Britney Spears Might Never Perform Again, According To New Court Docs

It looks like the Princess of Pop has hung up her microphone — for good. Britney Spears doesn't want to perform anymore, the singer's lawyer revealed as part of a motion to prevent Andrew Wallet from becoming a co-conservator, according to new court documents obtained by Entertainment Tonight. In mid-August, the singer's father, Jamie Spears, requested that Wallet — a controversial figure who served as co-conservator for almost a decade alongside Jamie — be appointed to the role once more, a move which Spears and her lawyers have since attempted to block.

According to legal documents, one of the reasons that Spears doesn't want Wallet to be a co-conservator is because she doesn't think she would be able to afford his services, especially since she doesn't want to return to the stage any time soon. "To this date, Britney has not resumed performing and has stated that she does not desire to do so at this time," read the documents. Her lawyers also alleged that Wallet is "uniquely unsuitable" for the role of co-conservator.

The singer's legal team further claimed that Jamie has only requested that Wallet be reappointed to the role because he was worried that "Britney’s decision not to perform will require him to undertake drastic changes to her budget." Instead, the documents continue, as Spears "continues to move in the direction of greater autonomy," she would prefer "to work with a corporate fiduciary who can offer both a physical office and a team of independent financial professionals rather than a single individual, hand-picked by her father, who is a complete stranger to her," like Wallet. (According to TMZ, Jamie claims that Spears' objections to Wallet's potential appointment are "full of factual misstatements.")

The revelation that Spears doesn't want to perform again anytime soon is particularly interesting because it was the cancellation of her planned second Las Vegas residency, Britney Spears: Domination, in January 2019 that inspired renewed support for the ongoing #FreeBritney movement. At the time, Spears stated on Instagram that she decided to cancel the residency due to concerns over her father's health, but TMZ reported in April of that year that the singer had actually checked into a mental health facility for 30 days. Neither Spears nor her family ever commented on those reports — Bustle reached out for comment but did not receive a response — but her manager, Larry Rudolph, confirmed them in May 2019, when he also revealed that she was not in a place to resume performing.

"As the person who guides her career — based on the information I and all of the professionals who work with her are being told on a need-to-know basis — from what I have gathered it's clear to me she should not be going back to do this Vegas residency, not in the near future and possibly never again," Rudolph told TMZ at the time. He also revealed that Spears, and not her father, is the one who decides whether or not she performs: "Last summer, when she wanted to tour, she called me every day. She was excited. ... She clearly doesn't want to perform now."

While Spears has not publicly commented on her desire (or lack thereof) to perform, or the status of her conservatorship, the singer has dropped hints supporting the #FreeBritney movement on social media. "I want to thank all my dear ... sweet ... real fans for being so damn wonderful !!!" Spears wrote on Instagram in late August, after the conservatorship was extended to 2021. "I can feel your hearts and I know you can feel mine ... thank you for your support."

Around the same time, her lawyers acknowledged the movement in legal documents requesting that Spears' conservatorship case be made public, despite her father's wishes. "Britney herself is vehemently opposed to this effort by her father to keep her legal struggle hidden away in the closet as a family secret," her lawyer said, per TMZ, before indirectly referencing #FreeBritney. "Far from being a conspiracy theory or a 'joke' as [Jamie] reportedly told the media, in large part this scrutiny is a reasonable and even predictable result of James' aggressive use of the sealing procedure over the years to minimize the amount of meaningful information made available to the public."