During her glittering but troubled life, has been variously snapped shaving off her hair in a barber’s shop, attacking a photographer’s car with an umbrella and stumbling alarmingly with a cup of coffee in one hand and her eight-month-old son in the other.
Earlier this month, however, she could at least thank ’s Ventura County Sheriff’s Office for not compounding her seemingly never-ending state of public embarrassment by refusing to release her mugshot after her arrest on suspicion of drink driving.
Although plenty of other celebrities – including hard-partying soulmates and – have not been accorded the same privilege, a police official insisted the department only releases mugshots for violent crimes or when a suspect is an immediate threat to the public, which she was not.
It was a rare silver lining to the clouds that continue to hang over the 44-year-old pop star, but did nothing to dispel renewed fears for her fragile mental health.
For those who questioned the wisdom of a judge’s 2021 decision to end the controversial ‘conservatorship’ that controlled every aspect of her life for 13 years – imposed after a series of highly publicised mental health crises in 2008 – it will provide further evidence that they were correct. They insist Britney is now worryingly slipping back into her dangerous old ways.
She was arrested near her home in Thousand Oaks on the evening of March 4, outside , after a police officer allegedly saw her swerving from lane to lane. Britney wasn’t injured but taken to hospital for tests to determine her blood-alcohol level and if there were drugs in her system.
She was booked into a cell in the early hours of Thursday, March 5, where she was described as ‘emotional and crying’, before being released three hours later.
Police reportedly also found her in possession of the powerful amphetamine Adderall. Although the drug is prescribed to treat ADHD, it is being tested to see if it has been laced with illegal narcotics.
Since ending her conservatorship, under which her father Jamie controlled her assets and career, many fear Britney has slipped into her previous harmful ways
She often uploads lewd videos to social media, leaving many fans concerned for her mental wellbeing
If convicted, this would be Britney’s first Driving Under the Influence (DUI) offence, and . But if illegal drugs are found, then a judge has the discretion to insist on a prison sentence.
A friend of the star summed up her situation starkly, telling the Daily Mail this week: ‘She’s terrified. She knows there’s a potential for jail time, and that’s got her attention. She’ll do anything to avoid that. But she’s scared that people will think she needs to go back under a conservatorship.
‘Other celebrities have DUIs and nobody suggests they should go into a conservatorship. She feels it’s very unfair. She values her freedom above anything.’
Meanwhile, a representative for the former child star claimed: ‘This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable.
‘Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law and, hopefully, this can be the first step in long-overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life.
‘Hopefully, she can get the help and support she needs during this difficult time. Her boys [Preston, 20, and Jayden, 19] are
In a concerning development, the celebrity news website TMZ claimed that Britney had sacked her ‘sober coaches’ – whose job it is to keep her off drink and drugs – just weeks before her arrest.
Her on-off romance with Paul Soliz, an ex-felon and her former housekeeper, ended recently, destabilising her further and leaving her feeling lonely, according to TMZ.
Britney could face a driving ban if she gets a DUI conviction, but she could also spend time in prison
Friends say the pop star fears going back under a conservatorship if she is convicted
Her days, the gossip website continues, are spent dancing around half naked and posting videos on Instagram. ‘She talks to herself and is in her own world,’ a source said.
A recent report said police have been .
Britney’s relationship with her mother has been fraught for many years.
Despite past rifts, however, Lynne, 70, has offered her support, prompting whispers from the Spears’ camp that the family is debating whether Britney should go to a rehab clinic or treatment centre before her court hearing for the DUI offence in May.
In doing so, it would prove to the judge that she is serious about getting her act together.
But Britney is said to be resistant to the idea, and insists she doesn’t need treatment – in keeping with her previous attitude to her problems.
A driving ban is inevitable if she is convicted, which will be a devasting blow. ‘Britney is not a great driver and never has been, but she ,’ said an insider. ‘To her it represents freedom.’
Another source close to Spears explains: ‘Yes, she could easily afford a chauffeur, but Britney doesn’t want to be driven. She wants to drive. It’s not about money, it’s about freedom.’
Britney with her parents Lynne and Jamie, with whom she has had a difficult relationship
While Jamie acted as conservator of Britney's estate, many argued she had effectively lost all her freedoms
While under the conservatorship, control of her $60 million fortune, career and personal life were given to her father Jamie and his co-conservators, meaning her freedom was severely curtailed.
‘She couldn’t go outside when she wanted,’ says the source. ‘There were times she wasn’t allowed to close her bedroom door or even take a bath privately. She felt trapped. Driving became symbolic of everything she wasn’t allowed to do.’
Britney’s biggest fear is that her father will now . They have been estranged since 2021, when the conservatorship was ended in the courts following a huge social media campaign.
An insider told the New York Post that Jamie is keen to : ‘He wants the chance to be able to talk with her and find some middle ground.’
