Britney Spears’ feud with ex-husband Kevin Federline has taken a nasty turn, with Federline publishing private videos appearing to show his ex-wife yelling at their teenage sons.
Federline shared three videos on his long-dormant Instagram page on Friday morning (Australian time) showing his ex-wife allegedly raising her voice towards their sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James.
“I cannot sit back and let my sons be accused in this way after what they’ve been through,” Federline captioned his now-deleted post.
Federline said the footage was taken when their sons were 11 and 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.”
The first video appeared to show Spears telling off her kids in the dark, demanding they “better start respecting” her.
“This is my house. If I wanna come in here and give you lotion for your face cuz it is coarse, and all you tell me is, ‘It’s fine, it’s fine,’ no it’s not fine!” she says.
“You better all start respecting me, are we clear? And when Robin calls … even Robin is a f—g kid.”
It is unclear who “Robin” is.
“You all need to start treating me like a woman with worth. I am a woman, OK? Be nice to me. Do you understand?” Spears can be heard demanding.
The second and third videos appear to be filmed during a car ride, the singer appearing to grow agitated after one of her sons didn’t wear shoes outside.
“Have you lost your f—ing mind?” Spears yells.
“I am shocked as f— with you, and I don’t know what to do … I don’t know what to say. But I do care, more than you know.”
Although Spears is yet to comment on Federline’s post, her lawyer and former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart called the move “bottom of the barrel stuff”.
“Whether he realises it or not, Mr Federline has not only violated the privacy and dignity of the mother of his children, he has undermined his own children, whose privacy he should protect,” Mr Rosengart told Page Six.
“Mr Federline’s abhorrent, ill-advised decision to post an old video of his 11 and 12-year-old children was cruel, bottom of the barrel stuff.”
Mr Rosengart said Federline might have broken the law by posting the footage, because Spears did not appear to be aware she was being recorded.
California is a two-party consent state, where all parties must consent prior to the recording of a conversation.
“In addition to demeaning himself and violating societal norms, he has now also created various legal issues for himself including, but not limited to, implicating cyber-harassment and cyber-bullying statutes, among other things,” he said.
Spears and Federline have been locked in a bitter war of words since he took aim at her parenting in an explosive interview with ITV.
Sean Preston is now 16 and Jayden James is 15. Federline said the teenagers had minimal contact with their mother.
“The boys have decided that they’re not seeing her right now. It’s been a few months since they’ve actually even seen her,” he said.
Federline said their sons once visited Spears regularly but had since decided to stop. They were notably absent from her wedding to long-time boyfriend Sam Asghari earlier this year.
“There were a lot of things that were going on that they just didn’t feel comfortable with,” he said.
While Federline stopped short of sharing specific details, he said “they made sure I knew what was going on”.
Spears hit back at her ex-husband’s claims on social media this week, alleging that her sons were “hateful” towards her.
“I know that teenagers are just hard to deal with at that age … but COME ON, there’s being rude then there’s being HATEFUL,” she wrote in a now-deleted post.
“They would visit me, walk in the door, go straight to their room and lock the door.”
Spears said while she “tried and tried” with her sons, she “might have overdone it”.
“I always TRIED and TRIED, and maybe that’s why they stopped coming here !!! I wanted them to love me so much that I might have overdone it !!!
“This summer, they told me, ‘we may come here less’ and I was like ‘that’s fine’.”
Spears and Federline were married for three years from 2004-2007.
Their marriage ended before Spears’ infamous public breakdown and the beginning of her 13-year conservatorship, which lasted until November 2021.
The singer is due to tell all about her conservatorship, her time in the music industry and conflict with her family in an upcoming memoir.
