Following in the footsteps of Britney Spears, Amanda Bynes has officially been freed from her conservatorship after nine years of her mother having control of her estate and personal affairs.
At 35 years old, Amanda petitioned last month, with the support of her mum and psychiatrist, to end the arrangement she was placed under in 2013 after she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for starting a small fire on a driveway.
‘Following today’s decision by the judge to terminate my conservatorship, I would like to thank my fans for their love and well wishes during this time,’ Bynes told People. ‘I would also like to thank my lawyer and my parents for their support over the last nine years.’
When under consideration for the conservatorship, her parents told the court they were seriously concerned that their daughter could hurt herself or others unless they were allowed to control her medical care and finances.
Bynes was allegedly convinced she was being watched through the dashboard of her car and the smoke detectors in their house and was planning what her parents considered ‘dangerous’ and ‘unnecessary’ cosmetic surgery.
‘I’m excited for her. She is excited,’ Bynes' attorney David A Esquibias told Variety of her newfound freedom. ‘We’re all excited and we’re all anxiously looking forward to Amanda living a life as a private and normal citizen.’
In the years leading up to the conservatorship, Bynes' legal records were controversially made public by numerous tabloids, which included accounts of a hit-and-run, throwing a bong out of a high-rise apartment in Manhattan, and driving under the influence charges.
Bynes also told numerous publications at the time that she’d been diagnosed with bipolar, manic-depressive disorder, detailed intense body image insecurities and drug abuse that had changed her behaviour and ‘ruined her life’.
In the near-decade that Bynes has been under the conservatorship, she’s evolved in numerous ways. She’s now sober, has earned an associate degree from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree and is engaged to her boyfriend Paul Michael - whom she met in rehab.
‘In the last several years, I have been working hard to improve my health so that I can live and work independently,’ Bynes told People. ‘I will continue to prioritise my wellbeing in this next chapter.’
Yet, the world has other plans. Much like when Spears was freed last year, every publication under the sun has been vying for that all-important exclusive interview. CBS’s Gayle King, YouTuber Paul Logan, the New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Elle and Vanity Fair have all thrown their title into the mix to secure the tell-all moment.
Elsewhere, TV networks have approached her team to make documentaries and reality shows about her journey back to stability — all this, and she has been officially free for exactly one day.
When Bynes was placed under her conservatorship, she was 27. Now, she’s approaching her 36th birthday. If reports of her net worth are accurate, she’s now in charge of finances worth $3million. It will take mental peace and an absence of recklessness to get accustomed to the responsibility of that kind of fortune.
It’s palpable how hard Bynes has worked over the last nine years to achieve stability and her lawyer has maintained she’s simply not ready to engage with the media circus brewing around her. Evidently, she’s protecting the mental strength she built in rehab, which is her prerogative. Her life isn’t content for public consumption.
Post-conservatorship, Spears expressed fear over media interviews. ‘I wish I would be able to do what you’re doing and do interviews!!! I’m scared of all of it…’ she told her sister via Twitter. And why wouldn’t she be scared?
From up-skirting, legal records being exposed and their childhoods evaporated, it seems nearly impossible for Spears, and Bynes like her, to trust a media that has betrayed them throughout much of their careers.
Nobody is obliged to jeopardise their wellbeing just to satisfy the curiosity of strangers. After battling addiction, depression, repairing her relationship with her family and finally, feeling confident enough to regain control of her own life, Bynes should be granted the time and space to enjoy and adjust to her freedom.
‘Words can’t describe how I feel,’ she told E!, adding to fans on Instagram: ‘I’m a bird that can finally fly.'
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