Reuters

Britney Spears in court for key custody hearing

Tue May 6, 12:51 PM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Britney Spears turned up on time and in the company of her parents for a key hearing on Tuesday in her prolonged battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline over custody of their two young sons.

Tuesday's closed-door hearing on a progress report on Spears, 26, is the first time in several months that the entertainer has appeared in court in the multiple sessions surrounding her divorce and her personal life.

News pictures showed Spears arriving at the Los Angeles courthouse with her mother Lynne, father Jamie and her lawyer. Federline was spotted arriving separately, wearing a cream-colored suit.

Spears appears to have turned her life around in the past two months after a year of bizarre behavior and two brief hospitalizations in Los Angeles for psychiatric evaluation.

She is expected to ask for more time with sons Sean Preston, 2-1/2, and Jayden James, 20 months, after being stripped of legal and physical custody last October, and losing all visitation rights in January.

Federline agreed in February that Spears could occasionally see the boys under supervision. The singer is expected to try to persuade the judge that she has got her life and health back under control after failing to show up, or leaving abruptly, at numerous previous court hearings.

Spears' father Jamie Spears was granted control over her personal and business affairs in February, and the singer's former self-styled manager and constant companion, Sam Lutfi, has agreed to a restraining order that keeps him away from her.

The personal life of the former teen phenomenon, one of the most successful pop stars in the world in the early 2000s, spiraled out of control after her 2006 breakup with Federline.

She shaved her head, entered rehab, was ordered to take drug and alcohol tests, and was twice taken by ambulance to psychiatric units for treatment of what has been reported to be bipolar disorder.

(Reporting by Syantani Chatterjee; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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