Let’s #FreeBritney again…this time from her sponging ex Kevin Federline
THE saga that is Britney Spears’ life continues to fascinate and horrify in equal measure.
Supposedly “freed” from the conservatorship under her father, we expected to see her emerge from the cocoon of suppression and begin a newly emancipated and creative chapter of her life.
Yet all we’re seeing are repetitive and rather sad vignettes of her gyrating dead-eyed in microscopic outfits on Instagram while her teenage sons speak of their sadness at seeing her “this way” and her former husband Kevin Federline was quoted as being “terrified” for her wellbeing.
Britney has responded by saying she is baffled by the suggestions that she’s anything but fine and that “hopefully, it is just the news being hateful”.
Ah yes, the wicked old media making things up again (©: Prince Harry.)
The person making the claims is Daphne Barak, a documentary maker who has plenty of first-hand knowledge since she spent time with Kevin and the boys in their home.
READ MORE ON BRITNEY SPEARS
Kevin has since denied some of the comments reported.
Whatever the truth, it’s hard not to feel sympathy for Britney, whose early success made her the Golden Goose of a family she’s now spitting feathers about because, as she sees it, she was manipulated and used by those supposed to protect her.
And despite being supposedly liberated from the grasp of others, perhaps she feels that’s still the case.
After all, Kevin, who has custody of their sons and is vocal in his support of their decision not to see their mother at this point, is still paid £32,000 a month by his ex-wife.
Most read in The Sun
That’s more than the salary of the US President.
It rightly goes towards Preston and Jayden’s education and living expenses, including a house in the celebrity enclave of California’s Calabasas.
But of course Kevin, who is largely unemployed and, according to Britney, likes smoking marijuana, also benefits from living there.
As does his new partner Victoria, who, according to Ms Barak, has a fondness for whiling away her time on fantasy sports gambling sites.
Ms Barak adds that ever since the boys were taken from Britney after her breakdown in 2008, Kevin has been an involved father, ferrying them back and forth from school and attending their various activities.
But with Preston fast approaching 18, and Jayden now 16, that hands-on approach is surely reaching its natural conclusion?
Consequently, Britney now hopes to reduce the monthly payments by half, but meanwhile Kevin is reportedly making plans to move the family to Hawaii where, guess what, child support can potentially be extended to age 23.
Hmmmm.
It seems that everyone has their truth in this painful scenario, but the truth is harder to fathom.
Certainly, Britney seems a lost soul in her Instagram posts and there are enough rumours of concern among her friends to suggest she might benefit from some expert help.
And perhaps Kevin’s very public expressions of concern come from a genuine place of wanting to get her to accept that help.
But surely, not being able to see her grown sons isn’t helping her state of mind.
Nor is having to continually fund the lifestyle of Kevin and his new partner who help facilitate that estrangement.
So perhaps it’s now time for Kevin to stop living off Britney and get a paying job.
It would certainly give his concern for her a lot more validity.
JUST STOP IT
ECO-FANATICS who brought the M25 to a standstill have been hit with heavy costs by a judge.
Slapping them with a £7k bill, he warned the four Insulate Britain activists: “I told you all from the very beginning that if you chose to use the criminal courts as a forum to publicise your view it would come at a cost.”
Hoo-bloody-rah.
At last some common sense.
Can we roll out this strategy across the board?
Given that the police seem toothless, hitting the protestors where it really hurts — ie their pockets — might finally put a stop to their attention-seeking antics.
Naked truth
NATURISTS Neil Cox and Danielle Quiggan dined naked at The Railway pub in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, whose owners say they celebrate “diversity and inclusion”.
Yawn.
What about the rights of those who wish to tuck in to their meat and two veg without the sight of someone’s else’s being metaphorically forced down their throat?
Hooray, Henri
FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron says the British three-year-old stabbed in a park in France is awake and “watching TV and (the attack) is just a bad memory already”.
Thank goodness for that.
But no doubt her poor parents will never forget it.
In the meantime, they and the other families affected perhaps have “backpack hero” Henri d’Anselme to thank for his brave four-minute battle where he used his bag to try to thwart the knifeman.
Fighting back when your own life is in danger is one thing, but putting yourself in the line of danger when you could just as easily run the other way takes a special kind of person.
Très bien, Henri.
The world needs more people like you.
This isn’t what I think of as comfy, Irina
MODEL Irina Shayk says that outside of work: "I love feeling comfortable going through my day, whether I'm doing school pick-ups, work meetings or parent things."
Here she is on the school run in New York, wearing an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny crop top and double denim with leather chaps.
Cripes.
If that's "comfortable", I'd hate to see what dressed up looks like.
Bet on Josie
THIS Morning presenter Josie Gibson is rumoured to be in talks for the I’m A Celebrity jungle.
Which, if true, means all other potential candidates should just hang up their felt hats and exit stage left now.
For she is quite simply the nicest woman in television and will win it by a landslide.
Lefty Peers' shame
WITH next year’s election looming, it’s worth bearing in mind that Labour peers have opposed measures to “detain and swiftly remove” illegal arrivals.
This week alone, 600 migrants arrived here and this photo shows another group from a small boat being “intercepted” (ie taxied ashore) by our Border Force.
It doesn’t take Einstein to notice that if they are fleeing persecution, they mysteriously appear to have left their mothers sisters, wives and children behind.
Britain should always provide a legal, safe passage for those whose lives are under threat, but the sheer number of what appear to be economic migrants arriving here is a problem when our infrastructure is already crumbling under the weight of our existing population.
Illegal immigration remains a political football that gets kicked about but never reaches the goal of finding a workable solution.
But of course, the lives of Labour peers will remain largely unaffected by it so they can afford to virtue signal their right-on credentials while standing by as criminal traffickers exploit desperate people.
Shame on them.
Hasta la vista, baby
ONE of Boris Johnson’s parting shots was to award an MBE to House of Commons hairdresser Kelly Jo Dodge.
Has he ever actually met her?
NHS's close shave
DURING a heated Parliamentary debate on whether to rewrite the Equality Act 2010 on the basis of biological sex rather than gender identity, SNP MP Kirsty Blackman declared: “I have no idea what my chromosomes are.
“I have an assumption that they are probably XY but I don’t know . . . I’ve got a fair idea of what my genitals look like and how that compares to what other people’s genitals look like, but if we’re talking about biological sex and we’re requiring that to be the definition, there needs to be an actual definition that everybody in this room can agree with . . . ”
In which case, allow me to assist.
Those born with a vagina are ordinarily XX and those born with a penis are XY.
As Kirsty has given birth (twice), one can fairly assume she is XX.
So either it was a slip of the tongue, or . . . well, words fail me.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Particularly as, according to Wikipedia, Ms Blackman “matriculated at the University of Aberdeen to study medicine, but later dropped out”.
Just as well perhaps.