Britney Spears arrested in Southern California

Britney Spears was arrested in Southern California on Wednesday night, according to Ventura County jail records.

Spears, 44, was arrested by California Highway Patrol around 9:30 p.m. PT Wednesday night and released Thursday, according to the records. Her vehicle was towed.

The records do not indicate why she was arrested. TMZ was first to report Spears’ arrest.

“This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable,” a representative for Spears said in a statement to NBC News. “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.”

The representative said that Spears’ “boys” are going to spend time with her. She has two adult sons with her ex-husband, Kevin Federline.

“Her loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success for well being,” the representative added.

The California Highway Patrol did not immediately return a request for comment. The company that towed Spears’ car, Roy’s Towing, declined to comment.

Her arrest follows a flood of videos Spears has posted to her Instagram account in recent years, with the majority of them showing her dancing alone in her Thousand Oaks, California home. The seemingly never-ending stream of videos and lengthy social media diary entries have been widely mocked online, with some users expressing concern for the pop star’s mental health.

Spears’ Instagram account appeared to be taken down as of Thursday morning.

Her arrest also comes half a decade after a judge freed her from a controversial conservatorship that gave her father control over her finances, career and personal life for 13 years. Spears’ father was named her conservator after Spears suffered from a series of mental health crises in the early 2000s.

The pop star detailed the conservatorship in her best-selling 2023 memoir “The Woman In Me.” She detailed how nearly every aspect of her life was controlled by others.

Despite intense media scrutiny and a number of high-profile public incidents — including when Spears was photographed hitting a car with an umbrella and a newly shaven head — Spears has not previously been arrested.

Spears is behind some of the best-selling singles in history, including “…Baby One More Time,” “Oops!… I Did It Again!,” “Womanizer” and “I’m a Slave 4 U.” She is widely referred to as the “Princess of Pop,” and arguably one of the most popular performers of the 21st century.

She won her first Grammy for 2004 for Best Dance Recording for her hit “Toxic,” and was nominated for 7 other of the awards.

Spears sold the rights to her music catalog to publisher Primary Wave for approximately $200 million in recent weeks.