Britney Spears was arrested for a DUI on Wednesday night in Ventura County, Calif., Variety has confirmed.
The singer was handcuffed by the California Highway Patrol around 9:30 p.m. and booked early Thursday morning around 3 a.m. According to an arrest record, she has since been released and is scheduled to appear in court on May 4.
“This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable. Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law and hopefully this can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life,” a representative for Spears said in a statement. “Hopefully, she can get the help and support she needs during this difficult time.”
The statement continued, “Her boys are going to be spending time with her. Her loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success for well being.”
Spears recently sold her song catalog and an unclear number of other rights to Primary Wave. In January, she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post that she “will never perform in the U.S. again because of extremely sensitive reasons.”
She continued, “But I hope to be sitting on a stool with a red rose in my hair, in a bun, performing with my son… in the UK and AUSTRALIA very soon.”
In that Instagram post, Spears shared a throwback photo of herself sitting next to a white Yamaha piano, beginning the caption with: “Sending this piano to my son this year!!! Interestingly enough, I dance on IG to heal things in my body that people have no idea about. Yup and it’s embarrassing sometimes… but I walked through the fire to save my life.”
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Spears was released from her 13-year conservatorship in 2021 and has largely kept a low profile since then. The pop superstar has not released an album since 2016’s “Glory,” and she last performed live in the U.S. in 2018, when she closed out her “Piece of Me” tour with a show at the Formula One Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. She had been scheduled to return to Las Vegas in 2019 for a second residency, “Domination,” but she ultimately postponed the show and stepped away from performing indefinitely.
From Variety US