Britney Spears' father feared the singer would die during her infamous 2007 meltdown, a court has heard.

Jamie Spears' lawyer Leon Gladstone made the revelation on Friday (19Oct12) on the second day of the defamation trial between the Toxic hitmaker's former sidekick Sam Lutfi and the star's mom, Lynne Spears.

Leon Gladstone said, "It's a story of a man who actually wanted nothing more for his daughter than to live and be well. It's a story of a father who has had to step up and take action that he never thought he would have to take... actions that didn't perhaps endear his daughter to him.

"Jamie was living in constant fear that he was going to look at the TV one day and see Britney was dead."

Leon Gladstone claimed that Jamie attempted to get Britney into rehab after she plummeted into a downward spiral following her 2006 split from husband Kevin Federline.

Jamie also convinced Kevin Federline to obtain sole legal custody of his two young children with Spears, who was hospitalized on an involuntary psychiatric hold in early 2008.

The lawyer told the court, "(Jamie) had to take her kids away. He had to get her into a conservatorship. He is scared to death, and he's thinking to himself, 'My daughter has lost everything. Here she is, in a psychiatric ward, out of her head.'"

Gladstone went on to reveal that Jamie - who was made conservator of Britney Spears' estate after the 2008 incident - and his ex-wife Lynne began to notice a change in their daughter's behavior when she split from Justin Timberlake in 2002, insisting the relationship "ended painfully".

Sam Lutfi, who was fired from the pop star's entourage in 2008, filed suit against Lynne Spears over allegations she made in her memoir, Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World. In the book, she claimed Lutfi secretly drugged her daughter and refused to let her speak freely to family and friends.

The trial continues.