In an except of Kevin Federline‘s upcoming tell-all memoir, You Thought You Know, the dancer and ex-husband of Britney Spears issued a warning regarding the pop star and their sons, Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19. Along with an alarming claim that Spears would watch their children sleep with a knife in her hand and other ominous statements, Federline wrote: “Something bad is going to happen if things don’t change.”
Now, Spears is speaking out against his allegations, accusing Federline of “constant gaslighting” that has become “extremely hurtful and exhausting.”
“I have always pleaded and screamed to have a life with my boys. Relationships with teenage boys is complex. I have felt demoralized by this situation and have always asked and almost begged for them to be a part of my life. Sadly, they have always witnessed the lack of respect shown by own father for me,” wrote Spears in a statement posted to X on Wednesday. “They need to take responsibility for themselves. With one son only seeing me for 45 min in the past 5 years and the other with only 4 visits in the past 5 years. I have pride too. From now on I will let them know when I am available.”
The singer also addressed Federline’s allegations in his memoir, writing, “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.” Spears said that she “will always love” her sons, and those that truly know her, “won’t pay attention to the tabloids of my mental health and drinking.”
“I am actually a pretty intelligent woman who has been trying to live a sacred and private life the past 5 years,” said Spears before ending her post. “I speak on this because I have had enough and any real woman would do the same.”
According to an excerpt obtained by The New York Times, while Federline doesn’t specify in the excerpt any one particular concern, he suggests that his ex-wife is in need of professional help that he believes won’t be provided in the aftermath of the “Free Britney” movement. “All those people who put so much effort into that should now put the same energy into the ‘Save Britney’ movement,” he wrote per the Times. “Because this is no longer about freedom. It’s about survival.”
So far, excerpts have only prompted more questions (with details presumably in the book), such as a passage in which Federline wrote, “The truth is, this situation with Britney feels like it’s racing toward something irreversible. It’s become impossible to pretend everything’s OK.”
Spears was under conservatorship from 2008 until 2021, during which Federline had sole custody of Sean and Jayden and long periods of time passed between her visits with their children. Since being released from the conservatorship, the artist has spent more time with Sean and Jayden. In her 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me, Spears described her complicated relationship with her sons, the court-ordered conservatorship, and the custody battle with Federline. “My freedom in exchange for naps with my children,” she wrote. “It was a trade I was willing to make.”