Pop superstar Britney Spears responded to her ex-husband’s bombshell claims about her, calling them “extremely hurtful and exhausting.”
Dancer Kevin Federline, 47, married Spears, 43, in 2004, and they remained together until a highly contentious split in 2007.
In the memoir, an excerpt of which was published by The New York Times, Federline claimed that Spears used cocaine while breastfeeding and said she behaved erratically around their young boys.
During their three-year marriage, the couple had two sons, Sean Preston, now 20, and Jayden James, 19. Federline, or “K-Fed,” as he was known, detailed some of the low points in his upcoming memoir, You Thought You Knew.
The eight-time Grammy-winning artist has now responded on X, calling Federline’s claims bogus. “The constant gaslighting from ex-husband is extremely hurtful and exhausting,” she said. “I have always pleaded and screamed to have a life with my boys.”
She said she felt “demoralized by this situation” and added that she only rarely sees the boys.
“Relationships with teenage boys is complex,” she wrote. “They need to take responsibility for themselves. With one son only seeing me for 45 min in the past five years and the other with only four visits in the past five years. I have pride too. From now on I will let them know when I am available.”
“Trust me, those white lies in that book, they are going straight to the bank and I am the only one who genuinely gets hurt here,” she added.
She said she had been living a “sacred and private life” since she was released from a conservatorship. In 2008, Spears was placed under a conservatorship with her father, James Spears, and attorney Andrew M. Wallet as the conservators until Nov. 12, 2021.
A spokesperson for the pop star had previously said Federline was “profiting off her” by releasing the book, which, “sadly comes after child support has ended with Kevin.”
In the tell-all, Federline cited the singer’s bizarre behavior following the end of her conservatorship and warned, “something bad is going to happen.”
“The truth is, this situation with Britney feels like it’s racing toward something irreversible,” Federline writes in an excerpt shared by the Times.
He also argued that the “Free Britney” movement—which called for Spears’ independence—has done more harm than good. “All those people who put so much effort into that should now put the same energy into the ‘Save Britney’ movement. Because this is no longer about freedom. It’s about survival,” he writes.
The claims that appeared to hurt Spears most, however, centered around their children. “They would awaken sometimes at night to find her standing silently in the doorway, watching them sleep—‘Oh, you’re awake?’—with a knife in her hand,” he writes. “Then she’d turn around and pad off without explanation.”
Federline’s memoir is set to be released on Oct. 21. The Daily Beast has contacted Federline’s representatives for comment.
