Britney Spears’ sons claim that the pop star would watch them as they slept with a knife in her hand, according to their dad Kevin Federline’s bombshell new memoir.
Federline, 47, relays the knife incident — which he says happened more than once — in his new memoir You Thought You Knew, which has been excerpted by The New York Times.
“They would awaken sometimes at night to find her standing silently in the doorway, watching them sleep — ’Oh, you’re awake?’ — with a knife in her hand,” Federline reportedly writes. “Then she’d turn around and pad off without explanation.”
Federline and Spears, 43, were married from 2004 to 2007, and endured a messy custody battle over their sons Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19.
A rep for Spears did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jason Merritt/FilmMagic Kevin Federline and Britney Spears at a party in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt/FilmMagic
Spears’ relationship with the boys has been fraught over the years, though she shared a picture of her reuniting with Jayden to Instagram in June, and told PEOPLE in 2023 that becoming a mother and starting a family was a “dream come true.”
In 2022, Jayden spoke to The Daily Mail about his relationship with his mom, saying that he “100 percent think[s]” it can be “fixed.”
“It’s just going to take a lot of time and effort. I just want her to get better mentally,” he said at the time. “When she gets better I really want to see her again.”
Jayden also said that his brother had asked Spears “not to post his photos [to social media], and she did it anyway. So it didn’t go well.”
Federline also spoke during the interview, saying that Sean Preston and Jayden had “made the decision” not to attend Spears’ June 2022 wedding to Sam Asghari.
The “Gimme More” singer later reacted to the interview on Instagram, writing, “It saddens me to hear that my ex-husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children… As we all know, raising teenage boys is never easy for anyone. It concerns me the reason is based on my Instagram. It was LONG before Instagram… I gave them everything… Only one word: HURTFUL.”
Britney Spears and Jayden Federline in June. Meanwhile, elsewhere in his memoir, Federline expressed concern over Spears’ current “situation,” writing that he believes she is “racing toward something irreversible.”
It’s become impossible to pretend everything’s OK. From where I sit, the clock is ticking, and we’re getting close to the 11th hour,” he reportedly wrote in his memoir, per the Times. “Something bad is going to happen if things don’t change, and my biggest fear is that our sons will be left holding the pieces.”
He also alleged that the “Free Britney” movement — which helped extricate Spears from her 13-year conservatorship — was more harmful than fans believe, and that he needs the pop star’s fans to turn their focus to saving her.
“Now, more than ever, [our children] need your support. I’ve been their buffer for years, but now it’s bigger than me,” he wrote. “It’s time to sound the alarm.”
Federline did not offer specifics as to his exact worries regarding Spears, though fans of the “Toxic” singer have expressed concern in recent months amid a series of erratic social media videos, many of which feature Spears nude and dancing.