Britney Spears arrested for drunk driving in California

Life is getting complicated for Britney Spears. The 44-year-old singer was arrested Wednesday night in Ventura County (northwest of Los Angeles) for driving under the influence of alcohol.

According to police reports, the Toxic and Womanizer singer was driving in the area — where she also lives — when officers stopped, detained, and handcuffed her. The California Highway Patrol pulled her over at around 9:30 p.m., and she was taken into the sheriff’s custody at about 3 a.m. on Thursday. She was released around 6 a.m., according to TMZ, which broke the story, and which was shortly afterward also confirmed by People magazine.

Additionally, TMZ reported that, according to multiple sources close to the singer, she was taken to a hospital by police immediately after being arrested. She was not injured; rather, they wanted to conduct a blood test to determine her blood alcohol level. In California, the maximum blood alcohol level for those over 21 is 0.08%; however, if police observe suspicious behavior at a lower blood alcohol level, they can also stop the driver. At this time, Spears’ test results have not been made public.

The singer will have to appear in court to testify about the incident in two months, on May 4. For now, Ventura County authorities have not commented on the charges she may face or on how the incident unfolded.

The singer’s agent, Cade Hudson, has issued a statement to the U.S. press. “This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable,” he said. “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.” He also stated that her two children “are going to be spending time with her” throughout her recovery and that her “loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success.”

Spears has been going through a difficult period. In 2021, after spending 13 years under the personal, professional, and financial control of her father, Jamie Spears, she was finally freed from that legal conservatorship, thanks in part to a strong public movement led by the Free Britney fan base.

In the years since regaining her freedom, the artist has appeared in public only occasionally. During this time, she wrote a memoir recounting the beginnings of her career, her relationship with her parents and her sister — actress Jamie Lynn Spears — and her romances with artists such as Justin Timberlake. She revealed that he pressured her into having an abortion.

Additionally, in her highly anticipated memoir, published in October 2023, Spears explained that public pressure forced her to start taking antidepressants. She also recounted how her father’s conservatorship began. “I know I had been acting wild, but there was nothing I’d done that justified their treating me like I was a bank robber,” she wrote in the book, titled The Woman in Me. “Too sick to choose my own boyfriend and yet somehow healthy enough to appear on sitcoms and morning shows, and to perform for thousands of people in a different part of the world every week,” she added.

According to her account, her father placed her in a luxury facility in Beverly Hills that cost $60,000 per month: “They kept me locked up against my will for months,” she says in the book. “I couldn’t go outside. I couldn’t drive a car. I had to give blood weekly. I couldn’t take a bath in private. I couldn’t shut the door to my room.”

During that period, Spears divorced her second husband and father of her two children, dancer Kevin Federline. In his own memoir, published in October last year (You Thought You Knew), Federline claimed that Spears’ “erratic behavior” was “racing toward something irreversible.” “It’s become impossible to pretend everything’s OK,” wrote the father of Sean Preston, now 20, and Jayden James, 19.

Spears responded by accusing him of being manipulative: “The constant gaslighting by my ex-husband is extremely hurtful and exhausting.”

One of the latest pieces of news about Spears emerged just a few days ago, when it became known that she had decided to sell her entire music catalog. The deal reportedly earned her around $200 million. Her legal battle against her father to secure her freedom had cost her a significant portion of her finances, so this operation would help her recover some of that capital.

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