The press surrounding Britney Spears‘ conservatorship has largely been a family affair — but now we’re getting perspective from an outsider who is very close to the issue.
As the legal proceedings over Brit’s personal life and her fortune continue, the women of the family — namely mom Lynn and sis Jamie Lynn — seem to have aligned with the pop star against dad Jamie Spears. (Brother Bryan has been a bit cagier about his position.) While Jamie may not have family in his corner, he does have attorney Andrew Wallet.
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Wallet was co-conservator of the Toxic singer’s estate with Jamie from 2008 – 2019, when he voluntarily resigned. In August, Jamie filed a motion to bring Wallet back on — against Britney’s express wishes. DailyMail.com interviewed the lawyer about his involvement with the conservatorship, which he said could take around a year to resolve his position.
Wallet declined to share why exactly he resigned in the first place. He did, however, comment on the #FreeBritney movement which gained steam over the summer, saying:
“Britney is in a conservatorship for good reason but a lot of the Free Britney people have no experience with the law. These legal proceedings are complex and people jump to conclusions. Their perception is so wrong but you can’t go and tell them why because a lot of it is confidential. You have a lot of people who don’t have a clue but meanwhile we can’t talk about it. It’s frustrating but it is what it is. If Britney wasn’t a celebrity none of this stuff would get talked about. The most important question is whether the conservatorship is in her best interests. That’s what you always have to ask yourself and I absolutely still believe that the conservatorship is in her best interests. This movement on social media has definitely complicated matters.”
Despite stating his frustration with the online speculation, Wallet then added a surprising new piece of evidence to fuel it:
“There are people lurking in the shadows pushing an agenda. I can’t say who but it is hurting Britney, she’s the only one who gets hurt by all this. I have my own theories and things are going to come out during discovery and the trial [to determine who gets appointed]. There is a lot of criticism that is completely wrong.”
Ummm, people lurking in the shadows?! That sounds like more of a conspiracy theory than what the #FreeBritney people are proposing. From what we can tell, #FreeBritney is mostly made up of fans who support the 38-year-old’s explicit desire for more autonomy in her life. Yet according to Wallet, more freedom would be a bad thing. He said:
“It is not in Britney’s best interests to be outside the conservatorship but there’s a lot of politics involved. Britney to this day does not have the capacity to sign documents and make decisions for herself. Protecting her assets is very important and for that the conservatorship has to stay in place because she is susceptible to undue influences.”
Thing is, Brit hasn’t yet asked to be released from her conservatorship. What she wants right now is an objective third party placed in charge of her fortune, rather than her dad and his hand-picked money man. Seems like a pretty reasonable request for a grown woman to make, if you ask us.
Part of the reason the mother of two has requested changes to her conservatorship is from a desire to quit performing. On that, Wallet seemed to be supportive, though he had troubling things to say about a possible future timeline for the conservatorship. He explained:
“She’s tired of [performing]. She’s done, at least for now. She’s within her rights to decide that, you can’t make her work or do something she doesn’t want to do. The conservatorship isn’t in place to make her do things she doesn’t want to do. It’s in place to protect her. If she doesn’t want to work she doesn’t have to work. No one can force her. I have had people in conservatorship who have got themselves right and it has been terminated but you don’t see that because they’re not people in the public eye. Other people can be in a conservatorship their whole lives. I’m not saying that’s going to be Britney but it could happen to her.”
Sounds a little threatening when you put it like that!
Wallet also defended himself from accusations about stealing or mismanaging the global superstar’s funds. He claimed:
“There’s so many things I did to help with Britney’s success. She was on multiple tours and had a Vegas residency while I was co-conservator. What I was paid was more than fair for what I was asked to do. In that world, professionals doing what I was doing would be getting over $1 million a year.”
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We can’t speak to normal conservator salaries, but especially if Britney’s no longer performing, we can understand why she doesn’t want to be paying this guy $1 mil a year. Why shouldn’t she be able to find a better deal than that???
He continued:
“People say something dastardly must have happened, there was even crazy speculation that I had stolen money. None of it is true and what they don’t realize is how much everybody is scrutinized by the court. There was no corruption, it’s all wild speculation but you’ve just got to shake your head and deal with it. If you look at what people have been paid, it’s all been ordered by the court. There are very detailed accountings which are presented to the court and have to be approved by the court. If there was something wrong with it the court would say so.”
Yes, because as we all know courts always make decisions in the best interests of women…
Look, whether something shady was happening or not, the Mickey Mouse Club alum doesn’t want Wallet in charge, and she deserves to have her wishes about her own life respected. Asked why she believes he is unsuitable as co-conservator, however, Wallet simply responded:
“She can say whatever she wants.”
If you’re not actually going to respect the things she says, this response seems pretty dismissive to us! We really hope this gets resolved in Britney’s best interest — not what Jamie and Wallet claim to be her best interests.
[Image via Britney Spears/Instagram]
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