Britney Spears ‘knows she’s facing jail and fears going back under conservatorship’

Britney Spears is ‘terrified’ of the consequences she faces after being arrested under the suspicion of driving under the influence.

Earlier this month the Princess of Pop, 44, was pulled over by police in Los Angeles after ‘driving erratically at high speeds’ on a motorway.

After being stopped, she then ‘showed signs of impairment’ and submitted to a series of field sobriety tests before briefly being taken to jail.

Soon after a representative for the singer said what unfolded was a ‘completely inexcusable unfortunate incident’.

‘Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law and hopefully this can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life. Hopefully, she can get the help and support she needs during this difficult time,’ they said.

Referencing her sons and family, they added: ‘Her boys are going to be spending time with her. Her loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success for wellbeing.’

However, a few weeks on, a friend of Britney’s has given an update as to how she is feeling ahead of her scheduled court appearance on May 4.

‘She’s terrified. She knows there’s a potential for jail time, and that’s got her attention,’ they told The Daily Mail.

‘She’ll do anything to avoid that. But she’s scared that people will think she needs to go back under a conservatorship.

‘Other celebrities have DUIs and nobody suggests they should go into a conservatorship. She feels it’s very unfair. She values her freedom above anything.’

On the evening of March 4, Britney was arrested near her home in Thousand Oaks, just outside of Los Angeles after a police officer allegedly saw her swerving from lane to lane.

Although she wasn’t injured, police took her to hospital to take tests and determine her blood alcohol level and whether there were drugs in her system.

She was then booked into a cell where she was described as ‘emotional and crying’, before being released three hours later.

Police reportedly also found her in possession of the amphetamine Adderall. Although the drug is prescribed to treat ADHD, it is also being tested to see if it has been laced with illegal narcotics, as reported by the Daily Mail.

If convicted, Britney would be facing her first DUI offence and be banned from driving.

Although a friend told the Daily Mail Britney ‘was not a great driver’, having her licence ‘represents freedom’. ‘Yes, she could easily afford a chauffeur, but Britney doesn’t want to be driven. She wants to drive. It’s not about money, it’s about freedom,’ another friend said.

But if there are traces of illegal drugs found following the tests, the judge can impose a prison sentence.

TMZ has recently reported that Britney sacked her ‘sober coaches’ just a few weeks before her arrest, while police have also said to have been summoned to her home 14 times over the past two years. These are said to have been for both ‘welfare checks’ and reports of trespassers.

Following her public mental health struggles in 2008, Britney was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship, which was eventually terminated in 2021.

At the time her father Jamie controlled her estate – with her net worth estimated to sit around $60million (£45million). They are now estranged.

Although the current case will be Britney’s first time facing court, in 2007 she faced four misdemeanour charges after an alleged hit-and-run with a parked car in LA. However, these were dropped after she paid the owner for damages.

But this incident – in combination with other highly public moments that included shaving her head and hitting a car with an umbrella – contributed to the singer losing custody of her two sons.

She shares her children, Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19, with ex-husband Kevin Federline, who she was married to from 2004 to 2007.

Britney has previously shut down speculation she has an issue with alcohol and drugs, writing in her 2023 memoire The Woman in Me: ‘I never had a drinking problem. I liked to drink but it was never out of control.

‘Do you want to know my drug of choice? The only thing I really did except for drinking? Adderall.’ She said it was the only cure for her depression and insisted she never had any interest in harder drugs.’

However, in the book she revealed that in 2008 she became ‘hell on wheels’ after taking ‘a lot of Adderall’ and was once nearly close to driving off a cliff.

Earlier this week, a source told US Weekly that Britney’s family and team were ‘looking into treatment options for both addiction and mental health’ but shut down claims there had been discussions about reinstating her conservatorship.

Metro has contacted representatives for Britney Spears for comment.

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