60 Minutes aired its controversial interview with Britney Spears‘ ex-husband Kevin Federline last night and fans are rightfully calling it out.
In the interview, parts of which originally appeared on British network ITV, Federline claimed Britney’s father Jamie Spears “saved” her by implementing the abusive conservatorship she was trapped in for 13 years. Never mind that it was exploitative and physically harmful, which is why it was abolished in the first place.
“I feel like he saved her, back then,” he said.
After the earlier British interview, Britney called K-Fed out on Instagram. In the new interview, Federline accused Britney of “attacks” against him and their sons, and insisted any time he’s dragged her name through the mud has been an act of self-defence.
Britney’s son Jayden was also in the interview. Shockingly, he defended Jamie and the conservatorship, too.
“I know everybody blames him for the conservatorship. It was a father caring for his daughter,” he said.
“Maybe the conservatorship took a little too long. That is why people developed a hatred for him.”
The interview was controversial not just because of the way it demonised Britney’s custody issues with her kids, but because it involved her underage son and neglected to mention why she lost custody of her kids in 2019. It conveniently left out that Britney’s children had a domestic violence restraining order against Jamie Spears in 2019 after he allegedly assaulted her eldest son Sean Preston. That’s why they moved in with Kevin Federline.
60 Minutes‘ social media has been bombarded with tweets and comments from angry fans calling it out for airing the interview, which one fan described as a “disgusting”, “one-sided” perspective of a much more complicated story.
Absolutely disgusting to air something like this. Speechless. Why don‘t you interview Britney and stop doing a one-sided documentary? Ask Kevin what he has done for the last 15 years OOPS nothing. What a role model of a dad he is.
— just a random Fan (@BritFanGermany) September 4, 2022
Some asked why TF Federline was given an interview at all considering none of Britney’s drama has anything to do with him.
Why even give this deadbeat a platform to lie!?! This man has done absolutely nothing to deserve an interview. #freeloader #britneyspears #60mins https://t.co/h1ZJLHndqp
— Fe (@FefetheKaT) September 4, 2022
Others accused the 60 Minutes interview of lacking in “integrity” because it didn’t cover the restraining order against Jamie Spears. Weird thing not to mention in an interview that paints Britney as a bad mum who “attacks” her kids and Jamie as a concerned father!
This is so wrong on the part of 60 minutes, I am genuinely sickened
— LadyBatGirlKimberley 🦇 🐝🌹 (@earthma23) September 4, 2022
https://twitter.com/monalisaney81/status/1566474072766169093?s=20&t=64Q3alRKewoaSstxgXjaKg
Convenient that he left out the fact that the ONLY reason Britney addressed the relationship she has with her sons today is because Kevin told the media it was strained in the first place. Shut the f*ck up Federline. #KEVINFEDERLINEISTRASH https://t.co/Redek7H34B
— teej 🌺 (@badmedlakarma) September 4, 2022
Needless to say, this whole thing is messy and sad.
Britney has been the subject of mental and physical abuse for over a decade, and has had to deal with that publicly because of her pop icon status.
To capitalise on that by painting her as a troubled, volatile mess is very reminiscent of the way she was treated in the early 2000s — which is what led to her mental health breakdown in the first place.
Funny how tabloid media pretended to be sympathetic for 0.5 seconds when Britney appeared as a perfect victim: silent and unable to actually advocate for herself or hit back. Now the she can, she is demonised in trashy stories digging into her family relations yet again. History repeats itself.
