Britney Spears arrested on suspicion of drink driving
Britney Spears has a court date set for May 4. (Reuters: Eduardo Munoz)
Britney Spears has been arrested in California on suspicion of driving under the influence.
The pop star was arrested about 9:30pm, local time, on Wednesday in Ventura County and released on Thursday, sheriff's office records show.
She has a court date scheduled for May 4.
"This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable," a statement from a Spears representative said.
"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."
In 2007, Spears was charged with one count of hit and run causing property damage and one count of driving without a valid California driver's licence, both of which were misdemeanours.
Spears, 44, born in Mississippi and raised in Louisiana, became a teen pop phenomenon and a superstar of the 90s and 2000s.
She rose to fame from Disney Channel's The Mickey Mouse Club to MTV and beyond, with such era-defining hits as Baby One More Time, Oops! … I Did It Again and Toxic.
Her last full-length album, Glory, was released in 2016.
Spears became a focus of tabloids in the early 2000s and a source of public scrutiny as she battled mental illness, and paparazzi documented the details of her private life.
Later, as cultural opinion evolved to recognise the misogynistic media coverage of the time, Spears's fight to control her life became the focus of the #FreeBritney movement.
In 2008, Spears was placed under a court-ordered conservatorship, run primarily by her father and his lawyers, that would control her personal and financial decisions for well over a decade. It was dissolved in 2021.
Two years later, she released a bestselling, tell-all memoir, The Woman in Me.
AP/Reuters