LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears and her boyfriend, Sam Asghari, announced Sunday that they are engaged to be married.
Asghari’s agent, Brandon Cohen, said they made their long-term relationship official and are “deeply touched by the support, dedication and love expressed to them.”
The couple posted images on their Instagram pages showing Spears wearing the engagement ring, which is engraved with the word “lioness,” according to jeweler Roman Malayev.
Spears and Asghari, a fitness trainer and actor, began dating in 2016. He proposed at Spears’ Southern California home, Cohen said.
They announced their engagement days after Spears’ father filed a petition asking a Los Angeles County judge to end his conservatorship over his daughter, a legal arrangement that gave him control over her estate for more than a decade.
Britney Spears, 39, has said the arrangement was “abusive.” In a statement in June to the probate judge presiding over the case, she said that she wanted to get married and have a baby but that the conservatorship team had prevented her from removing a contraceptive device.
“I have a IUD inside of myself right now so I don’t get pregnant,” she told the judge. “I wanted to take the IUD out so I could start trying to have another baby. But this so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out because they don’t want me to have children.”
Her father, Jamie Spears, who has denied all allegations of abuse, said in the petition that the conservatorship had helped his daughter “get through a major life crisis, rehabilitate and advance her career, and put her finances and her affairs in order.”
“Ms. Spears is now outspoken in her frustration with the level of control imposed by a conservatorship, and has pleaded with this Court to let her have her life back,” the petition added.
A ruling on the petition is expected Sept. 29.
Diana Dasrath reported from Los Angeles and Tim Stelloh from Northern California.
