Wedding planning, driving and potentially more music: What's next for Britney Spears post-conservatorship
Britney Spears has spent the last three days blissfully happy following the termination of her 13-year legal conservatorship.
"What an amazing weekend … I felt like I was on cloud 9 the whole time !!!" Spears wrote Monday on Instagram. "I actually got my first glass of champagne at the most beautiful restaurant I've ever seen last night !!!! I'm celebrating my freedom and my B day for the next two months !!!!!!!!!!! I mean after 13 years … I think I've waited long ENOUGH !!!! I'm so happy my lawyer Mathew Rosengart came into my life when he did … he has truly turned my life around … I'm forever thankful for that !!!! What a sight seeing so many people celebrating my victory …. I love my fans so much … so thank you !!!!?"
Spears has a lot of famous fans cheering her on, too, including Lady Gaga, Dionne Warwick, Jameela Jamil and Andy Cohen.
So what's next for the superstar now that she's free? As her lawyer said immediately after Judge Brenda Penny made her ruling in a Los Angeles courthouse, "What's next for Britney, and this is the first time this could be said for about a decade, is up to one person: Britney."
Here are a few things we know are on the horizon:
Planning her wedding
When Spears gave a shocking testimony in court in June, she flat-out said that she would like to "get married and have a baby." And she's moving ahead on that front.
She and Sam Asghari, the personal trainer and actor she has dated for four years, announced their engagement in September, less than a week after her father, Jamie Spears, filed a petition to end her conservatorship. "She would love a beach ceremony at a tropical destination," a source told People at the time. "It will be a small wedding."
Then, just last week, Spears said that designer Donatella Versace — a longtime friend — is already making the bridal dress.
On the family front, Spears had said in court that she had been forced to use birth control, but that obviously won't be the case any longer.
Making her own medical decisions
Speaking of, Spears will also no longer have to take anything she doesn't want to take, and that includes the antidepressant lithium. The singer said in a June hearing that it made her feel "drunk" and unable to have a conversation. But no more.
Harry Nelson, the founder and managing partner of Los Angeles-based law firm Nelson Hardiman, tells Yahoo Entertainment that, without a conservatorship over her person, Spears is free to make all her own health choices.
Driving whenever and wherever she wants
Spears was reportedly thrilled to be driving again, once her conservatorship allowed her to do so, over the summer, for the first time in years. (MTV's 2008 For the Record documentary on Spears, filmed at the start of the conservatorship, contained a scene that showed her explaining that the last time she had felt free was when she had gotten to drive her car a lot.) So, of course, she spent her first free weekend cruising around by herself, too. According to TMZ, at one point, Spears drove her Mercedes to Catch restaurant in West Hollywood, where she had a date with Asghari.
That goes for shopping, too
Remember in July when Spears wrote about having splurged for new sneakers? Spears controls her own finances now, so she can look forward to as many new kicks as she'd like. Spears's considerable assets are now being transferred from the conservatorship into a trust that she controls.
Nelson explains: "A trust is a highly flexible legal structure set up by a person to protect property assets. In setting up a trust, Britney can decide who the trustees of the trust, who will manage the trust, are, and who the beneficiaries will be. She can name herself as a trustee and a beneficiary, designate other trustees or beneficiaries, and change trustees and beneficiaries over time. She can set up the rules by which the trust is managed. Absent some dispute between trustees or beneficiaries, the trust is easy to manage. This is in sharp contrast to conservatorship, which is governed by the court and cannot be set up, amended, or removed without court approval. Conservatorships are only necessary when the person who is the subject won't cooperate and is putting themselves at risk. The trust structure will allow Britney to protect herself, her children, and other loved ones, with the flexibility to make the structure work for her needs."
Recording and performing — if and when she feels like it
While the "Stronger" singer's longtime manager, Larry Rudolph, quit in July, citing his client's plan to retire, the truth isn't so simple. A source told Page Six that it had "never been her intention to step away from her career altogether." Adding that people around her were "putting words in her mouth."
The source added, "The only thing she's said is that she would not work again under her father's control, but now that he's out as her conservator, she's willing and even excited to get back to it one day."
However, the music is "not her top priority."
— Taryn Ryder and Suzy Byrne contributed to this story.