LOS ANGELES • Britney Spears has asked a judge to end her father's guardianship at a hearing next week so that she can get married with a prenuptial agreement, a petition filed by her lawyer said on Wednesday.
The American pop singer, who has described the 13-year arrangement that gives Mr Jamie Spears control of her affairs as "abuse", recently announced her engagement to her boyfriend, fitness trainer Sam Asghari (both right).
Mr Spears, 69, filed a petition last month for Britney Spears' conservatorship to be ended, saying he acknowledges the singer now "believes that she can handle her own life".
According to the filing on Wednesday, Britney Spears is "in the process of engaging a family law attorney to craft a prenuptial agreement", which would require the approval of any conservator still in place.
"Given that Ms Spears' relationship with that conservator (her father) is broken, Mr Spears' continued involvement would impede the ability to negotiate and consummate a contract that all can agree is in Ms Spears' best interests," it states.
The petition calls on the Los Angeles court judge to "suspend Mr Spears" at the next hearing, set for next Wednesday. It proposes a short-term, temporary guardian who can take over from her father and potentially approve a prenuptial agreement before the entire conservatorship structure can be ended later this year.
Spears, 39, and Asghari, 27, met in 2016 when they co-starred in a music video for her single, Slumber Party. The star rocketed to fame in her teens with hits such as ...Baby One More Time (1999), but suffered a public breakdown in 2007, attacking a paparazzo's car at a petrol station. That led to her being placed under the court-ordered conservatorship largely governed by her father.
As well as smoothing the way for her upcoming marriage, Wednesday's petition said the removal of Mr Spears was urgent because "every day Mr Spears clings to his post is another day of anguish and harm to his daughter".
She has previously alleged in court that she had been prevented from having a contraceptive IUD removed, despite wanting more children.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
