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Amanda Bynes Speaks Out After Filing to End Her Conservatorship: Thanks for the ‘Love and Support’

Amanda Bynes Thanks Her Fans After Filing to End Her Conservatorship
Amanda Bynes. Peter Kramer/AP/Shutterstock

Speaking out. Amanda Bynes thanked fans for their support after filing to end her conservatorship after nearly nine years.

Related: Stars Who’ve Battled Mental Health Issues

“What’s up Instagram, Amanda Bynes here,” the former Nickelodeon star, 35, says in a video posted to her new page on Tuesday, March 8. “My court date is coming up in two weeks. I want to thank you all so much for your love and support. Peace out.” Instead of a caption, Bynes tagged several news outlets in the video, including Us Weekly.

The Easy A actress requested to terminate the conservatorship of both her person and estate on February 23, along with a capacity declaration stating that she was mentally fit to look after herself. In court documents obtained by Us, Bynes’ psychiatrist noted that she has “no apparent impairment in alertness and attention, information and processing or ability to modulate mood and affect and suffers no thought disorders.” The petition also detailed her 2020 move to a structured facility for women, before transitioning to an “an independent living environment” where the comedian has consistently tested negative for “illicit substances in her system.”

In the filing, Bynes states that she “desires to live free of any constraint” in the future.

Related: ‘What I Like About You’ Cast: Where Are They Now?

The What I Like About You alum was first placed under a temporary conservatorship in August 2013 after a string of mental health and substance abuse issues. The decision came one month after Bynes was hospitalized and placed on a psychiatric hold for starting a fire in a stranger’s driveway. In August 2014, her mother, Lynn Bynes, was named the conservator of her health care and personal matters. Four years later, a judge ruled to extend the conservatorship until August 2020.

“My dearest fans, thank you for all the support throughout the year and every year. I know I’ve been so quiet lately, I just felt that I needed my personal space and that it’d be better for me, but it never was. Just know that you’re my happiness,” the All That alum wrote via Instagram in June 2018 while reflecting on her conservatorship.

Amanda also opened up about struggling with her mental health over the years, telling Paper Magazine in November 2018, “I just had no purpose in life. I’d been working my whole life and [now] I was doing nothing.”

She continued: “I had a lot of time on my hands, and I would ‘wake and bake’ and literally be stoned all day long. [I was] hanging out with a seedier crowd and I isolated a lot … I got really into my drug usage, and it became a really dark, sad world for me.”

More recently, Amanda has enrolled and graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and has frequently shared her desire to start a clothing line. In February 2020, the California native announced that she was engaged to Paul Michael after meeting at an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting. The pair appear to still be going strong, and Michael is featured in Amanda’s new Instagram profile picture.

Ahead of her recent filing, Us confirmed that Amanda was to remain under her conservatorship after a judge reviewed a status report on her mental health in September 2021. “She’s doing great,” Amanda’s attorney, David Esquibias, exclusively told Us at the time. “Everyone would love to see Amanda not under a conservatorship.”

Related: Amanda Bynes and Paul Michael's Relationship Timeline

He continued: “I think that is the goal between myself, her mother, her father, and her care providers. Amanda would love to be unconserved. She’s expressed it over and over. The timing is not right at the moment, so she’s working toward that direction. We all are working toward that direction, and one day we all hope to see it.”

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