Kevin Federline told ITV in an August 2022 interview that Sean and Jayden chose not to attend their mom’s wedding and “have decided they are not seeing her right now,” nor had they seen her for “a few months.”

Britney’s ex said the boys distanced themselves from her in part due to the NSFW photos of herself she would post on Instagram. “I try to explain to them, ‘Look, maybe that’s just another way she tries to express herself,'” Kevin said. “But that doesn’t take away from the fact of what it does to them. It’s tough.”

Britney responded after excerpts from the then-yet-to-air interview were published. “It saddens me to hear that my ex husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children,” she wrote. Aug. 6. “As we all know, raising teenage boys is never easy for anyone.”

Sam came to Britney’s defense the next day, calling Kevin “a father who hasn’t worked much in over 15 years” whose “gravy train will end soon” once he no longer was receiving child support from his ex-wife. In response, Kevin’s longtime attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan told TMZ, “Sam really doesn’t know Kevin. He doesn’t know what is going on in Kevin’s household.”

After Kevin appeared to post old videos that showed then-12-year-old Sean and 11-year-old Jayden arguing with their mother (that were later deleted), Britney’s attorney fired back, calling the move “cruel, bottom of the barrel stuff.”

“Britney has faithfully supported her children and she loves them dearly,” the lawyer told E! News in an Aug. 11, 2022, statement. “Whether he realizes it or not, Mr. Federline has not only violated the privacy and dignity of the mother of his children, he has undermined his own children, whose privacy he should protect.”