{"id":641650,"date":"2026-05-01T00:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641650\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T00:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T00:35:11","slug":"britney-spears-charged-with-driving-under-influence-of-alcohol-and-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641650\/","title":{"rendered":"Britney Spears charged with driving under influence of alcohol and drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britney Spears has been charged in California with driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old pop star was charged with a single misdemeanour count of driving under the combined influence of alcohol and at least one drug, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.<\/p>\n

A representative for Ms Spears had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Britney Spears rose to super stardom in the late 90s and early 2000s, but struggled with public scrutiny and mental illness. (Getty Images: KMazur)<\/p>\n

The criminal complaint does not specify what kind of alcohol or drugs, or what amount, Ms Spears is accused of having used.<\/p>\n

Ms Spears, who has since entered substance abuse treatment, was arrested on March 4 after she was pulled over.<\/a><\/p>\n

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) said she was driving her black BMW fast and erratically on US Route 101 near her home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miranda Priestly makes a splashy return in The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/a><\/p>\n

The Devil Wears Prada 2 drops the beloved (or loathed) characters from 20 years ago into a very different media environment.<\/p>\n

According to officers with the CHP, she appeared to be impaired, took a series of field sobriety tests, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of a combination of alcohol and drugs, and was taken to a Ventura County jail.<\/p>\n

She was released on bail the following day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Police completed their investigation and presented it to prosecutors on March 23.<\/p>\n

A representative at the time called Ms Spears’s actions “completely inexcusable” and said it would ideally be “the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life”.<\/p>\n

\"britney<\/p>\n

In 2007, Britney Spears was charged with one count of hit and run causing property damage and one count of driving without a valid California driver’s licence. (Reuters: Mario Anzuoni)<\/p>\n

Ms Spears voluntarily checked into a substance abuse treatment facility just over a month after the arrest, her representative said.<\/p>\n

Her arraignment is set for Monday local time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because it is a misdemeanour charge, she will not be required to appear in court, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said the case would be handled according to their standard protocol for defendants with no DUI history, no crash or injury on the road, and a low blood-alcohol level.<\/p>\n

\"Britney<\/p>\n

Britney Spears has been awarded a Grammy, six MTV Video Music Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\u00a0 (Reuters: Lucas Jackson)<\/p>\n

They said Ms Spears would be offered what was commonly known as a “wet reckless”, which allowed a defendant to plead guilty and get a year of probation, credit for any time served in jail, a required DUI class, and state-mandated fines and fees.<\/p>\n

The offer is common, especially for defendants who have independently shown motivation to address their problems and seek treatment, according to the district attorney’s office.<\/p>\n

The singer has a home in Ventura County just outside the Los Angeles County line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her arraignment will be held in the city of Ventura, a seaside community of about 110,000 people, about 113 kilometres north-west of downtown LA.<\/p>\n

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The one-time teen pop phenomenon and “Mickey Mouse Club” alumna became a defining superstar of the 1990s and 2000s with hits like Toxic, Gimme More, and I’m a Slave 4 U.<\/p>\n

Most of Ms Spears’s albums have been certified platinum, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, with two diamond titles: 1999’s Baby One More Time and 2000’s Oops! \u2026 I Did It Again.<\/p>\n

Ms Spears became a tabloid focus in the early 2000s, and a source of public scrutiny, as she battled mental illness and paparazzi documented the details of her private life.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Britney Spears was supported by fans who protested to end the control of her estate, career and personal life by her father and attorney. (Reuters: Mike Blake)<\/p>\n

In 2008, she was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship, run primarily by her father and his lawyers, that would control her personal and financial decisions for well over a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was dissolved in 2021.<\/p>\n

Since then, she has married and divorced, and released a bestselling, tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me.<\/p>\n

Ms Spears has essentially retired as an artist in recent years, releasing only a few collaborative singles since her last full album in 2016.<\/p>\n

AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britney Spears has been charged in California with driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The 44-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,39877,485,310671,264033,134,132954,310670,310672,108195,182453],"class_list":["post-641650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-britney-spears","tag-california","tag-california-highway-patrol","tag-dui","tag-entertainment","tag-free-britney","tag-slave-4-u","tag-substance-abuse-treatment","tag-toxic","tag-ventura-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}