Britney Spears was arrested for driving under the influence near her home in Ventura County, California, Us Weekly can confirm.
Spears, 44, was taken into police custody on Wednesday, March 4, at 9:28 p.m., according to Ventura County Sheriff’s Office records. Following a reported hospital visit to test her blood alcohol content, she was booked on Thursday, March 5, at 3:02 a.m. and released at 6:07 a.m.
It appears Spears’ Instagram account, which is generally pretty active, has been deactivated since her arrest. She is due in court on May 4, according to online records. TMZ was first to report the news.
“This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable,” Spears’ rep tells Us. “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. 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 well-being.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Ventura County police for further comment.
News of Spears’ DUI comes nearly five years after her conservatorship ended in November 2021.
All eyes have been on Spears since the singer rose to fame in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As her music career flourished, Spears made headlines for a series of personal struggles. Things came to a head following her 2007 divorce from Kevin Federline, with whom she shares sons Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden, 19. Spears was placed under a conservatorship at the time, surrendering her power to make legal, financial and business decisions. Those rights went to her father, Jamie Spears, along with a wider team of people.
Britney fought in court for years to be released from the conservatorship. After it was officially terminated, she spoke candidly about that time of her life in her bestselling 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me.
“I became a robot. But not just a robot — a sort of child-robot. I had been so infantilized that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself,” she wrote. “The conservatorship stripped me of my womanhood, made me into a child. I became more of an entity than a person onstage. I had always felt music in my bones and my blood; they stole that from me.”
In the wake of her conservatorship drama, Britney sold the rights to her entire music catalog — which includes nine albums, the last of which was released in 2016. Us confirmed last month that she reached an agreement with music publishing company Primary Wave for the sale, which was “close to $200 million,” according to a source.
“The deal was in the works for a while now and was a decision made solely by Britney,” the same insider shared. “She felt now was the right time for her and feels like she closed that chapter of her life.”
The source noted that Britney “has no plans to put out new music publicly” anytime soon. “She really is done with the music industry,” they added.
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