Britney Spears explains why she thinks teenage sons decided to stop visiting her

Britney Spears has explained why she thinks her teenage sons decided to stop seeing her in an Instagram post.

On Wednesday (10 August), the singer responded to claims made by her ex-husband Kevin Federline that their children were distancing themselves from her.

In a pre-recorded interview for ITV, Federline, who was married to Spears from 2004 to 2007, said that they had come to the decision due to the singer’s near-naked photos she posted on the social media site.

Spears called the comments “hurtful”, and was supported by her husband Sam Asghari, who hit out at Federline.

In a lengthy post she has since deleted, Spears said that the situation involving her sons “should have been 100 per cent dealt with privately and definitely not online”.

The singer detailed how she looked forward to seeing her sons Sean, 17, and Jayden, 15, every week but grew frustrated when they would “walk in the door, go straight to their room and lock the door”.

“Why come visit me if they don’t even visit me!!!” she wrote, explaining that she would try to lead her kids in “devotion” as a consequence – “where you read two or three pages in a prayer book and talk about it”.

Spears suggested that this was her attempt to try to heal their relationship, but acknowleged: “Maybe that’s why they stopped coming here!!!”

She added: “I wanted them to love me so much that I might have overdone it!!!”

Spears said that, when her sons told her earlier this year “we may come here less”, she understood it “because they have their own thing going on”, but admitted that she felt they were “being pretty harsh”.

Britney Spears opened up about her children in a now-deleted Instagram post (Instagram)
Britney Spears opened up about her children in a now-deleted Instagram post (Instagram)

The singer also said that, after they had that conversation, which she told Federline about, their sons stopped visiting. She claimed Federline had told her in response: “I would never let them make that decision on their own … I would never do that to you.”

Shortly after Spears’ post, Federline shared a series of private videos, following which Spears deleted her post.

The clips, which were filmed in secret without Spears’ knowledge, show the singer sternly speaking to her children. Federline wrote alongside the clip: “I hope our kids grow up to be better than this.”

However, despite Federline seemingly expecting the videos to cause backlash against Spears’ parenting skills, it’s being noted online that she had not done anything incriminating and was merely raising her voice in a way most parents do.

The Independent has contacted Spears and Federline for comment.