Britney Spears' father disapproved of her wanting to travel to Hawaii last month, her attorney said in new court papers, arguing that even though he changed his mind, the objection emphasized why removing him from her conservatorship is an urgent matter.
Spears' attorney Mathew Rosengart cited the dispute in an application filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court Thursday, asking that a Sept. 29 hearing on the 39-year-old pop star's request to suspend her father, Jamie Spears, as conservator of her estate be moved up.
"In short, although a two-month wait for a hearing on the Petition may not seem significant in the context of 13 years, Ms. Spears should not be forced to continue feel traumatized, lose sleep, and suffer further," Rosengart wrote in the filing. "Every day matters."
He later added that while rescheduling the hearing on the singer's request to remove her father to an earlier date is "important," the "immediate suspension" of Jamie Spears "would be the most effective interim remedy, in the best interests of Ms. Spears."
Anyone who follows the singer on social media knows how much she loves traveling to Hawaii. In a recent post about a trip to Maui, Spears wrote that she liked "the sound of the ocean at night" and "hearing people laughing" from her balcony.
"There’s a togetherness here and it’s endless !!!" she wrote.
In Thursday's filing, Rosengart paints Spears' father in a hypocritical light when it comes to decisions about how to spend his daughter's money. According to the document, counsel for Jamie Spears has cost the estate $1,356,293 in attorney's fees from October 2020 through June 2021. The conservator also pays himself $16,000 a month from the estate, plus $2,000 a month for office expenses.
"These spendthrift ways are particularly problematic when contrasted with the stringent, 'absolutely microscopic control' Mr. Spears has exerted over his daughter, evidently since her childhood and continuing through today," Rosengart wrote, referencing language the singer's mother Lynne Spears used in a recent declaration in support of the petition to remove Jamie Spears from the legal arrangement.
According to Rosengart, Jamie Spears didn't want his daughter to take a trip to Maui in late July for "a short vacation" because he thought it was "unnecessary." While approval for the trip was ultimately granted, "this dispute caused understandable anguish to Ms. Spears," he said.
An attorney for Jamie Spears did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.
Last month, Britney Spears formally asked the court to suspend her father from her conservatorship and appoint a professional fiduciary to take her father's place. Her request is supported by her mother, the current conservator of her personal life, and her medical team, according to court documents.
Calls to get rid of Spears' father and #FreeBritney from the court-mandated arrangement that gave him and others control of her life in 2008 have intensified since the singer told the court that her conservatorship was "abusive" in an emotional and explosive hearing on June 23.
During her testimony, she said she was required to take medication that made her feel drunk and has been prevented from exercising a wide range of innate rights, like riding in her boyfriend's car and getting her IUD removed. Since then, her father has tried to shift the blame for her care. He has asked the court to investigate the claims Spears made, while his attorney, Vivian Thoreen, questioned the accuracy of the pop star's allegations of abuse, Variety reported.
"In short, for a variety of legitimate, compelling reasons in the conservatee’s best interests, the time has come for Mr. Spears’s reign to end," Rosengart said in Thursday's filing.