Years after Britney Spears’s infamous 2007 public meltdown made headlines around the world, the pop star has finally settled a defamation lawsuit brought on by her ex-manager, Sam Lutfi, in 2009. Lutfi, who was Spears’s manager prior to her meltdown, sued her and her parents for reasons that included breach of contract stemming from an oral agreement with Spears, her mother’s alleged libel against him in the memoir Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World, and her father’s alleged assault. According to TMZ, a settlement was made last week when Spears paid Lutfi somewhere “in the low six figures,” but less than the estimated $500,000 in legal fees she would’ve faced if she defended the lawsuit in court. Spears’s father, who serves as her conservator, filed the notice that announced the settlement. The case was previously thrown out by a judge in 2012, though Lutfi successfully appealed the decision; Spears’s conservatorship kept her from testifying in the initial case when it went to the Court of Appeals in 2011, but the New York Times reported that Spears provided a deposition for the suit earlier this year without incident. The trial would’ve begun in Los Angeles next month. Don’t look back, Brit Brit. Only forward.
