Britney Spears' conservatorship was just extended until 2021 — look inside the 12-year legal arrangement that prevents the pop star from controlling her life and $59 million fortune

In the late 2000s, Britney Spears had several highly publicized mental breakdowns.

During this time, Spears was spotted driving her SUV with her son Sean on her lap and not strapped in a car seat. She also famously shaved her head and was seen hitting a photographer's car with an umbrella.

In 2008, Spears made several trips to rehab and was committed twice to a psychiatric hospital — also known as a 5150 hold in California, where Spears lives, Laura Newberry reported for the Los Angeles Times. Newberry spent three months examining Spears' conservatorship.

This tumultuous period led to Spears' court-approved conservatorship, which was implemented at the end of 2008.

Her father, Jamie Spears, petitioned for an emergency "temporary conservatorship" after Britney's second psychiatric hold, Newberry reported. 

A conservatorship is also known as a legal guardianship. It's granted to those who are incapable of making decisions, such as people with mental disabilities and those with dementia. Law experts told Newberry a conservatorship was "unusual for someone as young and productive as Spears."

Under the conservatorship, Spears has no control over financial or personal decisions. That power was granted to her father and her attorney.

Jamie Spears was granted oversight of her estate and health, which involves everything from negotiating business opportunities to restricting visitors, while attorney Andrew Wallet was assigned to help manage her financial assets.

Wallet once called the arrangement a "hybrid business model." Newberry said this could mean that the conservatorship has helped Britney Spears seal business deals she wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

In 2019, Jamie Spears requested to extend his daughter's conservatorship to more than 10 states, including Hawaii, Florida, and Louisiana, Newberry reported.

The exact details of the arrangement aren't known, but all of Spears' financial decisions must be documented in court reports.

Britney Spears' most recent financial documents showed that as of 2018, she had a net worth of $59 million. That year, she spent $400,000 on living expenses and $66,000 on household supplies.

She also spent $1.1 million on her legal and conservator fees that year. Her father took home $128,000 of that, according to the documents cited by ET.

The conservatorship is intended not only to prevent Spears from making poor financial and business decisions but also to protect her from potentially toxic people.

Spears was granted a restraining order against Sam Lutfi in 2009 and 2019. He was accused of saying he was her former manager and being a bad influence during her mental breakdowns, CNN reported, citing a court filing.

The pop star's lawyers accused Lutfi of attempting to "insinuate himself into Ms. Spears' life with disastrous results for her," Lisa Respers France reported for CNN, citing court filings. He was also accused of sending her mom disparaging texts to disrupt the conservatorship.

The most recent restraining order says Lutfi must stay at least 200 yards away from Spears and can't make "disparaging public statements" about her, her family, her conservator, or her current manager, according to CNN.

But not everyone feels the conservatorship is a good thing. Some fans think Spears is being controlled and have pushed the conservatorship in and out of the spotlight with the #FreeBritney movement.

A fan site began the #FreeBritney campaign in 2009 as a response to the conservatorship, Julia Jacobs reported for The New York Times. Even celebrities like Taryn Manning and Miley Cyrus have publicly expressed concern for Spears.

Sources close to Spears have insisted she hasn't been manipulated, saying fans don't grasp the mental-health and legal specifics behind the conservatorship.

Newberry said she found no "independent evidence" that the conservatorship was harming Spears. The singer's attorney Stanton Stein told Newberry that Spears was involved in all career and business decisions. Two anonymous sources also told Chloe Melas of CNN that Spears had more control over her life than it appears.

"The conservatorship is not a jail," Larry Rudolph, Spears' manager, told Emily Yahr of The Washington Post. "It helps Britney make business decisions and manage her life in ways she can't do on her own right now."

And Spears has remained incredibly active in her career since her conservatorship was implemented.

Until 2019, Spears dropped an album every two to three years. She also had a four-year Las Vegas residency; her final performance grossed $1.1 million, the highest ever reported for a single theater Las Vegas residency show, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That's not to mention her "Piece of Me Tour" in 2018 grossed an estimated $54.6 million, according to Touring Data.

