FILE - Britney Spears and Sam Asghari appear at the Los Angeles premiere of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" on July 22, 2019. Asghari has filed for divorce from Spears, a person familiar with the filing said late Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. The person, who is close to Asghari but not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed the filing happened Wednesday, hours after several outlets including TMZ and People magazine reported the couple had separated. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Britney Spears ‘ husband Sam Asghari has filed for divorce from the superstar 14 months after a they were married, a person familiar with the filing said late Wednesday.
The person, who is close to Asghari but not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed the filing happened Wednesday, hours after several outlets including TMZ and People magazine reported the couple had separated.
An email sent to a Spears representative was not immediately returned. Court records in Los Angeles and Ventura counties did not show where the case had been filed.
Spears married Asghari at her home in Thousand Oaks, California, on June 9, 2022 in front of guests including Selena Gomez, Drew Barrymore, Paris Hilton and Madonna, in a wedding seen as a milestone in her newly reclaimed life after the dissolution just six months earlier of the court conservatorship that controlled her life for more than 13 years.
The pop superstar met and began dating Asghari, a model and actor, when he appeared in her video for the song “Slumber Party” in 2016.
She cited her desire to marry Asghari as among the reasons she wanted an end to the constraining conservatorship, which she said was preventing it. The two announced their engagement in September of 2021 as it became clear she would be freed from the conservatorship – which was ended that November.
Spears said she and Asghari lost a baby early in her pregnancy in May 2022, about a month before they married.
Reports of the couple’s struggles had increased in recent months.
Their marriage is the first for the 29-year-old Asghari and the third for the 41-year-old singer. She was married for less than three days in 2004 to childhood friend Jason Alexander, who attempted to crash her wedding to Asghari and was later convicted of misdemeanor trespassing and battery.
In 2004, she wed dancer Kevin Federline. Their three-year marriage would come at a time of intense media scrutiny and increasing mental health struggles for Spears. Federline is the father of her two teenage sons, and has custody of the boys.
She would be placed in the conservatorship run by her father in 2008. She did well under the arrangement at first, continuing to release records, make videos, and perform live, including a major concert residency in Las Vegas. But as she appeared less in public, fans began to demand that the court #FreeBritney, in what would eventually become a major movement.
Since the conservatorship ended, Spears has put out music, including a collaboration with Elton John in 2022, but has not performed live in years, nor announced plans to do so.
Her memoir, “The Woman in Me,” is scheduled to be released in October.
