Britney Spears ' dad, Jamie, said she has "addiction and mental health issues" in a new court filing.- The filing said the public would praise him if it knew of the "issues that she has struggled with."
- In court documents, Jamie agreed to work with the singer's attorney to step down as her conservator.
Britney Spears' father,
Jamie Spears has agreed to work with Britney Spears' attorney to transition to a new conservator in court documents filed on Thursday. In the position of conservator, her father has maintained control of aspects of the pop star's personal life and estate since 2008.
The filing comes as a victory for the 39-year-old singer, who has been pushing for her father to be removed as conservator.
In a sworn statement filed to the court in late July, Britney's mother, Lynne, made a damning statement against Jamie in support of Britney's efforts to oust him from the conservatorship, saying Jamie "is incapable of putting" Britney's interests "ahead of his own."
"I witnessed my daughter be compelled by that doctor, with the knowledge and encouragement of Mr. Spears, to enter a health facility that she did not want to enter, where she was threatened with punishment if she did not stay for medical treatment that she did not want to endure," Lynne wrote.
In Thursday's court filing, Jamie disputed Lynne's declaration and wrote that she had made inaccurate statements in the court filing, marking the first time in a recent public court filing that any mention of "addiction issues" has been made with regard to the singer.
"Unfortunately, it appears that Lynne has not accepted the full extent to which Ms. Spears has had addiction and mental health issues or the level of care and treatment she needs," Jamie's attorneys wrote in the new filing.
Court documents showed that Jamie's attorneys cited Britney's "addiction" as one of the health issues she has been dealing with.
"If the public knew all the facts of Ms. Spears' personal life, not only her highs but also her lows, all of the addiction and mental health issues that she has struggled with, and all of the challenges of the Conservatorship, they would praise Mr. Spears for the job he has done, not vilify him," the filing said.
"But the public does not know all the facts, and they have no right to know, so there will be no public redemption for Mr. Spears," the attorneys continued. "That is fine with Mr. Spears so long as the Court acts, based not on the opinions of those pandering to the public and social media, but on substantiated facts and all of the highly confidential information that the Court has in its possession to make decisions that are in Ms. Spears' best interests."
In response to Thursday's filing, Britney's attorney Mathew Rosengart celebrated that Jamie agreed to step down, saying "it is vindication for Britney," but the attorney called Jamie's and his legal team's actions "ongoing shameful & reprehensible attacks."
"Their filing was riddled with falsehoods and no father who truly loved his daughter would have done that," Rosengart said in a statement to Insider. "This is a major victory for Britney Spears and another step toward justice."