Britney Spears' father Jamie Spears has agreed to step down from her conservatorship after 13 years.
Appearing in court on Thursday, Jamie responded to the singer's petition to suspend him from the legal arrangement by announcing his intention to step down. The decision does not release the Gimme More hitmaker from her conservatorship but rather takes her father out of the position as conservator of her estate, a role that oversees the star's multi-million dollar empire.
In the filing, he wrote he will be "(wrapping) up certain matters" before his departure, according to Variety. He did not give details as to what those matters are or what the timetable will be for his removal.
An attorney for Jamie explained that the decision comes after the "public battle with his daughter," even though Jamie maintains that there is "no actual grounds" to remove him as conservator of her estate and it is "highly debatable" whether his exit will benefit Britney.
"Nevertheless, even as Mr. Spears is the unremitting target of unjustified attacks, he does not believe that a public battle with his daughter over his continuing service as her conservator would be in her best interests," the Thursday filing states.
"So even though he must contest this unjustified Petition for his removal, Mr. Spears intends to work with the Court and his daughter's new attorney to prepare for an orderly transition to a new conservator. As the Court has likely surmised, before Ms. Spears' new attorney arrived, Mr. Spears had already been working on such a transition with Ms. Spears' former court-appointed counsel, Sam Ingham."
The 39-year-old's new attorney, Mathew Rosengart, declared the move a "major victory" for the pop star, but stated that his team will continue to pursue justice for the alleged abuse the singer endured at the hands of her father and others associated with the conservatorship.
"We look forward to continuing our vigorous investigation into the conduct of Mr. Spears, and others, over the past 13 years, while he reaped millions of dollars from his daughter's estate, and I look forward to taking Mr. Spears's sworn deposition in the near future," Rosengart said in a statement to Variety.
After years of staying silent about the matter, and likely a response to the growing #FreeBritney movement on social media, the pop star gave a damning testimony in June detailing what she described as "abuse" since the legal arrangement began.
In response to the news, Spears posted a captionless photo on Instagram - a watercolour-like picture of the back of a young girl's head with flowers in her hair.
