‘The loves of my life’: Inside Britney’s relationship with her sons Jayden and Sean

Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman In Me has been basically all anybody can talk about for the past week as revelation after revelation about her life has emerged from the pages. And Britney dedicated the tell-all memoir where she’s reclaimed her voice to two of the most important people in her life: Her 18-year-old son Sean Preston and her 17-year-old son Jayden James— who recently moved to Hawaii with their dad Kevin Federline.

“For my boys, who are the loves of my life,” Britney wrote. So, here’s everything you need to know about her relationship with her sons. From the sacrifices she made to keep seeing them to their falling out over her conservatorship:

Britney suffered perinatal depression after her sons were born

After Sean and Jayden were born, Britney reveals in The Woman in Me she suffered with bad perinatal depression. “Unfortunately, there wasn’t the same conversation about mental health back then that there is now,” she writes. “I hope any new mothers reading this who are having a hard time will get help early. Because I now know that I was displaying just about every symptom of perinatal depression: sadness, anxiety, fatigue.”

Britney was spotted driving with five-month-old Sean on her lap while driving with one hand in 2006 while she tried to escape photographers. Later that year, her parenting came under scrutiny again when she tripped on her trousers and open-toed shoe as she tried to step round a pothole and nearly dropped Sean on his head, an incident she was distraught over:  “Being a new mom is challenge enough without trying to do everything under a microscope,” Britney says in her memoir. “With Kevin away so much, no one was around to see me spiral – except every paparazzo in America.”

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She initially went along with her conservatorship so she could see her sons

Britney and Kevin initially had joint custody of their sons after they separated but after Britney’s public “meltdown” their father was given sole custody in 2008. Shortly afterwards, Britney was placed under her controversial conservatorship and says she initially went along with the decision so she could see Jayden and Sean.

“I did it for my kids,” she writes. “Because I played by the rules, I was reunited with my boys…Even though I begged the court to appoint literally anyone else — and I mean, anyone off the street would have been better — my father was given the job… My freedom in exchange for naps with my children – it was a trade I was willing to make,” she writes. “And so I went along with it.”

Britney and her sons were ‘estranged’ for years and they didn’t go to her wedding

When Britney married Sam Asghari in June last year, her sons didn’t go to her wedding in Los Angeles. And, in an interview last year, Jayden revealed his and his brother’s relationship with Britney had been the reason he decided to decline his invitation.

“I’m really happy for them,” Jayden said of his mother’s marriage. “But she didn’t invite the whole family, and then if it was just going to be me and [Sean] Preston, I just don’t see how that situation would have ended on good terms,” he said.

Britney’s sons have defended their grandfather who was in charge of Britney’s conservatorship

Britney has previously made it clear she thinks her father Jamie Spears should “be in jail” for the way he handled her conservatorship, which gave him control of her personal life and her finances over a decade. However, her son Jayden has said his grandfather “doesn’t deserve all the hate he’s getting,” although, he admits the conservatorship “did go [on] for a little too long”.

Initially, Britney was devastated by this and wrote in an Instagram post: “I didn’t do anything wrong and I know I’m not perfect, but the love I’ve given you and how much I adore you and your diplomatic way [of] speaking like Paw Paw [Jamie Spears]… ‘This can be fixed, I will see when she’s better?’ Jayden, it was a miracle I could even have a normal conversation when I got out of that place.”

She also admitted she was “deeply saddened” she “wasn’t up to his [Jayden’s] expectations of a mother” and added: “My love for my children has no boundaries and it deeply saddens me to know his outcry of saying I wasn’t up to his expectations of a mother… and maybe one day we can meet face to face and talk about this openly!”

A TMZ report last May claimed Britney’s sons had stopped responding to her texts, with Page Six reporting she’d last seen her sons “at the very beginning of 2022”.

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Featured image credit via Broadimage/Shutterstock