Britney Spears‘ conservatorship is probably the most famous of all time at this point. The Crossroads star’s battle has shined a spotlight on the practice in which control of a person’s finances and even daily life can be granted to a guardian.
There are aspects of the legal practice that have left a bad taste in the mouths of many who were not previously familiar with it, and what some may not know is that Britney wasn’t the only one. Several other big names in Hollywood were under a similar arrangement — some by choice and others not so much. Find out more (below)…
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Amanda Bynes
Another former teen star who was in a conservatorship is Amanda Bynes.
As you likely read at the time, the All That alum had some serious substance abuse issues in the early 2010s — a DUI, a couple more arrests — that culminated in her admission into the hospital under a 5150 psychiatric hold in the summer of 2013. Amanda’s parents filed for a temporary conservatorship then.
But the extent of her mental health issues made itself clear in the fall of 2014, when she started tweeting out accusations of sexual abuse against her father, followed by recanting, then stuff about microchips in her brain making her say things…
In October 2014, her mother Lynn Bynes was granted a conservatorship again, this time on a more permanent basis. In 2018, it was renewed for another two years, despite Amanda saying she had been sober for four years. But unfortunately, in March 2020, the What A Girl Wants lead was ordered back to a psychiatric facility after a fight with her parents about her desire to marry then-boyfriend Paul Michael. At that time, Amanda was 33 years old and being told she wasn’t allowed to get married. Sound familiar?
The Nickelodeon star has not spoken much publicly about the details of her conservatorship, but she did complain in 2020 about how her money was being spent (she reportedly had a net worth of $5 million at the time her parents took control). She explained in a video on social media:
“I have been going to a treatment center that charges $5,200 a month. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t go to a therapist who takes my insurance for $5,000 less a month. This is why I’ve asked to see the judge next week regarding this conservatorship issue…I’m sorry that this is what I’m dealing with and I’m sorry that I put my problems onto the Internet, but this is what life has come to”
Fortunately for Amanda, she is now FREE! Yes, really! In March 2022, a judge ended her 9-year conservatorship, meaning she could make personal and financial decisions all on her own again. Amanda, as you can imagine, was ecstatic over the news. She told People via her lawyer David A. Esquibias at the time:
“Following today’s decision by the judge to terminate my conservatorship, I would like to thank my fans for their love and well wishes during this time. I would also like to thank my lawyer and my parents for their support over the last nine years. In the last several years, I have been working hard to improve my health so that I can live and work independently, and I will continue to prioritize my well-being in this next chapter. I am excited about my upcoming endeavors — including my fragrance line — and look forward to sharing more when I can.”
She hasn’t released a fragrance line yet. However, she has been working hard over the past few years to become a nail tech at a salon. Amanda hasn’t passed her board exam to become a certified manicurist yet, but last we heard, she is back in school to study more before she takes it again. She’s also been focusing on her health and fitness lately. Overall, Amanda is seemingly doing well with her newfound freedom! Amazing! We love that for her.
Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson, the original lead singer-songwriter of The Beach Boys, was actually put into a conservatorship to protect him from an overly controlling influence.
In the 1970s, the God Only Knows singer had a severe drug abuse problem, eventually getting help from a radical psychologist named Dr. Eugene Landy. After relapsing led to a drug and alcohol overdose in 1982, the band approached Landy again — who agreed to treat Wilson only if he was given total control over Brian’s affairs. This was NOT the conservatorship.
Landy charged so much money over the next few years, the band had to give him a portion of Wilson’s significant publishing royalties. Eventually Landy even gave up his psychology license — and instead took on a role as Wilson’s business partner. He even started co-writing the songs with him.
The story goes he began dating a woman named Melinda Ledbetter who was shocked at how much control Landy had over his life. Her outside perspective convinced Wilson’s family to put Wilson under a conservatorship to protect him from Landy — whom he would not be able to refuse otherwise.
The action may have saved his life. Landy had determined the musician was a paranoid schizophrenic, a diagnosis later refuted by other experts, and prescribed him anti-psychotic medication. He was given so much medication over that time, in fact, that doctors found he had brain damage from prolonged drug use.
Much of this multi-decade ordeal was portrayed on film in the biopic Love & Mercy, with Paul Dano and John Cusack playing Wilson at different periods of his life.
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell was placed in a temporary conservatorship controlled by her friend Leslie Morris after she suffered an aneurysm that left her unable to speak and impacted her ability to walk in 2015. Amid her recovery, the pal was reportedly in charge of providing “temporary care, maintenance, and support.” However, she was not allowed to “take possession of money or any other property without a specific court order.” It is unclear if the singer remains under the conservatorship to this day, but her health has reportedly made significant improvement over the years, which is great!
