Britney Spears has objected to paying her mother Lynne’s enormous legal fees.
Lynne Spears accumulated £460,000 in lawyer’s fees during the “Gimme More” singer’s legal battle to end her conservatorship, which was overseen by her father.
According to documents seen by PA, Spears has formally opposed her mother’s petition for the money. The documents say: “Lynne Spears and her counsel seek payment of legal fees and costs – from Britney Spears – of more than $660,000 (£460,00). Britney Spears opposes the Petition in its entirety.”
The musician’s filing also said: “Britney Spears has for decades been her family’s sole breadwinner, supporting her entire family.”
It also detailed how Spears’s mother was living in a house owned and paid for by the pop star: “It warrants noting that Lynne Spears has for at least a decade resided in a large, expensive house owned by Britney Spears in Kentwood, Louisiana, for which her daughter has also continuously – and generously – paid Lynne Spears’s utilities, telephone services, insurance, property taxes, landscaping, pool work, pest control, repairs, and maintenance, totalling approximately $1.7m (£1.3m).”
Shortly before Spears’s conservatorship was terminated last November, her mother applied to have her daughter’s estate pay her costs that were incurred during the legal battle.
Lynne insists that she requested the money to help Britney “achieve independence from her conservator father James Spears”.
Her father – through his lawyers – has also called on Britney to pay his legal fees.
Further hearings for the case are scheduled for July.
Spears’s conservatorship – overseen by her father – controlled much of the pop star’s life and finances for over 13 years before it was ended by a judge late last year.
Spears has accused her father of abuse in his role of conservator and it has also been alleged that he was illegally spying on her. Her father has continually denied any wrongdoing.