During this time, Spears also launched clothing and perfume lines, landed a luxury fashion campaign, and served as a judge on "The X Factor."

But in the beginning of 2019, Spears took a step back from her career to check into a mental-health facility, which prompted the #FreeBritney supporters to express concern yet again.

Spears had put her new Las Vegas residency, "Domination," on hold to focus on her mental health.

In April, a fan podcast called "Britney's Gram" released a voicemail from an anonymous source who said he was a former paralegal involved with the conservatorship. He said Spears was forced to go to the mental-health facility. The podcast hosts told Yahr they verified the source's employment but didn't give specifics.

But a source close to Spears told Melas that she checked in to the mental-health facility voluntarily to deal with the serious health issues her father was facing and because her medication stopped working. And Newberry reported that three weeks after she checked in, Spears wrote on Instagram, "Don't believe everything you read and hear."

Around this time, Spears' lawyer resigned as co-conservator but didn't give a reason for his resignation. This left Jamie Spears as the sole conservator.

Wallet wrote in court filings the "conservatorship is engaged in numerous ongoing business activities requiring immediate attention" and that it was best he resign immediately, Newberry reported. Otherwise, Britney Spears would suffer "substantial detriment, irreparable harm, and immediate danger," he wrote.

Wallet has said he has prevented "the many hundreds" of people working with Spears from giving her drugs, saving her from a financial crisis. The resignation might be a sign that he disagreed with Spears' father on the conservatorship terms, a lawyer whom Spears once spoke with about contesting the conservatorship told Newberry.

During a status hearing in May 2019, Spears reportedly asked the judge to consider ending the conservatorship.

A source close to Spears told Melas this was nothing new: "Of course she wants it to end, because she's not of the right mental state to understand her issues."

A lawyer who said he represented Spears tried to end her conservatorship in 2009 but was denied by the judge, Yahr reported, adding that Spears' conservatorship terms wouldn't have allowed her to hire him.

After the May hearing, Rudolph, Spears' manager, said he wasn't "sure if or when she will ever want to work again."

In a second hearing in September 2019, Jamie Spears asked to be temporarily removed as a conservator. The role was temporarily appointed to Britney Spears' care manager.

TMZ reported that Jamie Spears filed paperwork to temporarily step down as conservator so he could focus on his health.

However, the move came after Jamie Spears was accused of having an altercation with Spears' son Sean, Kat Tenbarge reported for Insider. The singer's ex-husband and the father of her two children, Kevin Federline, filed a police report that led to a child-abuse investigation. Charges weren't filed, but the children were granted a restraining order against Jamie Spears, according to People.

The judge allowed Jamie Spears to step down from his conservator role over his daughter's personal life but not her financial life. Jodi Montgomery, Britney Spears' "care manager," was appointed as temporary conservator of Britney's personal life at Jamie's request, according to People.

Jamie Spears received another court win that year after suing the Absolute Britney blogger Anthony Elia, a source of the #FreeBritney movement, accusing him of spreading false and defamatory information.

Jamie Spears alleged that Elia falsely suggested that Jamie and his team were using social media to hurt his daughter's image and making it seem that Britney was unstable and needed a conservatorship, Cori Robinson reported for Above The Law. Jamie Spears said the suggestions sparked several death threats against those involved in the conservatorship, Above The Law reported.

In December, the court ordered Elia to stop the allegations against the conservatorship, particularly those suggesting the conservatorship is harming Britney Spears.

Spears' mother, Lynne Spears, made attempts in 2019 to get involved in the conservatorship. She's also reportedly engaged with the #FreeBritney movement.

Lynne Spears, who is divorced from Jamie, filed a legal motion in 2019 to be involved in the conservatorship process — she wanted to stay informed and have a say in her daughter's medical issues, Melas reported, citing court filings. She was present at Britney's court hearings that year, TMZ reported.

Lynne Spears was also spotted "liking" comments on Instagram about the #FreeBritney movement, Yahr wrote. And when fans noticed that positive comments were being deleted from Britney Spears' social-media accounts, Lynne responded to an Instagram post and said she also noticed the comments had disappeared, Guy reported.

