Celebrity
Britney Spears Said Her Son’s Public Criticism Of Her Parenting “Saddens” Her
Jayden claimed that she “struggled” to give him and his brother equal love and attention.
In a new interview with filmmaker Daphne Barak, Britney Spears’ teen son discussed their fractured relationship. Among the claims 15-year-old Jayden Federline made was that Spears “struggled” to give him and his brother Sean Preston, 16, equal love and attention, specifically that his brother bore the brunt of her frustration. Posting a lengthy Instagram statement on Sept. 1, Spears responded to Jayden’s comments from the ITV interview about her parenting and that she “treated [Jayden] better” than Preston.
“I say to my son Jayden that I send all the love in the world to you every day for the rest of my life,” Spears wrote, adding that she “tried [her] best,” despite the restraints of her 13-year conservatorship. “My love for my children has no boundaries ... and it deeply saddens me to know his outcry of saying I wasn’t up to his expectations of a mother.”
In the post’s second slide, Spears quickly turned her ire toward her sons’ father, Kevin Federline, who she said she helped financially because he “hasn’t had a job in 15 years.” Claiming that Federline doesn’t check their homework and is “smoking weed every day,” she suggested it was easier for Jayden and Preston to live without discipline. “It’s horrible to see your dad be a hypocrite and say the media is horrible, yet he has you talking about personal matters to them.”
After Spears told her boys to tell their father to “at least mow the lawn,” her husband, Sam Asghari, commented, “Mowing the lawn > professional baby daddy.” (In total, Federline has six children, ranging from ages 8 to 20, with three women.) Asghari’s comment has, so far, racked up nearly 50,000 likes.
Elsewhere in the interview, which the Daily Mail published quotes from one day ahead of its airing, Jayden also addressed criticism of his grandparents Lynne and Jamie Spears. Conceding that “maybe the conservatorship went on too long,” the 15-year-old said that his grandfather still “doesn’t deserve all the hatred he is getting in the media,” as he “was just trying to be a father.” Calling Lynne a “really nice person,” Jayden insisted that his grandparents “are not bad people.”
Spears took issue with that assessment as well. “Psss if you can honestly sit back and say with your sensible brilliant mind that what memaw and paw paw did to me was fine and call them not bad people ... then yes I have failed as a mother and hopefully that’s a chat that for you and your father to sit face to face and try to learn WHAT’S GOOD.”
Still, it seems not all hope is lost for the mother and son. Though he admitted that it would “take a lot of time and effort” to repair the relationship, Jayden said he “100% [thinks] this can be fixed.” He added, “I just want her to get better mentally. When she gets better I really want to see her again.”
Meanwhile, Spears didn’t approve of her son discussing her mental health, but similarly seems ready to hash things out privately. As she put it in her Instagram post, “Maybe one day we can meet face to face and talk about this openly.”
