IT was a court case that raged on for years, as #FreeBritney campaigners fought for pop superstar Britney Spears to be released from a legal arrangement that gave her little power over her own life.
But two and a half years after she was freed from her 13-year conservatorship, which had given her father Jamie control over her personal life and finances, there are major questions over whether throwing her back into the deep end of life without any help was the right thing to do.
Since November 2021, the Toxic singer has been hit by disaster after disaster and things have gone from bad to worse.
Britney, 42, married third husband, actor Sam Asghari, 30, in June 2022, after they began dating in 2016.
But they split 13 months later amid allegations she attacked him as he slept and left him with a black eye and bite marks.
Then her sons Preston, 18, and Jayden, 17, moved to Hawaii with their dad Kevin Federline, 46, and publicly begged their mum to stop stripping off and dancing in videos posted on Instagram.
The pop favourite, who has sold more than 150million records, is now living an increasingly “dysfunctional and isolated” life according to sources in the US.
And there are concerns she is burning through her £50million fortune, splashing her cash on eye-wateringly expensive luxury holidays.
Yesterday, US gossip website TMZ claimed she has been spending millions of dollars on regular trips to French Polynesia every couple of months, blowing the money on private jets, luxury hotels and staff.
Then there have also been monthly trips to Hawaii, costing £280k a pop, where she stays in the presidential suite at the Four Seasons.
A source said: “There is no one looking after Britney.
“Her life is in freefall.
“She has no focus and no one is telling her that she is at risk of flittering away all of the earnings she worked so hard for.
“She is living like there’s no tomorrow.”
There were allegations of financial mismanagement during her conservatorship.
She was forced to perform several lucrative tours and Las Vegas residencies, released four albums, appeared as a judge on the X Factor USA and launched a string of products but despite her heavy workload, the numbers did not add up to the huge sum she should have earned, while her father was paid £12,000 per month.
But the source continued: “Her finances were so tightly watched when she was in the conservatorship.
“There were times when she had to ask her backing dancers to pay for dinner and she was basically given meagre pocket money from her own accounts.
“Now it’s like she’s gone from one extreme to the other.
“It’s worrying to think what could happen in just a few short years if she blows through her fortune.”
Although the conservatorship was legally terminated in 2021, only last week did the legal wrangle over the intricacies finally come to an end.
It was decided she would have to pay £3.2million in fees to her lawyer Mathew Rosengart and a further £1.6 million for her father’s legal costs.
But an emotional Britney hit out at her dad Jamie, 71, and mum Lynne, 68, who she has also had a rocky relationship with, claiming they ought to face “justice”.
In a post on her Instagram page on Sunday night, before she deactivated her account yesterday, she wrote: “There has been no justice and probably never will be!
There is no one looking after Britney, her life is in freefall. No one is telling her that she is at risk of flittering away the earnings she worked so hard for’
Inside source
“The way I was brought up I was always taught the formative of right and wrong but the very two people who brought me up with that method hurt me!
“I am so lucky to be here!
“It’s funny ’cus till this very day I haven’t told them face to face!
“I text through IG but I honestly believe it will not be so safe if I ever did go face to face!”
Her lawyer Mathew seems to be one of the only people acting in her best interests, after deciding it would be better to end the legal battle with Jamie.
The Sun’s insider said: “Britney told Mathew that she wanted justice and her day in court with her dad.
“She urged him to push the case that Jamie effectively stole money from her, while running the estate as her conservator but he has strongly denied any wrongdoing.
“Jamie’s lawyers have had the right to make Britney sit in front of them for depositions about many of these matters — and it would cost many more millions.
"If that had happened, she would have been filmed answering hours of questions about the darkest times in her life including drug problems, mental health woes and personal dramas.
“Mathew’s focus has been protecting his client.”
However, the source, based in Las Vegas and who has worked with Britney for many years, stated: “Jamie has pretty much had all his expenditures examined by the LA Superior Court and signed off by a judge.
“The overarching observation is that Jamie saved Britney’s finances from ruin.
“She was at one point down to £2.5million and he helped her to rise up to more than £50million.”
While Britney has struggled since the conservatorship was terminated, many are convinced it was how she was treated during the arrangement which did irreparable damage.
During interviews in the UK in 2016 during a press tour for her ninth album Glory, she appeared present and witty.
A few years later it was a different story.
In early 2019, she pulled out of a Las Vegas residency and announced an indefinite hiatus from music.
It is believed to have been axed after she refused to take medication and she was carted off to a live-in rehabilitation centre, leading fans to question where she was, having not been pictured for months.
At that point, she was forcibly given lithium to treat her bipolar disorder, as well as a cocktail of other prescription medications.
Speaking in court in 2021, she said: “Lithium is a very, very strong and completely different medication compared to what I was used to.
“You can go mentally impaired if you take too much, if you stay on it longer than five months. But he put me on that, and I felt drunk.”
In summer 2021, Jamie’s lawyers made it clear that much of her private health information had been kept a secret from the public as he tried to protect her.
Documents filed in court said: “There is no doubt that the Conservatorship saved Ms Spears from disaster, supported her when she needed it the most, protected her and her reputation from harm, and facilitated the restoration of her career.”
But now she is out on her own, she appears far more erratic and vulnerable, with distrust for the system which was supposed to look after her.
I was always taught the formative of right and wrong but the very two people who brought me up with that method hurt me! I am so lucky to be here!’
Britney on Sunday on Instagram
It has also been more than two years since she has seen her sons, who did not attend her wedding to Sam.
Speaking in 2022, Jayden said of his relationship with his mum: “I 100 per cent think it can be fixed, of course.
"It’s just going to take a lot of time and effort.
“I really want to see her again.”
But about her social media, he added: “It’s almost like she has to post something on Instagram to get attention.
“There’s a high chance that this is never going to really stop, but I’m hoping for me, maybe she will.”
There is once again a discussion over whether Britney could ever return to music.
Aside from one-off collaborations with Sir Elton John and Will.i.am, she has not released her own music in eight years.
Last year, her management started assembling a team to write for a new Britney album.
But after she got wind of the plan, she hit out online and said she had no ambition to ever return to pop.
Now there are fears she might have to do it because she needs the cash.
But the music industry is not an easy place to navigate and is quick to build people up and spit them right back out again.
What Britney needs right now is some proper TLC.
Her father clearly isn’t the one to give it to her, but someone needs to step in.
