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Kevin Federline’s memoir, You Thought You Knew, comes out next week and is already getting lots of buzz for its descriptions of his ex-wife, Britney Spears. The pair were married from 2004 to 2007 and share two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James. In the book, Federline reportedly shares his concern for the singer’s well-being and claims that their sons were afraid to stay at her house as teenagers. But Spears has taken issue with his claims, defending her complicated relationship with her sons and accusing her ex-husband of profiting off her after she stopped paying child support.

According to the New York Times, Federline writes that his sons became scared of staying with Spears at some point while they were teenagers. (It’s unclear exactly when this happened.) “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 writes, per the Times. “Then she’d turn around and pad off without explanation.”

Later in the book, Federline claims that Spears’s behavior since 2021, when she was released from her conservatorship, has caused concern. “It’s become impossible to pretend everything’s OK,” he writes. “From where I sit, the clock is ticking, and we’re getting close to the 11th hour. 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.”

Responding to the excerpt, a representative for Spears suggested Federline’s decision to share these revelations was connected to the fact that Spears recently stopped paying child support. “With news from Kevin’s book breaking, once again he and others are profiting off her and sadly it comes after child support has ended with Kevin,” a spokesman for Spears told the Times. “All she cares about are her kids, Sean Preston and Jayden James, and their well-being during this sensationalism. She detailed her journey in her memoir.”

Spears followed that up with a lengthy statement on X on Wednesday, where she wrote that “the constant gaslighting from ex-husband is extremely hurtful and exhausting. I have always pleaded and screamed to have a life with my boys.” She added that “relationships with teenage boys [are] complex,” and said she has “felt demoralized by this situation and have always asked and almost begged for them to be a part of my life.” “Sadly, they have always witnessed the lack of respect shown by [their] own father for me. They need to take responsibility for themselves. With one son only seeing me for 45 min in the past 5 years and the other with only 4 visits in the past 5 years,” she continued. “I have pride too. From now on I will let them know when I am available.” Spears said she has been “trying to live a sacred and private life the past 5 years” and said she is only speaking about this “because I have had enough and any real woman would do the same.”

On Thursday, Spears shared another post on X that seemed to address Federline’s memoir, among other things. “He is literally attacking me in his interviews,” Spears wrote, presumably about Federline, although she didn’t mention him by name. “I know his book will sell loads more than mine,” she added. “If you really love someone then you don’t help them by humiliating them.”

TMZ reported that Spears stopped paying child support last November, after Jayden James turned 18. Her relationship with her sons has reportedly been strained for years — Federline was granted full custody back in 2008 after a messy legal battle. In 2022, Federline said that the boys had “decided they are not seeing her right now” and that they hadn’t attended her wedding to Sam Asghari. Last year, TMZ reported that Jayden had begun to see Spears again following years of estrangement. But Federline’s attorney said the former dancer had not heard anything about a reconciliation.

On the one hand, Federline’s relationship with Spears will certainly motivate readers to check out the book. On the other, it’s hard to tell what’s going on beyond Spears’s Instagram videos. For everyone’s sake, this seems like a situation to be mediated by a professional rather than hashed out in a highly publicized memoir.

This post has been updated.

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