Jamie Spears agrees to step down as Britney Spears' conservator

Britney Spears scored her biggest win yet Thursday (Aug. 12) in her ongoing conservatorship battle as her father, Jamie Spears, has finally agreed to step down from his role as her conservator.

According to TMZ, legal documents filed by his lawyer state the following, in part:

"There are, in fact, no actual grounds for suspending or removing Mr. Spears as the Conservator of the Estate ... and it is highly debatable whether a change in conservator at this time would be in Ms. Spears' best interests.

"Nevertheless, even as Mr. Spears is the unremitting target of unjustified attacks, he does not believe that a public battle with his daughter over his continuing service as her conservator would be in her best interests. So, even though he must contest this unjustified Petition for his removal, Mr. Spears intends to work with the Court and his daughter's new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator.

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"Regardless of his formal title, Mr. Spears will always be Ms. Spears' father, he will always love her unconditionally, and he will always look out for her best interests."

Spears was made the 39-year-old pop star's conservator when her court-ordered conservatorship began in 2008. Health concerns caused him to step down into a co-conservator role, while still possessing control over his daughter's estate, in September 2019.

Britney has set several crucial actions in motion in her quest to remove Jamie and, ultimately, end her conservatorship altogether since speaking in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 23—her first time addressing the court in two years.

The Grammy winner's 24-minute testimony included several allegations specific to her father, including this excerpt:

"Ma'am, my dad and anyone involved in this conservatorship and my management who played a huge role in punishing me when I said no—ma'am, they should be in jail. Their cruel tactics working for Miley Cyrus as she smokes on joints onstage at the VMAs— nothing is ever done to this generation for doing wrong things. 

But my precious body, who has worked for my dad for the past f—king 13 years, trying to be so good and pretty. So perfect. When he works me so hard. When I do everything I'm told and the state of California allowed my father—ignorant father—to take his own daughter, who only has a role with me if I work with him, they've set back the whole course and allowed him to do that to me. That’s given these people I’ve worked for way too much control."

Spears also described her conservatorship as "abusive" and has caused her to feel "traumatized" from especially cruel tactics, such as denying her the ability to remove her IUD and start a family with her longtime boyfriend, Sam Asghari. She voiced her desire to replace her court-appointed attorney, Sam Ingham III, and file a petition to end her conservatorship.

Ingham resigned July 6—as did her manager of 25 years, Larry Rudolph, who cited what he understood to be Spears' intention to officially retire. She has no performed or released new music since January 2019.

Spears was granted permission to hire Mathew Rosengart by mid-July, and the former federal prosecutor asserted to reporters that he planned to move "aggressively and expeditiously to file a petition to remove Jamie Spears unless he resigns first."

That petition was filed later in July, but Jamie Spears ultimately made the choice to resign, according to a statement from Rosengart shared by Variety:

"I announced in Court on July 14 that, after 13 years of the status quo, it was time for Mr. Spears to be suspended or removed as conservator and that my firm and I would move aggressively and expeditiously for that outcome. Twelve days later, my firm filed a Petition for Mr. Spears’s suspension and removal based on strong, insurmountable legal grounds, which were unequivocally supported by the law and all parties involved, including Jodi Montgomery, Britney Spears, and her medical team.

"We are pleased that Mr. Spears and his lawyer have today conceded in a filing that he must be removed. It is vindication for Britney. We are disappointed, however, by their ongoing shameful and reprehensible attacks on Ms. Spears and others. We look forward to continuing our vigorous investigation into the conduct of Mr. Spears, and others, over the past 13 years, while he reaped millions of dollars from his daughter’s estate, and I look forward to taking Mr. Spears’s sworn deposition in the near future."

Support for Spears has been (seemingly) unanimously supported through the #FreeBritney movement, which became more prominent in the mainstream after The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears documentary arrived in early February.