Meanwhile, at least one of her supporters appears to be losing all sense of proportion in their defence of her. Her third and most recent husband, Iranian-American model Sam Asghari this week went so far as to compare her with oppressed women in Iran.
Asghari, who was married to Britney from 2022 to 2024, told journalist Piers Morgan: ‘Coming from the country of Iran and seeing women being oppressed, that. In a way . . . [Spears] was also oppressed by many people who took advantage of her and [she] sort of had the same experience as women do in Iran.’ He added: ‘If she made a mistake, I really think she’s a strong woman, and she could come back from this.’
Another sympathiser, Britney’s long-time friend and former assistant Sean Phillip, told US television news he believes sinister forces are at work to undermine her.
‘I think there are some people out to get her,’ he said. ‘The timing is off,’ he added, referring to Spears selling her music catalogue in February for an estimated £150 million ($200 million).
‘She gets financial independence, and then she’s arrested. We all think it is a push to put her back in a conservatorship. Because guess what happened when the conservatorship stopped? People stopped getting money [from her].’
He added: ‘I encourage her to speak for herself because she can squash everything in a second.’
Many will surely not share his optimism on that point, let alone believe his suggestion that there’s been some sort of ‘conspiracy’ behind Britney’s arrest.
Her latest travails certainly call into question the wisdom of the #FreeBritney movement, an alliance spearheaded by her army of devoted fans which argued vociferously when she was being exploited by her father and was effectively being .
But those who supported the lifting of it on moral grounds – maintaining that any adult should have the right to live his or her own life even if that means making mistakes – may have difficulty arguing that this includes the right to endanger other lives by dangerous driving, possibly under the influence of prescription drugs.
Until now, her alarming behaviour has at least appeared to be largely confined within her own home as Britney has put out a stream of bizarre social media posts in which she dances around in her mansion looking dishevelled, sometimes . Friends became concerned last September after she appeared in one video with the floor littered with the faeces of her four dogs.
In others she’s been completely naked, albeit with her back to the camera, and clutching kitchen knives to her throat.
Dancer and DJ Kevin Federline, who was married to Britney between 2004 and 2007 and , last year questioned the wisdom of ending her conservatorship in a book, You Thought You Knew.
He revealed, among myriad examples of her erratic behaviour, how she once stood watching their sons sleep, while clutching a knife. And, on another occasion, tried to breastfeed after taking cocaine. She disputed his account.
Federline, one of Spears’ former backing dancers, was eventually He insisted that the conservatorship period, although difficult for everyone, ‘brought stability when it was desperately needed’.
He predicted that Britney would only ever be able to bring her behaviour under control when she admitted she had ‘a problem’ – which, so far, hadn’t happened.
‘That refusal to take responsibility is the root of everything that’s gone wrong,’ he said. ‘She saw the events in her life through a prism that painted her as the victim, the misunderstood one, the person wronged by everyone around her.’
The fan-led campaign to get the conservatorship dissolved ‘got it wrong’, he said, and ‘vilified everyone around her so intensely that now it’s nearly impossible for anyone to step in’.
The #FreeBritney movement is already starting to show cracks.
One former key member, known only as Jessica but who goes under the name ‘realiteatv3’ on social media, said of Britney last October that ‘the lights are on but nobody’s home’ and agreed this week that she clearly needs to be under a conservatorship, although preferably not run by her family or friends.
However, others continue to stand by the campaign. Jordan Miller, founder of BreatheHeavy, the largest Britney Spears online fan site, insisted that whatever foul-ups the singer commits, she does not deserve to be put back under the control of others.
He admitted he had felt ‘concerned’ at times. ‘None of us truly know what her inner circle looks like today. I hope that the people closest to her are prioritising Britney as a person, her wellbeing, her stability and her health, rather than business or career interests.’
But he added: ‘I think it’s fair to say that Britney could benefit from meaningful professional support. Her situation is incredibly complex and nuanced.’
Britney had a previous brush with the law in 2007, when she faced four misdemeanour charges after an alleged hit-and-run with a parked car in Los Angeles, but charges were dropped after she paid the owner for damages.
Last October, she was filmed drinking in a restaurant and later driving her black BMW despite the apparent protests of friends. She drove home with sudden U-turns, sharp accelerations and spells on the wrong side of the road.
The star has, meanwhile, underplayed her problems with alcohol and drugs. In her 2023 memoir, The Woman In Me, she claimed: ‘I never had a drinking problem. I liked to drink but it was never out of control.
‘Do you want to know my drug of choice? The only thing I really did except for drinking? Adderall.’ She said it was the only cure for her depression and insisted she never had any interest in harder drugs.
But she also revealed in the book how, in 2008, she became ‘hell on wheels’ while ‘taking a lot of Adderall’, once coming within a hair’s breadth of driving off a cliff.
Spears is due to appear in court on May 4. Might a judge choose that moment to remind her that with rights – which her #FreeBritney supporters fought so hard to win for her – come responsibilities, such as obeying the law?
And will the love of her family finally help save her from herself?
