After 14 months of marriage, Britney Spears’s husband, Sam Asghari, filed for divorce on Wednesday, according to Los Angeles court records. The couple’s relationship began in 2016 and unfolded alongside Ms. Spears’s campaign to be released from a conservatorship that limited her personal and professional decision-making power. She married Mr. Asghari, an actor and personal trainer who was thrust into the spotlight through his relationship with Ms. Spears, seven months after a California judge’s ruling ended the conservatorship.
Below, a look at the milestones, the court hearings and the many, many Instagram posts that punctuated the relationship.
October 2016
Ms. Spears and Mr. Asghari meet
Both Ms. Spears and Mr. Asghari have said in interviews that they met on the set of the music video for Ms. Spears’s song “Slumber Party.” Mr. Asghari told Men’s Health that the two had exchanged phone numbers at the shoot. He said he was excited “to meet one of the biggest artists of all time,” adding, “I had butterflies.”
Jan. 1, 2017
Taking the relationship public
Ms. Spears first hinted at the relationship with an Instagram post on New Year’s Day showing the couple eating dinner. They began making appearances together, including one at a Los Angeles Lakers game in November 2017 and another at the GLAAD Media Awards in April 2018, where Ms. Spears was an honoree.
2019
A campaign to #FreeBritney takes off
At the beginning of 2019, Ms. Spears canceled a planned Las Vegas residency and announced that she would begin an “indefinite work hiatus.” Online speculation took off about her well-being. In May, fans representing the #FreeBritney campaign marched outside a Los Angeles courthouse where a status hearing for the conservatorship was taking place. In August, a lawyer for Ms. Spears submitted a filing seeking substantial changes to the conservatorship “in order to reflect the major changes in her current lifestyle and her stated wishes.”
Feb. 9, 2021
Mr. Asghari lashes out against the conservatorship
Mr. Asghari posted an Instagram story that fans took as a statement against the conservatorship. “I have zero respect for someone trying to control our relationship and constantly throwing obstacles in our way,” he wrote.
June 23, 2021
‘I want to be able to get married and have a baby’
Ms. Spears gave 23 minutes of testimony to a Los Angeles judge in which she requested that the conservatorship be terminated. She said that the arrangement had placed unnecessary restrictions on her personal life, including preventing her from removing her birth control device. “I want to be able to get married and have a baby,” Ms. Spears said in her testimony. “I was told right now in the conservatorship I am not able to get married or have a baby.”
Sept. 12, 2021
The couple announces their engagement
Ms. Spears posted an Instagram video showing off her new ring, which Vogue reported was a four-carat diamond. “Look at that — you like it?” Mr. Asghari says in the video. “Yes!” she responds.
Nov. 12, 2021
Ms. Spears is released from her conservatorship
Judge Brenda Penny of Los Angeles Superior Court issued a ruling ending the conservatorship that had given Ms. Spears’s father, James P. Spears, authority over his daughter’s life and finances. The conservatorship had been in place for more than 13 years. Before the hearing, Mr. Asghari posted a video of the couple dancing to one of Ms. Spears’s songs while wearing #FreeBritney T-shirts.
April 11, 2022
Ms. Spears announces that she is pregnant
Ms. Spears posted an image of pink flowers on Instagram to announce that she was pregnant. “So I got a pregnancy test … and uhhhhh well … I am having a baby,” she wrote in the caption.
May 14, 2022
Ms. Spears says she has had a miscarriage
Just over a month after Ms. Spears had announced her pregnancy, she wrote in a statement posted to Instagram that she had had a miscarriage. “We have lost our miracle baby,” the couple wrote.
June 11, 2022
The couple marries
The couple was married on June 11, according to legal documents. According to Vogue, the couple held a wedding ceremony on June 9 at their home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., that was attended by Madonna, Selena Gomez, Paris Hilton and Drew Barrymore. It featured several outfit changes for Ms. Spears and a reception playlist that included her song “Toxic.”
Aug. 16, 2023
Mr. Asghari files for divorce
Mr. Asghari submitted a divorce filing to Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, citing irreconcilable differences. The same day, Ms. Spears posted on Instagram that she was “buying a horse soon.”
