Britney Spears responded to excerpts from her ex-husband Kevin Federline’s upcoming memoir, saying he is “gaslighting” her after he wrote that he is concerned about what he called the pop star’s erratic actions since she was released from her conservatorship in 2021.
Federline wrote in his upcoming memoir, “You Thought You Knew,” that he has learned chiefly of his ex-wife’s behavior from their two sons, according to excerpts published in The New York Times on Oct. 14. NBC News has not independently verified the quotes from the book.
“The constant gaslighting from ex-husband is extremely hurtful and exhausting,” Spears wrote on X Wednesday night. “I have always pleaded and screamed to have a life with my boys.”
She said she only chose to speak out “because I have had enough and any real woman would do the same.”
A representative for Spears first addressed Federline’s comments in a statement to NBC News on Oct. 15.
“With news from Kevin’s book breaking, once again he and others are profiting off her and sadly it comes after child support has ended with Kevin,” the rep said. “All she cares about are her kids, Sean Preston and Jayden James and their well-being during this sensationalism. She detailed her journey in her memoir.”
Spears and Federline married in 2004 and finalized their divorce in 2007. According to court records obtained by NBC News, Spears paid between $20,000 and $40,000 per month in child support for their sons, Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19.
Spears said “relationships with teenage boys is complex” and added that she has “felt demoralized by this situation and have always asked and almost begged for them to be a part of my life,” in her post on X.
“I will always love them, and if you really know me, you won’t pay attention to the tabloids of my mental health and drinking,” Spears added. “I am actually a pretty intelligent woman who has been trying to live a sacred and private life the past 5 years.”
Federline wrote in the memoir, which comes out Oct. 21, that his sons once told him when they were teenagers they didn’t want to return to Spears’ home for several reasons, according to the Times.
“They would awaken sometimes at night to find her standing silently in the doorway, watching them sleep — ‘Oh, you’re awake?’ — with a knife in her hand,” he wrote, according to the Times. “Then she’d turn around and pad off without explanation.”
In Spears’ X post, she said her sons “have always witnessed the lack of respect shown by own father for me.” She noted that one of her sons has seen her for only 45 minutes in the last five years, and the other has visited her only 4 times in that same period.
“I have pride too,” Spears wrote, adding that she is going to let her sons know when she is available from now on.
Federline said in an interview with the Times that he hasn’t spoken to Spears in years, but he has become concerned about her after hearing from his sons.
“The truth is, this situation with Britney feels like it’s racing toward something irreversible,” he wrote in the book, according to the Times.
“It’s become impossible to pretend everything’s OK,” he added, per the Times. “From where I sit, the clock is ticking, and we’re getting close to the 11th 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.”
Federline told the Times he had not discussed the contents of his memoir with Spears, whom he once was a backup dancer for.
“I’ve never, ever, once, been against Britney,” Federline said. “I’ve only tried to help my sons have an incredible relationship with their mother. And it’s hard because when I really reflect on everything that’s happened — my kids do not know the woman that I married. And I’ve spent two decades trying to bridge that gap.”
In an Oct. 14 interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” Federline denied writing the memoir for money — something Spears accused him of in her X post, writing, “those white lies in that book, they are going straight to the bank and I am the only one who genuinely gets hurt here.”
“I’m absolutely, as a father, terrified that one day I might wake up and my sons are going to have to deal with the unimaginable,” Federline said.
In 2021, Spears was freed from her 13-year conservatorship after months of court hearings and years of public support from her fans, following several documentaries that investigated the pop star’s life.
Spears wrote in her 2023 memoir, “The Woman in Me,” that while she was under the conservatorship, she felt like she “became a robot.”
“But not just a robot — a sort of child-robot. I had been so infantilized that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself,” Spears wrote. “The conservatorship stripped me of my womanhood, made me into a child. I became more of an entity than a person onstage. I had always felt music in my bones and my blood; they stole that from me.”
Spears’ memoir is being adapted into a biopic by Universal Pictures, with “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu and producer Marc Platt attached, according to NBC News. (TODAY and Universal Pictures are owned by the same parent company, NBCUniversal.)
Spears seemingly referenced the project in a post on X in 2024.
“Excited to share with my fans that I’ve been working on a secret project with #MarcPlatt. He’s always made my favorite movies … stay tuned,” she said, adding a rose and camera emoji.