Lets recap: after winning the world over as the princess of pop for almost a decade, fans watched in horror as Spears was placed under a conservatorship in 2008 following her tragic public breakdown the year before. And despite recovering, getting her life back on track and getting back to work, she’s remained under strict control for all these years, so access to her has been tough. It was like we could all see her, but nobody could reach her. (Pretty deep stuff.)

But things got downright weird on January 4, 2019, when she unexpectedly announced an “indefinite work hiatus” and the cancellation of her planned Las Vegas residency. Something in Camp Britney was off.

The official line was that she was taking time off to be with her father James, who was managing her conservatorship and relevant affairs, and was recovering from a near-fatal colon rupture. Understandable, but she entered a psychiatric facility that same month. A source came forward claiming that Spears was being held and medicated against her will, and that’s when all hell broke loose, and the #FreeBritney movement began.

The ongoing drama and legal fees haven’t been kind to Brit’s bank account either, with her 2021 net worth clocking in at a mere estimated US$60 million. A drop in the ocean of all the money she’s made over the years.

According to court documents at the time, Spears’ personal lawyer, Samuel D. Ingham III, blamed her professional hiatus on her father, stating in the hearing: “My client has informed me that she is afraid of her father. She will not perform as long as her father is in charge of her career.”

Since then, fans have watched in anticipation, waiting and fighting for what they believe is justice. And after what has seemed like two years of bad news, confusion and frustration, there finally seems to be progress. Here are the latest developments of our beloved pop queen’s fight for freedom.

The court date

After years of silence, Spears will finally address the Los Angeles court dealing with her ongoing conservatorship in June, a judge agreed this week.

Since the conservatorship kicked in, in 2008, Spears has rarely taken part in hearings. But in an unexpected turn of events, she asked to speak to the court directly, but her lawyer did not say exactly why.

“My client has requested a hearing at which she can address the court directly,” Ingham told the court on Tuesday, April 27. “My client has asked that it be done on an expedited basis.”

And now we wait. The judge has set June 23 for the hearing when Spears will finally speak to the court. We’re taking a day off work to handle the emotional aftermath.

Her Instagram revelation

The Bermuda Triangle, the pyramids of Egypt and Britney’s Instagram account – three of the biggest unsolved mysteries in the world. But we were thrown a little nugget of insight and acknowledgement recently when Brit finally offered a moment of clarity in one of her IG videos.

There has been plenty of speculation around Spears’ social media accounts and who runs them, considering the amount of strange posts and potential hidden messages. And while the #FreeBritney movement grew and the release of The New York Times’ documentary Framing Britney Spears garnered world attention, Spears has largely remained mum on her internal affairs. Instead, her social media timelines are littered with clues about a mystery “project red”, memes, quotes and plenty of dancing-in-her-hallway videos.

So when she finally addressed the ongoing concern for her well-being in a recent video, we sat up and took notice.

It might have seemed like a brief “I’m good, how are you?” canned response in regular circumstances, but as the video racked up millions of views, it was a rare glimmer of hope: she’s really OK! Of course, there is still plenty happening behind the scenes, but for Spears to finally tell the world she is happy and doing well, well, is a big deal.

She’s going out again, like a “regular” person

Let’s be honest, nothing has been “normal” for anyone during the pandemic. But even more than a year before coronavirus caused havoc, it felt like Spears vanished out of the public eye. One moment she was in Vegas announcing a new residency, then days later it was cancelled and she was in a psychiatric facility. So when the pandemic rocked the world, we didn’t see much of her either (besides those IG pics and vids, of course).

So we did a double scroll and deep dive when Spears’ boyfriend Sam Asghari posted photos of them at friends’ wedding last weekend. Asghari was best man, and much to everyone’s surprise, his much-talked-about girlfriend attended as his plus one. Not only did she look like a million bucks (trademark choker included), she looked genuinely happy and danced the night away, as Instagram videos showed. A quarantine dream come true!

Don’t look back, Britney

The conservatorship has kept a lot of people away from Spears over the years, but we’re pretty sure the top name on the list is controversial figure Sam Lutfi, who was largely blamed for playing a role in her infamous crisis back in the day.

Lutfi popped out of nowhere in 2007 and started calling himself Spears’ manager and friend, even moving in with her, and things quickly turned sour. But that’s not where the danger ends. In 2014, he was linked to actress Amanda Bynes’ infamous breakdown and subsequent psychiatric hold, and in 2019 Courtney Love took a restraining order against him, accusing him of verbal harassment, as well as threats. Pattern, anyone?

So it’s no surprise, especially following all the latest developments, that Lutfi is apparently trying to claw his way back in. This week he posted on Twitter: “Note to all parents: if you truly love your children do not bring them to Hollywood unless you’re an extraordinarily well rounded family with the resources and support needed to protect and provide that child emotionally physically financially – 99 per cent [of] the time this isn’t the case.”

Lutfi didn’t mention her by name, perhaps because a judge granted Spears’ team a temporary restraining order against him in 2019, ordering him to stay at least 200 yards away from her and to not make “disparaging public statements” about her, her family, her conservator or her current manager.

Lutfi’s recent tweets ended with: “I’m with her, I’ve always been … The bird will fly again.”

Yes, we certainly hope she will fly again, but solo.

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