Britney Spears Matt Baron/Shutterstock
Family drama? Britney Spears isn’t on the best terms with her two sons, a new documentary alleges.
TMZ producer Katie Hayes weighed in on the pop star’s ups and downs with 17-year-old son Preston and 16-year-old son Jayden in the documentary TMZ Investigates: Britney Spears: The Price of Freedom, which aired on FOX Monday, May 15. “By the end of the summer [2022], tensions got so bad that the boys weren’t even responding to her texts. And she was furious,” Hayes claimed.
The producer also alleged that the “Toxic” songstress, 41, hasn’t seen her sons in “well over a year.” Despite the lack of face time, TMZ’s Charles Latibeaudiere claimed that the singer has had some communication with her children. “Recently, there have been occasional texts between Britney and her kids, so, maybe the ice is thawing a bit,” he alleged. Us Weekly has reached out to Spears’ rep and lawyer for comment.
Spears’ rocky relationship with the teenagers — whom she shares with ex-husband Kevin Federline — came to a head in August 2022 when Jayden publicly criticized her parenting skills.
“I think mom has struggled giving us both attention and showing us equal love,” Jayden told the Daily Mail at the time. “I don’t think she showed enough to Preston, and I feel really bad for that.”
Spears’ youngest son added that he harbored “no hate” toward his mom. “I 100 percent think this can be fixed,” he said. “It’s just going to take a lot of time and effort. I just want her to get better mentally. When she gets better, I really want to see her again.”
Preston and Jayden did not attend Spears’ June 2022 nuptials to Sam Asghari. “At the time, it just wasn’t a good time to go. I’m not saying that I’m not happy for her,” Jayden explained. “I’m really happy for them, but she didn’t invite the whole family. And then if it was just going to be me and Preston, I just don’t see how that situation would have ended on good terms.”
After Jayden’s interview with the outlet was published, the Grammy winner took to social media to slam her son’s comments. In a lengthy, since-deleted Instagram post, Spears claimed that her sons spent as little time with her as possible during their visits.
“If I didn’t shower you guys with gifts and have amazing food ready and play a mother f—king saint it was still never good enough,” she alleged.
The Mississippi native added that her children should have been more understanding of everything she was going through amid her 13-year conservatorship, which ended in November 2021. “Jayden, it was a miracle I could even have a normal conversation when I got out of that place, but you were just like my other family,” Spears said at the time. “You secretly loved looking at me like something was wrong with me.”
Days after uploading her fiery post, the performer shared in a series of since-deleted Instagram audio clips that she “felt like a huge part of me has died” amid her estrangement from her sons.
“Like, literally, I have no purpose anymore. They were my joy, they were my everything. I looked forward to seeing them. That was what I lived for,” she said.
Federline’s lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, addressed the family tension in TMZ’s documentary, asserting that Preston and Jayden “love their mother” and “hope the relationship will improve” over time. “But right now, that is a dynamic that doesn’t seem to be in existence, the attorney alleged.
Before the doc dropped, Asghari, 29, slammed the film via Instagram on Sunday, May 14.
“I found it absolutely disgusting for the people who were in her life when she didn’t have a voice, they went and told her story like it was theirs,” he said, encouraging his followers not to “believe what you read online.”
The Iran native and Spears began dating in 2016 after meeting on the set of her “Slumber Party” music video. In March, a source exclusively told Us that the duo’s marriage has been going strong.
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“Things between Britney and Sam are going great and they couldn’t be happier,” the insider shared. “They have an amazing marriage and love each other deeply.”
