Britney Spears‘ former lawyer Mathew Rosengart has spoken out for the first time since the pop star’s DUI arrest.
“It was my great honor to work with and protect Britney as her litigator, and I will always be proud of her and the work we did together, ranging from helping, at her request and direction, to restore her freedom, civil rights and civil liberties after a 13-year conservatorship that stripped her of those rights, to many other matters,” Rosengart said in a statement to Us Weekly on Friday, March 13.
“Britney is and always will be an icon,” he continued. “While I do not have the facts concerning March 4, with freedom comes responsibility, and I was pleased to see that Britney will take the right steps and comply with the law. I’ll always care greatly about her and help and support her in any way I can.”
Spears, 44, retained Rosengart to represent her in her conservatorship battle in 2021 after the resignation of her court-appointed attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III. The former federal prosecutor helped get the “Toxic” singer’s estranged father, Jamie Spears, suspended as her conservator two months later before a Los Angeles judge agreed to terminate the controversial guardianship altogether later that year.
During his time as Britney’s lawyer, Rosengart was also instrumental in securing several deals for his client, including her bestselling 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me. He stepped down in 2024 after Britney and Jamie, now 73, settled their court case.
Britney was arrested near her home in Ventura County, California, on March 4 on suspicion of driving under the influence of a combination of drugs and alcohol.
The incident remains under investigation as officials await the results of a blood test that the Grammy winner took while in police custody. She was released from jail the following morning and has a court appearance scheduled for May 4.
“This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable,” Britney’s rep said in a statement to Us on March 5. “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.”
Referencing the Crossroads star’s sons, Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19, the rep 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 well-being.”
Earlier this week, a source exclusively told Us that Britney’s family and team are “looking into treatment options for both addiction and mental health,” though multiple insiders denied speculation that there had been talks of reinstating her conservatorship.
Jamie placed Britney under a conservatorship in 2008 after she suffered a public breakdown during her divorce from her sons’ father, Kevin Federline. The arrangement gave the Spears patriarch control of his superstar daughter’s personal, financial and medical decisions. Britney repeatedly described the conservatorship as “abusive” before regaining her freedom.
“For over 13 years, nearly every aspect of Britney’s life was controlled, often with medical and legal systems used as tools of that control,” the founders of the Free Britney movement wrote on Instagram after the entertainer’s arrest. “It is understandable that someone who lived under that level of surveillance and coercion might carry deep distrust of those systems. It is also common for people who have experienced prolonged control and trauma to both need support and struggle to accept it. These realities can coexist without justifying a return to the very structures that harmed her. A DUI is not grounds for a conservatorship.”
