Federline, who was married to Spears between 2004 and 2007, recently gave an interview to The Daily Mail in which he revealed that sons Sean Preston, 16, and Jayden James, 15, have chosen not to see their mother in recent months, as he raises them with his wife, Victoria Prince.
Spears has since lashed out at Federline on Instagram, with her most recent post on the matter, which was shared and deleted on Wednesday, taking aim at her sons, who she accused of engaging in “hateful” behavior toward her.
“Yeah, I know that teenagers are just hard to deal with at that age … but COME ON, there’s being rude and there’s being HATEFUL,” she wrote in part. “[They] would visit me, walk in the door, go straight to their room and lock the door !!!
“The MONITOR would tell me that he just likes to be in his room … I’m like why come visit me if they don’t even visit me !!! But I never said that because I have to be kind !!!”
Soon afterward, former dancer Federline struck back on the image-sharing platform, posting a trio of clips used to illustrate his side of the argument.
“I can not sit back and let my sons be accused in this way after what they’ve been through,” he wrote. “As much as it hurts us, we decided as a family to post these videos the boys took when they were 11 & 12. This isn’t even the worst of it. The lies have to stop. I hope our kids grow up to be better than this. #NeverFearTruth.”
In the first of the videos, the “Toxic” singer was shown arguing with her boys at bedtime, as she said: “This is my house, if I wanna come in here and give you lotion for your face ‘cause it is coarse, and all you tell me is, ‘No, it’s fine, it’s fine.’ No, it’s not fine.”
“You all better start respecting me, are we clear?” Spears went on. “And when Robin calls … even Robin’s a f****** kid. She goes, ‘What have you been doing to your kids?’ You all need to start treating me like a woman with worth. I am a woman, okay? Be nice to me, do you understand?”
While the “Robin” in question wasn’t specified, Spears had previously spent lots of time with her former business manager, Robin Greenhill, during her since-dissolved conservatorship.
The second clip showed Spears and her offspring on a car ride, during which the pop star was shown arguing with her eldest son for apparently going barefoot in public.
“Have you lost your f****** mind?” Spears was shown saying. “I do care, but I’m shocked as f*** with you, and I don’t know what to do. And I’m scared of you because you’re weird, because you’re going through puberty. I don’t know what to say. But I do care more than you know. Your little body can’t handle all of that. It’s like sometimes I don’t even know what to say to you. I was in shock and I do care.”
“If you really cared you wouldn’t take my phone away,” her son is heard responding in the footage, which appeared to have been captured by Jayden James.
The third clip served as a continuation of the second, where the younger of the two sons criticized his mother for “interrupting every sentence.”
“I think you just care about yourself, because you won’t let us speak one word and you won’t let us go anywhere we wanna go,” Jayden James said.
“I want to hear what you have to say. I’m listening,” Spears responded.
The tone of their conversation changed, as Spears spoke with her son about the differences in difficulty between ice-skating and roller-skating.
Newsweek has reached out to representatives of Spears and Federline for comment.
Daphne Barak, who interviewed Federline for the Daily Mail article and an upcoming TV special, this week revealed that while Spears has been estranged from her family and regularly spoken out against them via Instagram, Federline has been quietly allowing their sons to see the relatives.
During an appearance on the U.K. TV show Lorraine on Tuesday, Barak explained that Federline’s TV special was something that the “whole family” wanted to take place after years of raising his and Spears’s sons “against the odds.”
When Lorraine guest presenter Ranvir Singh asked about claims that Spears’ estranged mother, Lynne Spears, was also interviewed on camera for the TV special, Barak replied: “I don’t want to talk about that. I mean, Lynne basically wanted to take part [in] it. Again, it’s very complicated in this family.”
“They’re all scared of what Britney will post tomorrow on Instagram,” Barak went on. “What I can tell you is that I was impressed that Kevin thinks that the boys’ best interests are his priority. And for that reason, he welcomes Lynne Spears to talk to them and come to his house, which she does.
“She did talk to them in my presence a couple of times. And he does welcome Britney’s brother [Bryan]. They’re feuding as well, as you know. He comes to the house and takes the boys to his house. Jamie Lynn [Britney’s sister] is sending presents. So for him, he doesn’t want to get in the middle of the feuding Spears family.”
