Since being freed from her conservatorship on November 12, 2021, Britney Spears has made one thing clear: She’s human. “I’m extremely weak but through weakness they say you will find the most strength,” she wrote on Instagram in August.
The past five years haven’t been simple for the Princess of Pop, 44. She’s gotten married and divorced and suffered a miscarriage, but she’s also found her voice with a bestselling memoir and two standalone singles. After selling her music catalog, she faced a difficult stretch this year, with a DUI arrest followed by a stay in rehab. Through it all, she’s been rebuilding her relationship with her sons.
Away from the headlines, a source exclusively tells Us Spears actually “lives a much quieter” life: “Her main creative outlets are dance and Instagram. She wakes up, sets up her tripod and starts recording videos of herself to post. It’s like therapy for her.”
A New Age
Social media has become Spears’ go-to channel for communicating with her millions of fans. Gone are the days of sharing her story through music and tell-all interviews; now, she turns to the internet to express herself through self-taped clips in the living room of her home in Thousand Oaks, California, and to vent about the 13 years that her estranged father, Jamie Spears, controlled her personal and financial affairs. The “Toxic” singer also gives her followers rare glimpses of her life as a mom to Sean Preston, 21, and Jayden James, 20, with whom she now spends most of her time after a period of distance. “Their relationship is in the best place it’s been in years,” the source shares. “Britney feels like she’s making up for lost time with Preston and Jayden, and she’s grateful for that opportunity.”
Back when they weren’t on speaking terms with their mother, Preston and Jayden moved to Hawaii with their dad, Kevin Federline, in 2023. They’ve since returned home to Los Angeles, where they often hang out at Britney’s 13,000-square-foot estate while pursuing careers of their own. (An insider previously told Us that the Federline boys plan to use their mom’s famous last name professionally.) The brothers made their runway debuts in Swiss brand Vetements’ spring 2027 menswear show during Paris Fashion Week in June, and Jayden — who’s also an aspiring musician and producer — has since been featured in several magazines. “It feels like I always have something to prove, even though I don’t need to prove anything,” he told Interview in September. As they make names for themselves, the source says, “Britney loves seeing Preston and Jayden happy and thriving. In a way, she is living vicariously through them as they build their own careers.”
Protecting Her Legacy
Since the termination of her conservatorship, Britney has repeatedly stated that she’s retired from the industry that made her a household name at just 16. (“I’ve worked my whole life,” she told the judge presiding over her court case in June 2021 as she pleaded for a “break,” claiming her dad had “threatened” to “punish” her whenever she pushed back on his demands.) With no new music on the horizon, the source says the Grammy winner’s team is “currently focused on celebrating her legacy.” They released 25th-anniversary editions of her classic albums Oops!…I Did It Again and Britney featuring rare bonus tracks and remixes, and are “already brainstorming ideas for In the Zone,” which will reach the same milestone in 2028. Primary Wave’s estimated $200 million acquisition of Britney’s catalog last December has also allowed the publishing company to promote and market her work; Blackout‘s lead single, “Gimme More,” served as the soundtrack for a recent McDonald’s Canada ad, and a fan-beloved deep cut from the same album, “Get Naked (I Got a Plan),” went viral after it played during the 2026 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in October.
Though Britney vowed on Instagram in January to “never perform in the U.S. again,” many of her supporters have yearned for a comeback on her own terms — and they aren’t the only ones. “Britney’s team is still holding out hope that she’ll get the itch to make music and perform again someday, but it seems less and less likely,” the source acknowledges. “She does, however, still sing off the cuff around the house, in the car and with Jayden when he plays piano. It’s just naturally in her.”
Bouncing Back
Preston and Jayden have been Britney’s safety net during a difficult year. After she was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol near her home in March, the music icon’s rep told Us her sons were “going to be spending time with her” as her team came up with “an overdue, needed plan to set her up for success.” She soon started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings before checking herself into a luxurious treatment facility thousands of miles away in a quaint Maine town in April; an insider said at the time that the decision came after both Preston and Jayden sat down with their mom and “expressed concern about her recent behavior and urged her to seek professional help.”
