Britney Spears has been arrested in California, US court documents show.

The singer was arrested by the California Highway Patrol at around 21:30 PT (05:30 GMT) on Wednesday.

She was released in the early hours of Thursday morning and is scheduled to appear in Ventura County Superior Court on 4 May.

The court documents do not confirm the reason for the singer's arrest.

Spears is one of the most successful pop stars in music history, with hits such as Toxic, Everytime, Gimme More, Womanizer, Stronger and Baby One More Time.

But the singer said in January 2024 that she would "never return to the music industry". Her last song was a duet released with Elton John in 2022.

For 13 years until 2021, the singer was in a conservatorship – a legal guardianship that saw her finances and personal life controlled by her father.

The singer published her memoir in 2023 titled The Woman in Me, which saw her reflect on her career and detail her struggles living under the conservatorship.

Her ex-husband Kevin Federline released his own memoir, You Thought You Knew, at the end of 2025.