Two of Britney Spears’s ex-husbands have responded publicly after she was arrested and charged with driving under the influence.
Spears, 44, was pulled over on Wednesday (4 March) by California Highway Patrol officers and booked by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office around 3am, before being released from custody hours later.
She is due in court on 4 May.
The pop star’s second ex-husband, dancer and actor Kevin Federline, with whom she shares her two sons, Sean and Jayden, reacted to her arrest in a statement shared by his lawyer.
“Kevin hopes for the best for Britney and if help is necessary, he hopes that she will neither resist it or those who are attempting to work with her,” his lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan told TMZ. “The concern is whether this is just a one off or a one more.” Spears and Federline were married from 2004 to 2007, following her brief marriage to Jason Allen Alexander in 2004, which was ultimately annulled.
Meanwhile, Spears’s third ex-husband, Sam Asghari, who split from Spears in August 2023 after 14 months of marriage, was asked about the incident during an interview with Fox News.
The Iranian-American model and personal trainer, 32, said he wanted to focus on the subject of the escalating war between the United States and Iran, something he has commented on previously.
However, he remarked: “When it comes to people making mistakes, I understand that… I think that everyone deserves privacy. And I hope that the press has learnt from the past, that they give her the privacy that she needs.”
Asghari and Spears met in late 2016 and married in June 2022. They separated shortly before filing for divorce in August the following year.
The CGP has said the incident is still under investigation and that chemical test results are pending.
A representative for Spears told The Independent this week that Spears would be receiving the help and support she needs.
“This was an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable," the representative said. “Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law and hopefully this can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life.”
The statement continued: “Hopefully, she can get the help and support she needs during this difficult time.
“Her boys are going to be spending time with her. Her loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success for wellbeing.”
Spears was released from a long-running and highly controversial conservatorship in 2021, that had seen her personal, financial and business affairs controlled by her father, Jamie Spears, for almost 14 years.
Concern over her wellbeing has continued in recent years due to issues such as her erratic social media behaviour.
She also wrote about being estranged from her two sons, 20-year-old Sean Preston Federline and 19-year-old JAyden James Federline, whom she shares with her ex-husband Kevin Federline. However, she posted about being reunited with Jayden around Christmas 2024.
The pop singer appears to have deactivated her Instagram account following her arrest.
