US singer Britney Spears. (Photo: EPA-EFE / NINA PROMMER) By Danielle Broadway
The California Highway Patrol said the pop singer was arrested in Ventura County after officers stopped her black BMW following a report that it had been traveling erratically at high speed.
The highway patrol said in a statement that Spears, the sole occupant of the vehicle, "showed signs of impairment" due to what officers suspected was the influence of a combination of alcohol and drugs. It added she underwent a series of field sobriety tests.
Spears was booked into the Ventura County Main Jail and is due for a court appearance on May 4.
Spears, who became one of the biggest pop stars in the world in the late 1990s while still a teenager, has struggled for years with intense media speculation into her personal life, use of drink and drugs, and questions over her mental state.
In 2007, she was charged with one count of a hit-and-run causing property damage and one count of driving without a valid license, both misdemeanors. The first charge was later dropped and the other dismissed.
After she had a public breakdown that year, she was hospitalized for undisclosed mental health issues and her father granted a conservatorship.
Spears regained control of her personal life and her money in 2021 when a judge ended the conservatorship that had become a cause celebre for fans and that had governed her personal life and $60 million estate since 2008.
(Reporting by Danielle Broadway and Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)