Britney Spears to appear in court after suspected drink-driving arrest

Pop singer Britney Spears is due to appear in court after being arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated near Los Angeles. According to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, Spears was taken into custody on Wednesday evening and released the following morning. Court records show she is scheduled to appear before a judge on 4 May.

In a statement provided to the entertainment outlet Deadline, a representative for the singer said Spears acknowledged the seriousness of the incident.

“This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable,” the statement said. “Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law.”

Spears rose to global fame as a teenager in the late 1990s after appearing on The Mickey Mouse Club. She later became one of the defining pop stars of the era with hit songs including ...Baby One More Time, Oops!... I Did It Again and Toxic. Her debut albums ...Baby One More Time (1999) and Oops!... I Did It Again (2000) were both certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America, marking them among the best-selling records in US history.

Spears’ career has also been shaped by intense media scrutiny. In 2008, she was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship that gave control of many personal and financial decisions to her father and legal team.

The arrangement became the focus of the global #FreeBritney campaign and was ultimately terminated in 2021 after a lengthy legal battle.

Two years later, Spears released her memoir The Woman in Me, which became a bestseller. Although she has not released a full studio album since Glory in 2016, Spears returned to the charts in 2022 with the single Hold Me Closer, recorded with Elton John. It remains unclear whether the singer plans to resume touring or recording in the near future as she continues to rebuild her career after the conservatorship.