Spears' conservatorship has already been extended twice in 2020.

In February, an LA county judge extended Spears' conservatorship until April 30. Montgomery will also remain temporary conservator until that date, the International Business Times' Sarah Guy reported.

According to The Blast, which obtained new legal documents, the judge extended the conservatorship while those involved "figure out what is best" for Spears.

They decided to extend the conservatorship again until at least August 22, Entertainment Tonight's Liz Calvario reported. According to court documents obtained by ET, a hearing on the matter never took place due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The news comes around the same time Spears posted a video to her Instagram revealing that she accidentally burned down her home gym after leaving candles lit.

And the #FreeBritney movement was in the limelight yet again in July. It prompted Spears' former photographer Andrew Gallery to read a letter on TikTok that he says Spears wrote about her conservatorship.

Gallery said Spears wrote the letter at the beginning of her conservatorship, according to US Weekly. Gallery claims Spears gave him the letter at the time, which was "destroyed" by her conservators, but that he made a copy of it.

Spears wrote the letter from a third-person point of view.

"As for Kevin saying Britney divorced him, she was forced to by her lawyers because she went to visit him in NY and he wouldn't see her and the children and her lawyers said if she doesn't divorce him he's going to do it himself," reads the singer's alleged letter, in part.

Referring to the 2008 incident that resulted in her hospitalization, she allegedly wrote, "No one knows the truth. Her behavior when her children got taken away b/c of her locking herself in the bathroom is understandable considering her friend at the door kept telling her the cops are leaving don't worry stay in the bathroom."

"She was lied to and set up," the letter reads. "Her children were taken away and she did spin out of control which any mother would in those circumstances."

The Daily Mail published images of the handwritten letter in 2019.

In August, Spears asked the courts for the removal of her father as sole conservator of her estate. Instead, the judge extended the conservatorship through February 1, 2021.

Spears wants Montgomery, the temporary conservator who took over in September 2019, to take over as conservator permanently, TMZ reported, citing court documents filed by Spears' attorney.

Her current attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, stated in the court filings that Spears wants a "qualified corporate fiduciary" managing the business affairs of her estate.

According to US Weekly, which reviewed the court filings, the pop star "is strongly opposed to having [Jamie] return as the conservator of her person" and "strongly prefers" that Montgomery "continue in that role as [she] has done for nearly a year."

But after a hearing on August 19, Judge Brenda Penny of the Los Angeles County Superior Court in California said she would extend the current version of the conservatorship, not granting any of the changes Spears' lawyer requested in the filings, through February 1, 2021.

The same month, court documents revealed that Spears' sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, was secretly named a trustee. She recently filed for more control over Spears' financial affairs.

Jamie Lynn was named a trustee on Spears' SJB Revocable Trust in 2018, court documents obtained by The Blast revealed. The trust was made for Spears' children. Jamie Lynn is also in charge of distributing these assets to Spears' children in the event of her death, the Los Angeles Times reported.

According to the LA Times, Jamie Lynn is requesting that the court move the assets into Fidelity Brokerage Services accounts with her as the custodian. A judge would need to approve moving them back out.

To end the conservatorship, Spears needs to prove she doesn't need it to get through life.

In the court documents filed in August 2020, Ingham broke down Spears' conservatorship into three phases, according to PEOPLE:

• Stage 1: A "triage" when "conservators rescued her from collapse, exploitation by predatory individuals and financial ruin"
• Stage 2: Spears' "performing years" as a "world class entertainer"
• Stage 3: Spears has no desire to currently perform. "We are now at a point where the conservatorship must be changed substantially in order to reflect the major changes in her current lifestyle and her stated wishes," the documents read.

While Spears is seeking changes to the structure of her conservatorship and who is overseeing her life and finances — not asking to dissolve it entirely — some aren't so sure she still needs it at all.

Rudolph, Spears' manager, previously said that Spears' father wanted her to be free of the conservatorship. "He doesn't want this to continue forever," he said. "It's his daughter. He wants to see her happy. A functional life without any intervention like this."