Sam Asghari was the poster child for supportive husbands in Hollywood before filing for divorce from Britney Spears in August 2023.
The personal trainer-turned-actor began dating the Princess of Pop in 2016 and famously stood by her side as she battled for freedom from her allegedly “abusive” conservatorship.
A source told Page Six in June 2021 that Asghari was a “huge support” for Spears as she faced off against her father, Jamie Spears, in a fight to end the nearly 14-year legal arrangement that controlled all aspects of her life.
“He helps boost her confidence and assures her that everything will go well,” the insider claimed, adding that the fitness influencer “always tells Britney how much she’s loved and supported by fans.”
Asghari came into the Spears’ life after a string of very high-profile splits: from Justin Timberlake in 2002 followed by two failed marriages — to childhood pal Jason Alexander for just 55 hours and later to Kevin Federline, the father of her two sons — both in 2004.
After dating for nearly five years, the actor proposed to the pop star in September 2021, and the couple got married in June 2022. Their breakup made headlines in August of the following year.
Here’s everything you need to about Spears’ estranged husband as their divorce plays out.
Asghari was born and raised in Iran
Asghari was born in Tehran, Iran, and lived there with his family until the age of 12, when he moved to Los Angeles to join his father — who had gone to the US a decade earlier to work as a tow truck driver.
Asghari told Men’s Health in a 2018 interview that his mother, Fatima, and sisters, Maddy, Ellie and Faye, stayed in Iran.
“I had to leave my friends and family who I was very close with, and I knew I was moving away and never coming back,” he said.
His early years were all about sports
Growing up in Iran, Asghari played soccer and dreamed of entering the sports world or having a job in law enforcement, joking to Men’s Health, “Anything that didn’t require much education.”
Once he got to the US, Asghari joined the football team during his freshman year of high school and played for a bit on the college level — first at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, though he got cut before his freshman year, and then at Los Angeles’ Moorpark College.
He eventually switched paths to study criminal justice at Pierce College before finding himself back in the world of athletics.
He works as a personal trainer, model and actor
Asghari made a career out of his passion for health and wellness.
He started working as a personal trainer after losing 100 pounds and continues to share his passion for fitness (and sexy workout snaps) on Instagram in addition to providing custom meal plans for clients looking to get in great shape.
Asghari’s fitness journey helped introduce him to modeling, which would eventually lead him to meet Spears. As a model, he booked roles in two 2016 music videos: Fifth Harmony’s “Work From Home” and Spears’ “Slumber Party.”
He also works as an actor and has landed roles in Showtimes’ “Black Monday,” HBO Max’s “Hacks” and BET’s “The Family Business.”
He and Spears met at work
Spears and Asghari met when she hired the chiseled stud to appear as her love interest in her “Slumber Party” music video in October 2016.
Asghari told Men’s Health that the pair struck up a conversation on set, exchanged phones numbers and soon after went out on a date for sushi.
The relationship progressed, and they were spotted together a few months later on New Year’s Eve.
Spears and Asghari had a playful banter
Asghari and Spears were known for their very playful relationship. They often posted videos with silly filters or snaps working out together.
“The exercises, I come up with them, but the videos are because of my better half,” Asghari told Men’s Health of their fitness clips. “She’s the video director. It’s a very fun thing, and I look back at them and smile.”
The hot couple also regularly traveled together. They were spotted on trips to Miami and one of their most frequent travel destinations, Hawaii.
He wanted to #FreeBritney
For years, Asghari kept quiet about Spears’ conservatorship, but after the New York Times’ “Framing Britney Spears” documentary ignited the #FreeBritney movement, Asghari finally broke his silence about how he really felt about his then-girlfriend’s dad.
“Now it’s important for people to understand that I have zero respect for someone trying to control our relationship and constantly throwing obstacles our way,” he wrote on his Instagram Story in February 2021. “In my opinion Jamie [Spears] is a total d–k.”
Ahead of the monumental June 2021 hearing in which Britney publicly addressed a judge for the first time about the legal arrangement, the star’s proud beau wore a #FreeBritney T-shirt in a photo shared on Instagram.
After the hearing and the “Toxic” singer’s 23-minute testimony, he posted a picture of himself with a big smile.
He popped the question with an intimate proposal and custom ring
Asghari proposed to Spears in her home in September 2021 after dating for five years with a beautiful ring featuring a 4-carat round brilliant stone in a platinum cathedral setting, enhanced with a floating solitaire design.
The sparkler also has his nickname for his new wife, “Lioness,” engraved inside the band.
His manager exclusively told us at the time, “The couple made their long-standing relationship official today and are deeply touched by the support, dedication and love expressed to them.”
He wanted a ‘normal’ future with Spears
Spears fiercely expressed her desire to marry and have another child before Asghari got down on one knee.
The pop star, who is mom to sons Sean Preston and Jayden with Federline, told the court in June 2021 that she was ready to have a baby but had allegedly been forced to stay on birth control.
“I have an [IUD] inside of myself right now so I don’t get pregnant. I wanted to take the [IUD] out so I could start trying to have another baby but this so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out because they don’t want me to have children,” she said.
Asghari, for his part, said four months prior he craved a “normal” future with Spears.
He and Spears shared pregnancy news in April 2022
Spears wrote via Instagram in April 2022, “So I got a pregnancy test … and uhhhhh well … I am having a baby 👶🏼.”
Asghari later confirmed, “Marriage and kids are a natural part of a strong relationship filled with love and respect. Fatherhood is something i have always looked forward to and i don’t take lightly. It is the most important job i will ever do🙏.”
A few weeks later, the couple announced Spears had suffered a miscarriage.
“This is a devastating time for any parent. Perhaps we should have waited to announce until we were further along,” the duo wrote in a May 2022 statement. “However we were overly excited to share the good news.”
They got married in June 2022
Spears and Asghari tied the knot in the backyard of her Thousand Oaks, Calif., mansion on June 9, 2022. The singer wore a dress designed by Donatella Versace. Celebrity guests Paris Hilton, Drew Barrymore and Selena Gomez watched the pair say “I do.”
While Spears’ parents, Jamie and Lynne, were not invited to the nuptials, the latter congratulated her estranged daughter on Instagram.
“You look radiant and so happy!” Lynne commented on Britney’s post about the wedding. “Your wedding is the ‘Dream’ wedding! And having it at your home makes it so sentimental and special! I am soooo happy for you! I love you!”
He filed for divorce in August 2023
News broke in August 2023 that Asghari filed for divorce from the Grammy winner after 14 months of marriage, listing their date of separation as July 28, 2023, and citing “irreconcilable differences.”
At the time, a source alleged to Page Six that the model was “attempting to negotiate concessions beyond his prenup and threatening to go public with extraordinarily embarrassing information about Britney unless he gets paid.”
Britney, for her part, hired high-powered divorce attorney, Laura Wasser.
