Britney Spears was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence on March 4 in California, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.
The arrest was made by the California Highway Patrol at about 9:30 p.m. local time in Ventura. The pop star's car was towed.
Spears, 44, was released shortly after 6 a.m. on March 5, and is due to appear in court on May 4, according to the sheriff's office.
A CHP spokesperson said a report was made around 8:48 p.m. after a driver in a black BMW 430i was driving erratically and at high speed on the southbound 101 Freeway.
Spears, who was the only person in the vehicle, was pulled over and showed signs of impairment. She was given field sobriety tests and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of a combination of drugs and alcohol, the spokesperson added.
The incident remains under investigation and chemical tests are pending, per the spokesperson.
“This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable,” a representative for Spears said in a statement to TODAY.com. “Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law and hopefully this can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life. Hopefully, she can get the help and support she needs during this difficult time.
“Her boys are going to be spending time with her. Her loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success for well being,” the statement continued.
The arrest comes less than a month after the "Toxic" singer sold the rights to her music catalog to publisher Primary Wave for approximately $200 million, a source with knowledge of the deal told NBC News.
Spears spent 13 years under a conservatorship that legally prevented her from making her own personal and financial decisions before a Los Angeles judge terminated the arrangement in 2021.
She wrote about her life under the conservatorship in her 2023 memoir, “The Woman in Me."
“I had been so infantilized that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself,” Spears wrote. “The conservatorship stripped me of my womanhood, made me into a child. I became more of an entity than a person onstage. I had always felt music in my bones and my blood; they stole that from me.”
Kevin Federline, her ex-husband and the father of her two sons, Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19, wrote in his memoir released last October, "You Thought You Knew," that he was concerned about Spears.
“The truth is, this situation with Britney feels like it’s racing toward something irreversible,” he added.
“It’s become impossible to pretend everything’s OK,” he continued. “From where I sit, the clock is ticking, and we’re getting close to the 11th hour. Something bad is going to happen if things don’t change, and my biggest fear is that our sons will be left holding the pieces.”
In October 2025, a representative for Spears responded to Federline's book.
“With news from Kevin’s book breaking, once again he and others are profiting off her and sadly it comes after child support has ended with Kevin,” the rep said in a statement to NBC News. “All she cares about are her kids, Sean Preston and Jayden James and their well-being during this sensationalism. She detailed her journey in her memoir.”
In the years since being freed from her conservatorship, she married — and later divorced — Sam Asghari. She has continued to draw attention online for her Instagram posts, which often feature her dancing in front of the camera or sharing stock images with cryptic captions.
Scott Stump is a trending reporter and the writer of the daily newsletter This is TODAY (which you should subscribe to here!) that brings the day's news, health tips, parenting stories, recipes and uplifting stories right to your inbox. He has been a regular contributor for TODAY.com since 2011, producing features and news for pop culture, parents, politics, health, style, food and pretty much everything else.
Drew Weisholtz is a reporter for TODAY Digital, focusing on pop culture, nostalgia and trending stories. He has seen every episode of “Saved by the Bell” at least 50 times, longs to perfect the crane kick from “The Karate Kid” and performs stand-up comedy, while also cheering on the New York Yankees and New York Giants. A graduate of Rutgers University, he is the married father of two kids who believe he is ridiculous.
