Kevin Federline says Britney Spears's Instagram is upsetting her children

He implied Spears’s social media presence has led to her children distancing themselves from her.

HOLLYWOOD, CA - JANUARY 13: Kevin Federline and Britney Spears attends Rolling Stone/Verizon Wireles...
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
Culture

Last weekend Britney Spears’s ex-husband, Kevin Federline, claimed in an interview that their two teenage boys were distancing themselves from their mother. Spears quickly shot back with a message on her Instagram Stories.

"It saddens me to hear that my ex-husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children," Spears wrote. "As we all know, raising teenage boys is never easy for anyone ... It concerns me the fact that the reason is based on my Instagram ... it was LONG before Instagram ... I gave them everything. Only one word: HURTFUL ... I'll say it ... My mother told me 'You should GIVE them to their dad.' I'm sharing this because I can … Have a good day folks!!!"

Britney Spears's Stories via Instagram

The response comes after Federline, along with his wife Victoria, spoke to The Daily Mail about Spears’s relationship with her two sons while also criticizing the photos that his ex-wife posts online. "The boys have decided they are not seeing her right now," Federline said. 'It's been a few months since they've seen her. They made the decision not to go to her wedding." He claimed that the Spears’s conservatorship “saved her” and indicated that the revealing photos that Britney posts online were hurtful to their children.

"I try to explain to them, 'Look, maybe that's just another way she tries to express herself,’” Federline said. “But that doesn't take away from the fact of what it does to them. It's tough. I can't imagine how it feels to be a teenager having to go to high school."

While Spears’s initial response did not address Federline’s comments about her photos, her current husband Sam Asghari’s clapback on his Instagram Stories did. "To clarify, my wife has never posted a nude selfie except of her butt, which is quite modest these days,” he wrote. “All other posts were implied nudity, which can been seen in any ad for lotion or soap." Asghari also condemned Federline’s comments about the boys’ relationship with Spears:

“There is no validity to his statement regarding the kids distancing themselves, and it is irresponsible to make that statement publicly. The boys are very smart and will be 18 soon to make their own decisions and may eventually realize the ‘tough’ part was having a father who hasn’t worked much in over 15 years as a role model.”

Soon after her first message on Stories, Spears made a full Instagram post on Sunday addressing the situation. “In addition to what I said on my story … As their step mom says ‘whatever is happening outside this home has nothing to do with this home,’” Spears opened her message. She noted that “the conservatorship has only been over for 8 months !!!! Being able to have cash FROM THE OUTSIDE world for the first time is EXTREMELY ENLIGHTENING.”

Indeed, the purportedly salacious post history that Federline criticized has only come after Spears was finally freed from a 13-year long conservatorship that, among many draconian measures, strictly controlled her online behavior. “Other artists have made much worse when their children were extremely young !!!!” she noted in the post.

“Reminder that the trauma and insults that come with fame and this business not only affect me but my children as well !!!!” Spears wrote. “I’m only human and I’ve done my best.”