After returning to the West Coast weeks later, Britney reached a deal with prosecutors. She pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of reckless driving in May and was sentenced to 12 months of probation. She was also ordered to see a psychologist once a week and a psychiatrist twice a month. “Through her plea today, Britney has accepted responsibility for her conduct,” the Crossroads star’s lawyer, Michael Goldstein, told Us at the time. “She has taken significant steps to implement positive change, which is clearly reflected in the Ventura County District Attorney’s decision to reduce the charge in this case and dismiss the DUI. Britney appreciates this discretion and is also grateful for the outpouring of support she has received.”
Family Feud
While Britney has gotten close to Preston and Jayden again, other familial relationships remain fractured. “She still doesn’t speak to her father, though she is aware of his health struggles,” the source shares. (Jamie, 74, had his right leg amputated in late 2023 after a knee replacement led to a serious bacterial infection.) “Britney will never forgive him. There’s a lot of resentment there that she can’t move past.”
Britney continues to regularly call out her family for their involvement in the conservatorship that dictated her every move for over a decade. She wrote in her 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me, that she believes they “know deep down that it was a very, very wrong thing” for Jamie to name himself her legal guardian in 2008 while she was going through a public breakdown. “From all those years making myself do what I was told and being treated in a certain way, I’ve come to see what kind of people I want to be around and what kind of people I don’t,” she added.
Britney’s once-solid bond with her mother, Lynne Spears, also ebbs and flows. “Britney talks to and occasionally sees her mom, but there are lingering trust issues,” the source says. “It’s a work in progress between the two of them.” (In a 2021 Instagram post, Britney blamed Lynne for giving Jamie “the idea” of a conservatorship, writing that her dad was “not smart enough” to think of it on his own. Lynne, 71, became an “interested party” in the case in 2019 but never had a formal role.) The Spears matriarch rarely comments on the status of her relationship with her superstar daughter these days, though she briefly referenced their family’s highly publicized “ups and downs” as she relaunched her Instagram in July.
Britney’s sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, has been a target of her online rants too. As recently as November 1, the pop star accused the Zoey 101 alum, 35, of “never” letting her hold her niece Ivey, 8, when she visited their home state of Louisiana. In the same post, she blasted Federline, 48, over their past custody issues. “They made me feel like a slave and have all their secret things they did behind my back and all I ever did was work for my dad,” she fumed before declaring that she would go “find a new family” elsewhere. The source says Britney’s communication with Jamie Lynn — who once insisted she has “only ever loved and supported” her big sister — is “limited” nowadays: “When they do talk, it’s usually just over text.” (Britney also has an older brother, Bryan Spears, whom the source notes she “trusts and hangs out with the most” in L.A.)
Finding Love Again
Britney keeps her inner circle small, with a few close friends, including Paris Hilton and manager Cade Hudson. Dating hasn’t been a priority as she continues building a life by her own rules.
The chart-topping entertainer tied the knot with her longtime partner, Sam Asghari, in June 2022 after testifying that her dad had forbidden her from remarrying under his watch. The model and actor, 32, filed for divorce only 14 months later. Asghari told Us in March that he was still “rooting” for his ex-wife, saying on the heels of her DUI that she was “one of the strongest women I’ve known in my life, and I’m always going to have a sensitive side of me for her because I’ve known her for seven years.”
Shortly after her separation from Asghari, Britney embarked on a turbulent romance with her former housekeeper Paul Richard Soliz, whose extensive criminal record rang alarm bells for her team. The couple infamously got into a massive fight while staying at the famed Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood in May 2024, but they continued to see each other on and off until she dumped him for good early last year.
Since then, Britney “hasn’t dated anyone” else, according to the source. “She’s open to finding a partner, but she doesn’t feel she needs one, as much as she loves being in love and would like to have a baby girl.” After all, as the source notes, “Rebuilding her relationship with her sons has really been her only priority as of late.”
Us has reached out to reps for Britney for comment.
