Amanda Bynes is speaking out ahead of a hearing to end her conservatorship.
“What’s up, Instagram? Amanda Bynes here,” the former actress of Hairspray and All That fame said in the video posted Monday on a new Instagram account. “My court date is coming up in two weeks. I want to thank you all so much for your love and support. Peace out.”
Amanda, 35, didn’t write a caption for the video post but tagged several media outlets. The account she used is different than one she used in the past, but Yahoo Entertainment confirmed with her conservatorship attorney, David A. Esquibias, that it’s her new account.
Late last month, Amanda’s attorney filed paperwork at the Ventura County Superior Court to end the conservatorship she’s been under for nearly 9 years. A hearing is set for March 22.
Amanda’s mother Lynn — who has been conservator since 2013 — supports its ending. Through her attorney, she said last month that she “is so proud of [Amanda] for all the hard work and progress [she] has made… Lynn is excited about the next chapter in Amanda’s life and being there for Amanda as her mother.”
The conservator was put in place after Amanda was involuntarily hospitalized twice, once after setting a fire in a stranger’s driveway. Leading up to it, she also faced multiple DUI infractions, a drug-related arrest, shoplifting allegations and had been evicted from her apartment. Soon after, Amanda revealed that she has bipolar disorder. She’s since received mental health and substance abuse treatment. She’s lived in sober homes and marked 18 months of sobriety in 2020.
Unlike Britney Spears’s conservatorship — which required an extensive fight to end — Amanda’s has slowly been tapering off. Lynn was initially in charge of Amanda’s finances — with an estimate worth an estimated $3 million at the start — as well as her “person,” making medical decisions. However, in 2017, Amanda resumed control of her own finances after Lynn petitioned the court to make that change.
Esquibias said last year that the goal has always been to end the conservatorship when Amanda was capable of fully caring for herself.
That’s been the case: For several years, she’s been studying design at California’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, earning an associate’s degree in 2019. Esquibias said last year that she’s been doing “great,” sharing that Amanda “lives by the beach, attends school and is enjoying meditation and SoulCycle classes.” He said she was thinking about starting a clothing line or creating a fragrance — the latter noted in the about me section of her new Instagram.
Bynes is also engaged to Paul Michael, whom she met at a sober living home in 2019. He’s pictured with her in her new profile photo.
