Britney Spears and Kevin Federline wanted to clear the air after a report surfaced that the singer is on drugs.
The former couple slammed the Daily Mail after the outlet reported it spoke with Federline, 45, about his concerns that Spears, 41, is using drugs. “I fear she’s on meth — I’ve been praying someone would make it public and that she wakes up. … It’s terrifying. She is the mother of my boys,” journalist Daphne Barak alleged Federline told her.
Federline quickly responded to the publication, posting to Instagram saying the reporting is “false” and “repulsive” and said it “saddens” his family. He shares two sons with Spears — Sean Preston, 17, and Jayden James, 16.
“[The] lies and attempts to exploit minors is clickbait and another repulsive example of where, unfortunately, certain journalism has sunk today,” he added, in part.
Spears also responded to the report on her Instagram account.
“The fact that people are claiming things that are not true is so sad … This may not even be them saying such things because it doesn’t make any sense to me for them to be saying that,” she said, in part. “… It makes me sad because I tried so hard to make things nice for you and it was never good enough. So you guys go behind my back and talk about me … it breaks my heart and the news is so low.”
“Hopefully it is just the news being hateful and Kevin nor Preston said any of those things,” she added.
Spears’ attorney, Mathew Rosengart, slammed the reports of the star’s alleged use of crystal meth and sent the outlet a legal letter, PEOPLE reported.
“The Daily Mail, through Daphne Barak, posted a story yesterday containing numerous false and defamatory fabrications concerning my client Britney Spears that are attributed to Kevin Federline and his children, in particular regarding ‘crystal meth,’ ” the letter reads.
It also noted that Federline “acknowledged the falsity of Ms. Barak’s story” when he spoke to TMZ earlier in the day, Rosengart’s letter continues.
“I have separately learnt that on several occasions, Ms. Barak sought to contact Britney under false pretenses, again her minor children, which is exploitative, harassing, and outrageous.”
“And moreover, Britney’s representatives were never contacted prior to the publication of the story, further demonstrating actual malice and reckless disregard for the truth,” the letter reads on.
“Britney is indeed a public figure, but this conduct is beyond the pale and completely unacceptable. It is shoddy even by today’s standards of ‘journalism’ and the unfair scrutiny she has faced.”
Rosengart asked the outlet to “please confirm” that it would “immediately delete and retract that false and defamatory story and conduct an internal investigation regarding this matter and the abuse of Britney and her children.”
