CNN
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Britney Spears and her ex-husband Kevin Federline are speaking out against tabloid reports they say are untrue.
Spears and Federline, who were married from 2004 to 2007, are the parents of teen sons, Sean and Jayden.
A recent Daily Mail story quoted Federline expressing fear that Spears was “on meth.” A separate article in another British tabloid, The Sun, claimed Federline had staged a “failed intervention” to try and help his ex-wife.
“The fact that people are claiming things that are not true is so sad,” Spears wrote in an Instagram post over the weekend, adding that she hoped Federline and their son Preston, who is also quoted in the Daily Mail story, hadn’t said such things about her.
“…it breaks my heart and the news is so low…I’ve always felt like the news bullies me…,” she wrote. “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???”
CNN has reached out to a representative for Spears for additional comment.
Federline also posted a statement on Instagram, writing that it saddened his family that the journalists from both outlets “decided to fabricate lies and publish the heart ache our family has endured, along with the trauma of our minor children in the Daily Mail and The Sun.”
He added that the reporters had been allowed “into our home because we trusted them, but that trust was lost and we severed ties back in March for many reasons.”
“The lies and attempts to exploit minors is click bait and another repulsive example of where, unfortunately, certain journalism has sunk today,” Federline’s statement ended.
A spokesperson for the Daily Mail told CNN in a statement on Monday that the organization stands by the story written by Daphne Barak.
“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,” the statement read in part.
“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 statement concluded.
CNN has reached out The Sun for comment.
