Britney Spears’ attorney released a lengthy statement Thursday, saying the pop star has “faithfully supported her children” and “loves them dearly,” after her ex-husband Kevin Federline appeared to share a series of recorded videos seemingly criticizing her parenting.
In the statement Thursday, Spears’ attorney, Mathew Rosengart, said Federline’s apparent decision to post the videos was “cruel, bottom of the barrel stuff.”
Federline on Wednesday night appeared to share three since-removed videos to Instagram. The caption stated that his two sons of him with Spears recorded the videos when they were 11 and 12, respectively. The boys are now 15 and 16.
TODAY has not confirmed Federline himself posted the videos.
“I can’t sit back and let my sons be accused in this way after what they’ve been through. As much as it hurts us, we decided as a family to post these videos the boys took when they were 11 & 12,” the post’s caption read. “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 caption included the hashtag #NeverFearTruth.
The first video appeared to show Spears shouting at one of her sons to “respect” her when he is in her house.
“You all need to start treating me like a woman with worth,” Spears can be heard shouting in the video. “I am a woman, OK? Be nice to me. Do you understand?
The second and third videos appear to be of another argument in a vehicle. Spears can be seen in the front passenger seat arguing with one of her sons de ella after he had gone out in cold weather with no shoes on.
“Have you lost your f—ing mind?!” she shouts at the beginning of the clip. “I mean, have you lost your f—ing mind? I do care but I’m shocked as f— with you. And I don’t know what to do.”
She adds that she is “scared” of her son because he is “weird” as he goes through puberty.
“I don’t know what to say. But I do care more than you know,” she says. Later in the video, she says she’s going to take her son’s phone away for going out without shoes on “in Alaska weather.”
TODAY has reached out to Federline’s team about the posted videos and for additional comment.
In his statement Thursday, Rosengart referenced a recent interview Federline gave to ITV in saying, “Britney Spears is a brilliantly-talented, extremely-hardworking icon, who is rightfully beloved and respected by millions around the world. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said about Mr. Federline, who for reasons that are inexplicable, decided to give a gratuitous interview that has hurt the mother of his children.
“Britney has faithfully supported her children and she loves them dearly. Whether he realizes 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 ,” the statement continued. “Putting aside his ITV interview, Mr. Federline’s ill-advised decision to post an old video of his 11 and 12 year old children was cruel, bottom of the barrel stuff.”
Rosengart added later in the statement, “We are working with Instagram to ensure that Mr. Federline adheres to its rules and we are exploring all appropriate relief against him. In the meantime, as Britney herself poignantly said, whatever is occurring between her and her boys should remain private. We urge Mr. Federline to act with a measure of grace and decency and to cease from publicly discussing private matters, which benefits no one.”
Federline said in the Aug. 6 ITV interview that their teen boys have “decided they are not seeing her right now.”
He added that it had been “a few months” since the boys had seen their mother and that they’d made the decision to not go to her recent wedding to Sam Asghari.
In the interview, Federline also alluded to the existence of videos, saying his sons started sending him recordings because there were “a lot of things that were going on that they just didn’t feel comfortable with.”
“They made sure that I knew what was going on and at that point that was…it was…well they started sending me videos and certain things that they were like, look, I’m telling you that this is happening .”
Spears responded to Federline’s interview with an Instagram story on Saturday night, writing that it was “HURTFUL.”
“It saddens me to hear that my ex-husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children…” she wrote in part. “As we all know, raising teenage boys is never easy for anyone… I gave them everything. Only one word: HURTFUL …”
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism