Britney Spears, Kevin Federline push back at tabloid report on her drug use

Pop star Britney Spears and her ex-husband Kevin Federline are denouncing a tabloid article by an author and biographer who had quoted Federline as being worried Spears might be using the illegal substance methamphetamine.

“I fear she's on meth — I've been praying someone would make it public and that she wakes up,” Federline, who has custody of his and Spears’ sons Preston, 17, and Jayden, 16, said in the U.K.'s The Mail on Sunday. His quote appears in an article by Daphne Barak, whose books include the Amy Winehouse biography “Saving Amy.” The article stated the boys claim to have seen drugs being delivered to Spears’ home.

Federline, 45, countered Sunday on Instagram Stories, where posts cycle out after 24 hours, “It saddens our family that Daphne Barak and [producer] Erbil Gunasti have decided to fabricate lies and published the heart ache our family has endured, along with the trauma of our minor children … We did allow Daphne and Bill into our home because we trusted them, but that trust was lost and we severed ties back in March … .”

Barak and Gunasti said in a joint statement Monday that they “are absolutely standing by the story,” noting, “We spent months working with Kevin, his wife [Victoria Prince] and family, including Britney’s boys … for a new documentary. We spent 12 days filming together. In that time, Kevin expressed his fears that Britney might be using crystal meth to Daphne, to our producer Erbil Gunasti, to members of our production and to mutual friends.”

The statement went on to say, in part, “He did so clearly and repeatedly. … We have hours of taped and filmed material, and other documentary evidence, with Kevin expressing his views about Britney … ."

Spears, 41, on Instagram Sunday said, “[P]eople are claiming things that are not true,” and speculated of Kevin Federline and their sons that, “This may not even be them saying such things because it doesn't make any sense to me for them to be saying that … ."

The Grammy Award winner’s long post went on to say, in part, “So you guys go behind my back and talk about me … it breaks my heart and the news is so low … l’ve always felt like the news bullies me … It's sad because everyone sits back as if that's OK to make up lies to that extent … Why am I told I have to sit back and rise above ??? When they all go so low ??? Hopefully it is just the news being hateful and [neither] Kevin nor Preston said any of those things … .”