The pop star paid her father up to $16,000 per month, on top of hefty legal fees, over the 13 years of her conservatorship.<\/b>
\nBritney Spears made it clear in court yesterday during a 24-minute statement to Judge Brenda Penny that she was done playing nice with the conservatorship that has given control of her life to her father, Jamie Spears, since 2008. Describing a litany of suffering\u2014from being forced to take Lithium against her will to not being permitted to remove her IUD\u2014she pleaded with the court to gain back control of her life and put an end to the arrangement that has allowed Jamie Spears to live off her career, and her $60 million fortune. \u201cConsidering my family has lived off my conservatorship for 13 years, I won’t be surprised if one of them has something to say (against ending my conservatorship),\u201d Britney Spears said yesterday. \u201cI just don’t like feeling like I work for the people who I pay.\u201d But just how much did Jamie Spears actually pocket? During more than a decade of control, Britney Spears has paid him a monthly salary, provided office space and given him a cut of her celebrity. In all, Jamie Spears was paid at least $5 million before taxes since February 2008. Because of the conservatorship, Britney Spears also had to pay hundreds of thousands\u2014if not millions\u2014of dollars in legal fees for both herself and her conservators. Since at least February 2009\u2014one year after her father Jamie was named the conservator in charge of her estate\u2014Spears has had to pay him $16,000 each month, according to court documents reviewed by Forbes. Over 12 years, that compensation has totalled $2.4 million. Additionally, a report this week from the New York Times, pointed to the fact that he also collected portions of her touring revenue\u2014which could explain Spears\u2019 accusations that she was forced to work and perform despite not wanting to or feeling sick. Those payouts for Jamie Spears included 1.5% of the gross ticket and merchandise sales from Britney Spears\u2019 popular Piece of Me residency that ran from 2013 to 2017 in Las Vegas. That show grossed $137.7 million, according to Caesars Entertainment, leaving Jamie Spears\u2019 cut at $2.1 million. The Times also reported that Jamie Spears got a 2.95% commission off of her 2011 Femme Fatale tour. While it\u2019s unclear if that is a percentage of gross revenue or just of Spears\u2019 take-home earnings, he would have made at least $500,000 from the tour. In addition to the millions Britney Spears has paid her father as part of a court-ordered \u201csalary,\u201d she has also had to pony up for several other expenses. There\u2019s the nearly $300,000 she\u2019s spent renting her father an office for $2,000 per month, and hundreds of thousands\u2014if not millions\u2014in legal fees. As part of a quirk of conservator arrangement, conservatees are often required to pay for both their own attorneys and those of their conservators. Over the past 13 years that Britney Spears has been under her conservatorship, those fees have compounded. While the total she\u2019s spent on legal fees is not public, court records from 2018 and 2019 detail that between October 1,2018 and October 31,2019, the law firm Freeman, Freeman and Smiley, which represented Jamie Spears at the time, charged her about $170,000. Another document detailed fees for her own court-ordered attorney Samual Ingham from November 6,2016 to October 10,2018. The total came to $331,940.50 for 698.7 hours of work\u2014or $475 per hour. According to a 2018 filing by Jamie Spears\u2019 attorney, \u201cthe estate was nearly out of funds and cash equivalents\u201d when the conservatorship began in February 2008. The filing states that between 2014 and November 2018, the estate increased in value by $20 million, attributing the growth in part to the conservators’ management of Britney Spears\u2019 money. \u201cThe problems were of epic proportions over a period of years,\u201d the filing reads. \u201cExtraordinary skills have been employed by all in order to achieve the results enjoyed at the present time. (The conservator, Jamie Spears) has had many months at a time where all of his professional time was spent in services rendered exclusively to the conservatee.\u201d While Spears did not mention the way her father invested her money or the larger picture of her finances in her Wednesday court appearance, she did discuss how her personal finances were restricted, including the fact that she couldn\u2019t carry her own credit card. \u201cIt makes no sense whatsoever for the state of California to sit back and literally watch me, with their own two eyes, make a living for so many people and pay so many people, trucks and buses on tour, on the road with me, and be told I’m not good enough,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s been a long time since I’ve owned my money, and it’s my wish and my dream for all of this to end.\u201d According to Britney Spears\u2019 statement, her father wanted more than just the money. \u201cI cried on the phone for an hour, and he loved every minute of it,\u201d Spears said yesterday. \u201cThe control he had over someone as powerful as me…. He loved the control to hurt his own daughter.100,000%, he loved it.\u201d Jamie Spears did not respond publicly, though his lawyer did say \u201cHe is sorry to see his daughter suffering and in so much pain. Mr. Spears loves his daughter and misses her very much.\u201d Representatives for Britney Spears and Jamie Spears did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n