Husband of Britney Spears files for divorce after 14 months of marriag

Britney Spears ’ husband, Sam Asghari, has filed for divorce from the singer 14 months after they were married.

A person familiar with the filing, who is close to Asghari but not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed the filing happened on Wednesday, hours after several media 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 9 June 2022 in front of guests including Selena Gomez, Drew Barrymore, Paris Hilton and Madonna. The wedding was 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 star 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 2021 as it became clear she would be freed from the conservatorship, which ended that November.

Spears said she and Asghari had lost a baby early in a pregnancy in May 2022, about a month before they married.

Reports of the couple’s struggles have increased in recent months.

Their marriage was the first for Asghari, 29, and the third for Spears, 41. She was married for less than three days in 2004 to her childhood friend Jason Alexander, who attempted to crash her wedding to Asghari and was later convicted of misdemeanor trespassing and battery.

In 2004 she married the dancer Kevin Federline. Their three-year marriage came 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.

Spears was placed in the conservatorship run by her father in 2008. At first she continued to release records, make videos, and perform live, including a major concert residency in Las Vegas. But as she appeared less frequently in public, fans began to demand that she be released from the arrangement, in what eventually become a major #FreeBritney 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.