Pop star Britney Spears was arrested in Southern California late Wednesday on an alleged driving under the influence charge, according to jail records.
The 44-year-old was taken into custody by the California Highway Patrol in Ventura County before being released shortly after 6 a.m. Thursday, per inmate records. Representatives for Ms. Spears did not immediately return requests for comment.
The arrest comes during a turbulent stretch for the Grammy-winning pop star. Ms. Spears’ Instagram account, which she had used in recent years to post videos of herself dancing alone at her Thousand Oaks, California home, appeared to be taken down as of Thursday morning. Variety Those posts had drawn both mockery and concern online about her well-being.
Just weeks before the arrest, Ms. Spears made a major financial move when she sold her music catalog to music publisher Primary Wave in a deal sources described to multiple outlets as worth roughly $200 million. The deal included her ownership share of iconic hits such as “…Baby One More Time,” “Oops! …I Did It Again,” and “Lucky,” among many others. Rolling Stone According to legal documents obtained by TMZ, Ms. Spears signed the deal on December 30, with sources saying she was happy with the sale and celebrated by spending time with her children. TMZ
The sale followed a January social media post in which Ms. Spears declared she would never perform in the U.S. again for what she called “extremely sensitive reasons.” Ms. Spears last performed live in the United States in October 2018, closing out her “Piece of Me” tour at the Formula One Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. Variety
The arrest also comes roughly five years after a Los Angeles judge terminated the controversial conservatorship that had governed nearly every aspect of Ms. Spears’ life. The legal arrangement, overseen by her father Jamie Spears, was put in place in 2008 after she suffered a public breakdown the prior year. Ms. Spears detailed the experience in her best-selling 2023 memoir, “The Woman In Me.”
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