New York  – The legal agreement barring Britney Spears from managing her own life and finances is now older than the US pop star was when the public met her as an effervescent 12-year-old on the Disney Channel – and controversy over who steers her life is starting to boil.

Spears, 39, has lived under the strict arrangement since her infamous unravelling, which in 2008 led a California court to place her under a unique legal guardianship largely governed by her father Jamie.