Mickey Rooney
Just like Brian Wilson, Mickey Rooney entered into a conservatorship to protect himself in 2011. In February of that year, a judge granted lawyer Michael Augustine temporary conservatorship over the Night at the Museum star and his estate after he filed a complaint. The judge also ordered Chris Aber, Mickey’s personal assistant of 30 years, and his wife, Christina Aber, to stay at least 100 yards.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mickey’s attorneys claimed Chris threatened, intimidated, bullied, and harassed the actor, as well as refused to reveal his finances to him “other than to tell him that [he] is broke.” The Abers also allegedly withheld medications and food from the Boys Town star, leaving him “extremely fearful that Chris will become physically threatening against Mickey and may even attempt to kidnap Mickey from his home.” OMG! The documents claimed Chris gained access to Mickey’s finances through his work as a “producer” at Densmore Productions Inc., a production company the actor formed in 1998. He allegedly issued himself a majority stock, named himself treasurer, and began stealing substantial amounts of money.
A month after Augustine’s appointment, Mickey, who was deemed “completely competent,” appeared before the Senate Special Committee on Aging to give testimony about the alleged elder abuse he experienced, saying the Abers made his life “unbearable” each day. He added:
“I felt trapped, scared, used and frustrated.”
However, Chris blamed Mickey’s legal filings and congressional testimony on his estranged brother, Mark Aber, who, with his wife Charlene Aber, moved from Florida to California to live with the Rooney family shortly before the legal battle began. In fact, he says they are the guilty ones! Not him! Chris claimed he discovered his brother and sister-in-law were stealing from Mickey, selling his possessions on eBay. He told The Hollywood Reporter:
“I caught him. And then, in order to defuse [the situation], he got a restraining order on me and told Mickey that I did it.”
Despite those accusations, Augustine approved Mark and Charlene as Mickey’s “caregivers,” and the star lived on their rental property in Studio City for the remainder of his life. He died on April 6, 2014.
In October 2013, Augustine agreed to a symbolic settlement with Chris and Christina. He dropped the abuse allegations against them in return for a “judgment” of $2.9 million — acknowledged by the couple as the amount they owed Mickey and by the conservator as being “unenforceable and uncollectible” from Chris, who declared bankruptcy a year prior. The lawyer stated:
“We had evidence that he had stolen $8 million [over the years], but we knew that we were not going to collect it. Aber didn’t sock money away, he put it up his nose.”
Chris and Christina admitted no wrongdoing in court documents, though. He told THR that “they couldn’t prove one thing I did wrong,” and he would take a lie detector test. Augustine, on the other hand, insisted Chris should consider himself lucky that he got nothing more than a slap on the wrist:
“There are a few facts that Chris is conveniently omitting. Like in 2004, Mickey had a tax return that showed $804,000 of income, and the next year something like $690,000 — yet Mickey and Jan had to refinance their house to pay taxes. [Chris] Aber, however, had two Mercedes, a Porsche and two houses. I wonder how that happened?’ When we terminated his services, he short-sold one house and it went under, another was foreclosed and he moved into a rental property. Why did that all of a sudden collapse if he was the one earning all this money?”
Poor Mickey…
Nichelle Nichols
Following her diagnosis with dementia, Nichelle Nichols was placed under a conservatorship in 2018.
Her son, Kyle Johnson, petitioned to become the Star Trek alum’s conservator after former manager, Gilbert Bell, was accused of abusing her financially. According to The Los Angeles Times, he claimed the trigger for filing came after finding out Gilbert transferred her home into his name as power of attorney in 2017. However, that sparked a messy, years-long legal battle. In 2019, Gilbert filed a lawsuit against Kyle, claiming Nichelle’s son was trying to remove him from her guest home, where he had lived since 2010. He denied Kyle’s previous accusations and argued that while living with Nichelle, he managed to restore her career and financial well-being. Kyle, on the other hand, claimed in a countersuit that his mom’s home was where Gilbert “exerted his undue influence and took control over Ms. Nichols’ assets and personal affairs,” misappropriating her income as her health and memory deteriorated.
Nichelle’s pal Angelique Fawcetter, a producer and actress who met the singer in 2012, also entered the fight in 2018 — all because she opposed Johnson’s conservatorship petition! She claimed Nichelle could manage her personal and financial affairs with the help from a caregiver or assistant, and Johnson didn’t have good intentions! She accused him of only wanting access to his mom’s income and personal property. In addition, Angelique wanted visitation rights to spend time with her friend. Kyle, in response to her petition, alleged Angelique wanted to profit off Nichelle’s fame.
Kyle was appointed conservator in January 2019, but this didn’t mark the end of the drama. A video recorded in April of that year later came out, showing the moment Nichelle read the conservatorship documents in her guesthouse. She told Bell:
“I didn’t give permission to have conservatorship over me.”
When Kyle entered to take her back to the main house, she yelled:
“You get your hands off of me.”
