LA Superior Court judge,
Brenda Penny, ruled in Britney's favor,
suspending her father, Jamie Spears, as conservator
of her $60 million estate.
So this is one major step
toward terminating Britney's conservatorship all together.
- [Woman] Free Britney Spears.
- [Man] Free Britney Spears.
- [Anne] Tons of supporters were outside the courthouse
on Wednesday wearing pink,
waving flags, holding signs,
wearing shirts that said free Britney, and chanting.
- [Man] What do we want?
- [Crowd] Free Britney.
- [Man] When do we want it?
- [Crowd] Now.
(pensive music)
- [Anne] Britney was placed
under the conservatorship in 2008.
Britney herself acknowledged publicly the need
for the legal arrangement at the time.
A conservatorship is a legal arrangement
where a judge appoints a person
to assume responsibility over someone else,
usually a close relative,
who lacks the ability to manage their own personal
and/or financial affairs.
She has now pled in court twice quite emotionally
to reclaim some control over her finances,
her work and her health.
She has described years of being overworked
and restricted from driving in a car
with her boyfriend,
from taking hair vitamins and drinking coffee,
from eating a hamburger and French fries.
Jamie Spears, for his part,
has maintained that he's always been trying
to protect his daughter's business,
and also takes credit
for helping to rebuild her career and her estate.
- [Crowd] Free Britney.
- Yeah, woo.
- [Anne] Britney Spears is one
of the most successful pop stars
of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
And really, she's synonymous with that era.
So Britney has said I'm not gonna be performing
on any stages any time soon
with my dad handling what I wear, say, do or think.
But now that he's suspended, we'll have to see.
From her testimony and things she's shared on Instagram,
she sounds like she might not be ready
for the comeback the world wants right now.
- [Woman] Britney's body, Britney's choice.
- [Crowd] Britney's body, Britney's choice.
- [Anne] In June, she told the court,
"I've worked my whole life,
and I deserve to have a two or three-year break
and just, you know, do what I want to do."
- Yes, exactly.