Pop icon Britney Spears was charged in California on Thursday with driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, authorities said.
The 44-year-old singer has been 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.
A request for comment sent by Associated Press to Spears’ representative did not receive an immediate response. The criminal complaint does not specify what kind of alcohol or drugs were involved, or the amount Spears is accused of having consumed. Spears, who has since entered substance abuse treatment, was arrested on March 4 after being pulled over for driving her black BMW at high speed and in an erratic manner on U.S. 101 near her home, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Officers said she appeared to be impaired at the time. She was asked to perform a series of field sobriety tests before being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of a combination of alcohol and drugs. She was then taken to a Ventura County jail.
She was released on bail the following day. Police later completed their investigation and submitted the case to prosecutors on March 23.
At the time, a representative for the singer described her actions as “completely inexcusable” and said it could serve as “the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life.”
Spears voluntarily checked into a substance abuse treatment facility just over a month after her arrest, her representative confirmed.
Her arraignment has been scheduled for Monday. Because the charge is a misdemeanour, prosecutors said she will not be required to appear in court.
Once a teen pop sensation and a former member of Mickey Mouse Club, Spears became one of the defining superstars of the late 1990s and early 2000s, with chart-topping hits like Toxic, Gimme More, and I’m a Slave 4 U. Most of her albums have been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, including two diamond-certified releases — her 1999 debut …Baby One More Time and 2000’s Oops!… I Did It Again.
In the early 2000s, Spears became a constant presence in tabloids and faced intense public scrutiny as she dealt with mental health struggles, often under relentless paparazzi attention.
In 2008, she was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship, largely controlled by her father and his legal team, which governed both her personal and financial decisions for more than a decade. The conservatorship was officially dissolved in 2021. Since then, Spears has gone through major personal changes, including a marriage and subsequent divorce, and the release of her bestselling memoir, The Woman in Me.
In recent years, she has largely stepped away from her music career, releasing only a few collaborative singles since her last full-length album in 2016.
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