Oh wow…
Angelique maintained that Kyle wasn’t acting in Nichelle’s best interest, accusing him of later selling her Woodland Hills home against her wishes, moving to New Mexico against her will, and isolating her from everyone. Beyond the aforementioned video, her proof? Angelique often pointed to a 2020 deposition of the former court-appointed temporary conservator of the estate, licensed professional fiduciary BJ Hawkins, who said after her experience with Kyle, she had “areas of deep and grave concern that he would not be able to act in the best interest of the conservatee, despite the fact that it was his mother and despite the fact that it is my general position that a member of the family is in the best position to act in the role of conservatorship of the person.”
Despite her efforts to end the conservatorship, the court reportedly refused to get involved, ruling that Angelique had no standing to lodge her complaints. She didn’t give up, though. She even saw hope that things could change as the #FreeBritney movement shifted its focus to Nichelle after Britney gained her freedom from her conservatorship in November 2021. Sadly, Nichelle died in July 2022 before anything could happen.
Randy Meisner
In a super rare move, former Eagles bassist Randy Meisner requested a temporary conservatorship for himself back in 2016. Why? All because he was struggling with the death of his wife, Lara Meisner, who died that year from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after police said a shotgun she was moving accidentally fired.
In the petition, Randy explained he was “barely able to accept the sudden and tragic loss of his loving wife” and asked for his “trusted friends and advisers assist him with his own care, maintenance and support in his current state.” In April 2016, a judge granted Randy’s request to appoint his friend Arthur Ford and his accountant Tom DeLong as the conservators for his medical care and estate. It is unknown when Randy’s legal arrangement ended. He passed away in July 2023 following complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Michael Oher
Turns out The Blind Side was all a lie! Michael Oher, the former NFL player who inspired the 2009 film, filed a suit in August 2023, claiming Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy never adopted him as they’d led him to believe, as well as stole Blind Side earnings from him. Instead, less than three months after the athlete turned 18 in 2004, he claimed the Memphis couple tricked him into signing a document to allow them to become his conservators — so they received legal authority over his finances.
A month later, Shelby County Probate Court Judge Kathleen Gomes terminated the conservatorship. The judge said the Tuohy family got the arrangement approved “despite the fact that he was over 18 years old and had no diagnosed physical or psychological disabilities,” which is a big reason she ended it. Judge Gomes shared that in her 43 years in law, she had “never seen” a conservatorship filed for someone who was not disabled — and it never should have started in the first place:
“I cannot believe it got done.”
Not a good look for the Tuohy family…
Wendy Williams
Wendy Williams has been in a conservatorship since 2022 after being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia, and her guardian Sabrina Morrissey claimed she was “cognitively impaired and permanently incapacitated” two years later. However, the former talk show host has stepped out a few times where she seemed to be doing well. She also did a rare interview last year, where she sounded with it while discussing the alleged wrongful and restrictive legal situation she has been in.
Talking to The Breakfast Club, Wendy claimed she was forced to live in a facility in New York where many elderly patients live, and “nursemaids” come to her room to give her unknown pills. She also alleged she isn’t allowed to leave, have visitors, or have a laptop or complete control over her own phone.
In a shocking twist, however, sources claimed to TMZ that after undergoing a series of neurological tests, a top neurologist in New York City ultimately determined Wendy does NOT have frontotemporal dementia! The disease is progressive and irreversible, and normally worsens over time, but Wendy didn’t follow that pattern. Instead, sources explained she has shown neurological resilience, specifically since becoming sober a few years ago.
Sources close to Wendy said she is lucid, communicative, and fighting for her freedom — all of which contradicts the diagnosis that put her in the arrangement in the first place. Her legal team, led by powerful attorney Joe Tacopina, reportedly was preparing to take legal action to terminate the legal arrangement, but that has not happened yet. Wendy is willing to go to trial if the judge refuses after they file the paperwork. We’ll see what happens next!
Nick Reiner
As Perezcious readers know, Nick Reiner came into the spotlight for horrific reasons in 2025. The 32-year-old allegedly brutally murdered both his father, the beloved filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner, and his mom, Michelle Reiner, on December 14 of that year. Nick suffered from mental health and addiction issues for years. And in 2020, he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and placed on medication, though the doctor changed it due to weight gain complaints one month before the murders.
Following the news of their deaths, we found out Nick had previously been entered into a mental health conservatorship. The New York Times reported he had an LPS conservatorship, which is typically initiated by a doctor and follows an involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. In Los Angeles County, Office of the Public Guardian officials typically assess whether a conservatorship is needed before making a case for the judge. The arrangement normally only lasts a year, but a conservator can renew it if needed.
In Nick’s case, Steven Baer, a licensed fiduciary, became his conservator, and the arrangement ended in 2021. There aren’t many details about the conservatorship, as sources, including Baer, cited confidentiality. It is also unknown why Nick’s wasn’t renewed. However, Rob claimed Nick hadn’t done drugs in “over 6 years” and was doing “great” two months before his medication change. Hmm.
What are your reactions? Any shocking revelations? Let us know in the comments (below).
[Image via Nikki Nelson/WENN]
