Britney Spears slams people who ‘profit off my pain’ as excerpts from ex-husband Kevin Federline’s memoir released

Britney Spears continues to push back against her ex-husband Kevin Federline’s claims in her upcoming memoir.

“Being loved unconditionally and with a naive heart like mine, always being threatened or made to believe I’m the bad guy while they take advantage of my pain,” Spears wrote in a lengthy Instagram post Thursday, without specifying any names. “I disagree 100% with how he literally attacks me in his interviews. Truth be told, the man in the interview went STRAIGHT TO THE SOURCE and said it CLEAR AS DAY… no money from Britney for 5 years, you’re trying to get paid, that’s what America in general is saying, weirdly you both have moved on… your kids are adults, it’s a different world now… why is HE SO ANGRY.”

Although the pop star didn’t specify who “he” was in the post, it appears she was once again firing back at Federline as excerpts from her upcoming tell-all memoir are released.

“If you really love someone, you don’t help them by humiliating them,” Spears continued in Thursday’s post. “What scared me was how serious and angry he was, people have no idea, it’s way worse than anyone could imagine… the boy hates me and it’s deep anger to literally say the things he says.”

The post comes after Spears shared a statement on Instagram on Wednesday about her ex-husband’s “constant gaslighting.” “I always begged and screamed to have a life with my boys. Relationships with teenagers are complex. I felt demoralized by this situation and always asked and almost begged for them to be a part of my life. Unfortunately, they always witnessed (their) own father’s lack of respect for me.”

Spears and Federline married in 2004, before welcoming sons Sean Preston, now 20, and Jayden James, now 19. The couple’s divorce was finalized in 2007.

“They need to take responsibility,” Spears added. “With one son only seeing me 45 (minutes) in the last 5 years and the other with only 4 visits in the last 5 years, I’m proud too. From now on I’ll let them know when I’m available. Trust me, these white lies in this book, they’re going straight to the bank and I’m the only one who’s really hurt here.”

In his next memoir, You thought you knewreleased on October 21, Federline recounts a time when, he says, their teenage sons were afraid to spend time at their mother’s house.

“They would sometimes wake up in the night to find her standing silently in the doorway, watching them sleep – ‘Oh, are you awake?’ – with a knife in his hand,” Federline wrote, according to the New York Times. “Then she would turn around and walk away without explanation.”

The Times article includes additional excerpts from Federline’s memoir, including his account of the evening Spears was placed on a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a three-hour standoff with their sons.

Recalling the incident, Federline writes: “It was one of the hardest nights of my life. … I felt sick because of what she was going through. She was someone I had loved. Someone I had built a life with. The mother of my children.”

Federline further expresses his general concern for Spears in a later chapter, in which he writes that she is “running toward something irreversible.”

“It has become impossible to pretend that everything is okay,” he writes. “From where I sit, time is running out and we are approaching the eleventh hour. Something bad is going to happen if things don’t change, and my biggest fear is that our sons will be left holding the pieces.”

In Spears’ own memoir, published in 2023, she reflected on her breakup with Federline and what it was like to lose custody of their sons. After their divorce, Federline was granted full physical custody of Sean Preston and Jayden James. Federline currently has custody of the boys, whom he moved to Hawaii with his wife in 2023.

“If they had let me live my life, I know I would have followed my heart, dealt with it the right way, and fixed the problem,” the “Stronger” singer writes of his first loss of custody.

Spears was held under a controversial conservatorship for 14 years until November 2021, when, supported by the #FreeBritneyMovement, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny agreed to end the legal arrangement.

The conservatorship was divided into two parts: the conservatorship of Spears’ estate, which involved control of all of her income and financial decisions, and the conservatorship of Spears’ person, which concerned her mental and physical well-being.

“I just want my life back. And it’s been 13 years. And that’s enough,” Spears said during a 2021 court hearing regarding her conservatorship. “I deserve to have a life. I’ve worked my whole life. I deserve to have a two- to three-year break and, you know, do what I want to do. … I deserve to have the same rights as anyone else, having a kid, having a family, all those things, and more.”

According to Federline in his book, ending Spears’ conservatorship had a negative impact on their sons.

“Now more than ever, (our children) need your support. I’ve been their buffer for years, but now he’s bigger than me,” he wrote. “It’s time to sound the alarm.”