Britney Spears and Kevin Federline are speaking out amid a report that the singer is on drugs.
Over the weekend, The Daily Mail reported that it spoke with Federline, 45, about his concerns that Spears, 41, is using drugs. “I fear she’s on meth — I’ve been praying someone would make it public and that she wakes up. … It’s terrifying. She is the mother of my boys,” journalist Daphne Barak alleged Federline told her.
Now, in a statement posted on his Instagram Story, Federline wrote in part that the reporting is “false” and “repulsive” and said it “saddens” his family, which includes the two sons he shares with Spears — Sean Preston, 17, and Jayden James, 16.
“[The] lies and attempts to exploit minors is click bait and another repulsive example of where, unfortunately, certain journalism has sunk today,” he added, in part.
Spears also responded to the report with a post shared on her Instagram feed, in which she addressed her two sons and their strained relationship.
“The fact that people are claiming things that are not true is so sad … This may not even be them saying such things because it doesn’t make any sense to me for them to be saying that,” she said, in part. “… It makes me sad because I tried so hard to make things nice for you and it was never good enough. So you guys go behind my back and talk about me … it breaks my heart and the news is so low.”
“Hopefully it is just the news being hateful and Kevin nor Preston said any of those things,” she added.
In a legal letter sent to The Daily Mail on Sunday, which was seen by PEOPLE, Spears’ attorney, Mathew Rosengart, slammed the reports of the star’s alleged use of crystal meth.
“The Daily Mail, through Daphne Barak, posted a story yesterday containing numerous false and defamatory fabrications concerning my client Britney Spears that are attributed to Kevin Federline and his children, in particular regarding ‘crystal meth,’ ” the letter begins.
Noting that Federline “acknowledged the falsity of Ms. Barak’s story” when he spoke to TMZ earlier in the day, Rosengart’s letter continues, “I have separately learnt that on several occasions, Ms. Barak sought to contact Britney under false pretenses, again using her minor children, which is exploitative, harassing, and outrageous.”
“And moreover, Britney’s representatives were never contacted prior to the publication of the story, further demonstrating actual malice and reckless disregard for the truth,” the legal document added.
The letter concluded, “Britney is indeed a public figure, but this conduct is beyond the pale and completely unacceptable. It is shoddy even by today’s standards of ‘journalism’ and the unfair scrutiny she has faced.”
Rosengart also said he would “follow up separately” but asked the outlet to “please confirm” that it would “immediately delete and retract that false and defamatory story and conduct an internal investigation regarding this matter and the abuse of Britney and her children.”
On Monday, a Mail on Sunday spokesperson sent PEOPLE a written statement reading: “The Mail on Sunday and Daphne Barak stand by the story published on June 11. Daphne Barak and her team spent months working with Kevin, his wife and family, including Britney’s boys, Jayden and Preston, for a new documentary. They spent 12 days filming together. Daphne Barak has assured us that the quotes attributed to Kevin and the family are accurate and fairly reflect the interviews conducted, in which Kevin expressed his fears that Britney might be using crystal meth to Daphne and to her producer Erbil Gunasti and members of the film crew. He did so clearly and repeatedly.”
The statement continued, “Kevin also made it clear to Daphne that he hoped someone would expose the situation, as he saw it, because that would be the way to get help for Britney. The allegation about crystal meth was put to Britney’s representatives by the Sun on Sunday, with whom we were collaborating, to which there was no response.”
A representative for Spears did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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