(Reuters) – Pop star Britney Spears is due to go to court in Los Angeles on Wednesday to handle the trusteeship or trusteeship arrangement that has controlled much of her personal and professional affairs since 2008.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the life of Spears, now 39 years old.
1992 – Cast on “The Mickey Mouse Club” TV show with Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling.
1997 – Signs a 15-year record contract.
1998 – At 16, she released her first single “… Baby One More Time”, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts for two weeks. In 1999, her debut album of the same name topped the charts in 15 countries.
2000 – The second studio album “Oops!… I Did It Again†breaks records. Spears confirms she is dating Justin Timberlake.
2001 – Spears performs as a guest at the Super Bowl halftime show, releases a third album, and sings with a python on his shoulder as his performances get hotter and hotter.
2002 – Spears stars in his first movie, “Crossroads”. His relationship with Timberlake ends.
2003 – Spears kisses Madonna on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards, causing a scandal. She is releasing her 4th studio album.
2004 – Spears marries childhood friend Jason Alexander in a surprise ceremony in Las Vegas. The wedding is called off three days later. Nine months later, she married dancer Kevin Federline.
2005 – Son Sean Preston is born. Spears wins her first and only Grammy Award for “Toxic”.
2006 – Birth of second son Jayden James. Two months later, Spears files for divorce.
2007 – Spears enters and leaves rehab twice within days, shaves his head in a Los Angeles salon, and returns to rehab. Pursued by the paparazzi, her behavior becomes more and more erratic. Spears loses custody of his two sons and releases a fifth studio album. She performs “Gimme More” at the MTV Video Music Awards but seems stunned.
2008 – Spears is hospitalized twice in psychiatric detention and placed under court-ordered guardianship in which her father Jamie Spears and a lawyer take control of her personal and professional affairs. The nature of his mental illness is not disclosed. In December, her comeback album “Circus” was released and in 2009 she undertook a world tour to promote it.
2011 – Spears releases their 7th studio album and begins another tour.
2012 – Spears joins the US version of “The X Factor” TV show as a judge.
2013 – Spears begins a two-year residency in Las Vegas and releases their 8th studio album. The residency is then extended for two years.
16-16-2018 – Spears releases her 9th studio album, goes on a ‘Piece of Me’ world tour and announces another residency in Las Vegas for 2019. She last performed in public in October 2018 at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
2019 – Spears announces an “indefinite work disruption†and cancels his Las Vegas residency plan due to concerns about his father’s health. She walks into a mental health facility saying she is taking “some time for me”. The #FreeBritney movement is started by fans who believe Spears is being held against her will under trusteeship. She appears before the Los Angeles judge in charge of guardianship but her testimony is sealed. The judge orders an independent evaluation of the guardianship.
August 2020 – A lawyer for Spears requests that the singer’s father be replaced as curator. Jamie Spears calls the #FreeBritney movement “a joke”. Spears tells her Instagram followers that she accidentally burned down her home gym after leaving two candles burning.
February 2021 – The documentary “Framing Britney Spears” airs, drawing more attention to her career and guardianship. Timberlake apologizes to Spears for her role in the media scrutiny she received when dating. Spears says on her Instagram account that she didn’t see the whole documentary but was “embarrassed by the light they put me in” and cried for two weeks. A lawyer for Jamie Spears notes that the singer never asked for the end of the guardianship.
April 2021 – Through his lawyer, Spears asks to address the court in charge of his guardianship in person, but no reason is given.
June 17, 2021 – Spears says on her Instagram page that she “has no idea” if she will ever be back on stage and that she “is having fun right now.”
June 23, 2021 – Spears is due to go to court. It should appear from a distance.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Grant McCool)
