Federline makes a number of allegations against Spears, in the memoir shared with the BBC ahead of the book’s release by publisher Listenin.
He accuses Spears of unhealthy behaviour as a mother, including drinking when she was pregnant and taking cocaine while her two sons were still breastfeeding. Spears has previously denied having substance abuse issues.
When they were teenagers, the couple’s sons were fearful of Spears, Federline also alleges. “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,” he writes. “Then she’d turn around and pad off without explanation.”
Federline also expresses his concern for his estranged ex-wife, writing: “The truth is, this situation with Britney feels like it’s racing toward something irreversible. From where I sit, the clock is ticking, and we’re getting close to the 11th hour.”
He writes that he was supportive of a conservatorship, under which many aspects of Spears’s life were controlled by others for years. Of the Free Britney movement, Federline writes that he could “never fully get behind it”.