ATLANTA, Ga. (March 22, 2022) — After nearly 9 years, Amanda Bynes could be hours away from having the conservatorship over her person and estate terminated. According to the Los Angeles Times, Judge Roger L. Lund ruled on Monday that Bynes’s conservatorship is “no longer required and the grounds for establishment of a conservatorship of the person no longer exist”. The document reads, “The court intends to grant the petition for termination and order the conservatorship of the person of Amanda Bynes be terminated.” A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at 2 p.m. EST at the Ventura County Government Center hall of Justice in Ventura, Calif. to make the official ruling.
Bynes began acting at the age of 7, and since the age of 10, has acted in the Nickelodeon show All That, a spin-off series called The Amanda Show, and her most recent acting endeavor was in 2010 for the movie Easy A. That same year, Bynes announced a hiatus following two mysterious role replacements in movies she was set to star in. In between her hiatus and the time she expressed interest in acting again in 2018, Bynes received a DUI, with a total of seven car accidents in one year and was diagnosed Bipolar. A month after she lit a stranger’s driveway on fire, the actress was placed under the conservatorship of her mother, Lynn Bynes.
According to U.S. Weekly, in September 2021 a judge reviewed a mental report of the actress but ruled she remain under her conservatorship. Bynes’s attorney, David A. Esquibias, stated the goal of himself, [Amanda’s] mother and father, and her care providers was to see [Amanda] not under her conservatorship; “The timing is not right at the moment, so she’s working toward that direction. We all are working toward that direction, and one day we all hope to see it.”
On February 22, 2022, The Nickelodeon star filed a capacity declaration — a document that is required by the state of California so the state has an updated record of the conservatee’s mental state from their physician, psychologist or religious healing practitioner. This action comes three months after Britney Spears’s 13 year conservatorship was terminated. One difference between Bynes’ and Spears’ situation is that the Easy A actress has remained on fairly good terms with her parents.
In October 2014, a series of tweets by the actress accused her father, Rick Bynes, of verbally and physically abusing her as a child. She listed attempts at sexual advances, name-calling , and attempts to catch him in the act through cellphone video recording; In addition, [Amanda] Bynes stated that the actions of her father were known by her mother. She later followed these assertions up with a statement negating her initial writings; “My dad never did any of those things [the] microchip in my brain made me say those things, but he’s the one that ordered them to microchip me”. In a 2018 Paper Magazine interview, she has since expressed shame and embarrassment for the things she tweeted out while under the influence. At the time of the article, Bynes also credited her parents for helping her get back on track and remain sober for almost four years.
In addition to her family members and attorney, the childhood star has gained the support of two of her old All That castmates, Leon Frierson and Christy Knowings. Frierson has shared with TMZ that he will be in attendance at the courthouse for her hearing.
If the conservatorship is terminated, the 35-year-old hopes to move into her own place with her fiancé, Paul Michael. It's reported that the two met at an Alcoholics' Anonymous meeting and have set their sights on a rental property in Los Angeles. After receiving her Associate's of Art degree at FIDM in 2019, Bynes announced that she has returned to pursue her Bachelor's Degree and looks forward to starting her own online store in the future. According to her Instagram bio and several news sources, Bynes also plans on getting involved in the fragrance industry.