Britney Spears has responded to her son Jayden’s comments in an interview that she “struggled” to provide him and his brother Preston with equal love and attention.
“it deeply saddens me to know his outcry of saying I wasn’t up to his expectations of a mother,” she wrote on Instagram.
“I’ve tried my best at being the best person I can be … to be basically held hostage in homes under nurses and bullshit,” she said.
Britney famously lived under a conservatorship that gave her father Jamie Spears control over her finances, career and the parenting of her children. A Los Angeles judge ended that arrangement in November 2021 after 13 years of what she called “abuse” in a since-deleted audio recording.
Jayden, 15, made his comment about his mother’s parenting in an interview published Thursday with filmmaker Daphne Barak in the Daily Mail.
“I think Mom has struggled giving us both attention and showing us equal love, and I don’t think she showed enough to Preston, and I feel really bad for that,” he told Barak.
“We’ve both been through so much pressure in the past that this is our safe place now to process all the emotional trauma we’ve been through to heal, heal our mental state,” the teen said, referring to their home with their father, stepmother and half-siblings.
Britney’s ex-husband Kevin Federline recently told the Daily Mail that their children have purposefully avoided her in the last few months because they were angry she accused Federline in a since-deleted statement of refusing to see her while she was pregnant with one of them.
The two teens even declined to attend their mother’s wedding to Sam Asghari in June. Jayden told Barak it was difficult to have a mother in the spotlight, while Federline, who has main custody of the children, told the Daily Mail that “there were a lot of things going on that I didn’t feel comfortable with” at her house.
The pop star said that she loved her kids but urged her “dear child” Jayden to “pick up a book and read one before you resort to even thinking about my intellect.” She also addressed Jayden’s claim that his grandfather “was just trying to be a father” when he placed her in the conservatorship.
“Psss if you can honestly sit back and say with your sensible brilliant mind 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 for you and your father to sit face to face and try to learn WHAT’S GOOD,” Britney wrote.
“It’s just going to take a lot of time and effort,” Jayden told Barak. “I just want her to get better mentally. When she gets better, I really want to see her again.”
“I love you a lot,” Jayden added, addressing his mother. “I hope for the best for you. Maybe one day we can sit down like this and talk again.”