When Britney Spears’s controversial conservatorship was terminated in November after 13 years, many thought that it would mark the end of the star’s troubles.

However, drama is still constantly bubbling in her personal life, and her strained relationship with her teenage sons has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks.

Britney shares 16-year-old Preston and 15-year-old Jayden with her ex-husband Kevin Federline, who she broke up with a year before the conservatorship was put in place.

During that year, Kevin had custody of their children, but Britney acquired shared custody again in 2008. As the years went on, a new settlement gave Britney two visits from her sons a week in addition to an overnight stay.

She continuously provided Kevin with $20,000 a month in child support, and also covered the kids’ school, insurance, and clothing expenses. In 2018, Kevin requested an increase in this arrangement, which left Britney’s fans furious.

In recent years, Jayden and Preston started to visit their mom less and less, and they were notably absent from her and Sam’s wedding earlier this summer.

Last month, Kevin sparked huge backlash when he discussed Britney in an explosive tell-all interview with the Daily Mail, where he acknowledged his sons’ decision to not visit their mother.

Kevin also claimed that Britney’s father, Jamie Spears, “saved her life” — despite Britney accusing him of being abusive toward her.

“I saw this man [Jamie Spears] that really cared, and really cares about his family and wanting everything to be OK,” Kevin said. “When Jamie took over, things got into order. He saved her life.”

“I know that teenagers are just hard to deal with at that age … but COME ON, there’s being rude then there’s being HATEFUL,” she said, before adding: “they would visit me, walk in the door, go straight to their room and lock the door.”

Kevin responded by sharing a series of old videos that showed Britney arguing with their sons. The clips were seemingly filmed in secret by the children, and Britney appeared to have no knowledge that she was on camera.

Kevin captioned his social media post: “I can not sit back and let my sons be accused in this way after what they’ve been through. As much as it hurts us, we decided as a family to post these videos,” but the videos were quickly deleted.

Since then, both Kevin and Jayden have taken part in other interviews, with Kevin’s appearance on the Australian news show 60 Minutes set to air on Sunday.

Jayden and Preston currently live with Kevin, his wife Victoria, their children Jordan, 11, and Peyton, 8, as well as Kevin’s two oldest children from a previous relationship, 20-year-old Kori, and 18-year-old Kaleb.

Jayden described their home as their “safe place,” after claiming that Britney struggled to give both him and his brother equal love and attention.

“I don’t think she showed enough to Preston and I feel really bad for that,” he said. “We’ve both been through so much pressure in the past that this is our safe place now, to process all the emotional trauma we’ve been through to heal, heal our mental state.”

And similarly to Kevin, Jayden also defended Britney’s parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears — who he calls Memaw and Paw Paw. Jayden said that his grandfather “doesn’t deserve all the hatred he is getting in the media.”

“I love him, with all my heart. He was just trying to be a father,” he added, also heaping praise on Britney’s brother, Bryan Spears, who she recently called out for lying about being invited to her wedding.

Britney also dragged Kevin “who hasn’t had a job in 15 years” as she said that she understood how their differing parenting styles meant that her sons preferred to be raised by him.

“I assume it is easier for you guys not to have someone check on you to make sure you are doing your homework!!! I’m sure the standards of your dad smoking weed every day benefits your daily life at 15 and 16 to partake in a VERY COOL GENERATION !!!” she said.

Britney then reeled off all of the work that she did to provide for her sons, including judging on The X Factor and four tours, before writing: “It’s horrible to see your dad be a hypocrite and say media is horrible yet he has you talking about personal matters to them!!!”

“If you could pause for a second, remember where you came from!!! I hope you can look in the mirror and remember… you are my child and always will be!!!” she continued. “Since Preston didn’t speak, I send my love!!! I would love nothing more than to see you two face to face.”

Britney also responded to Jayden’s comments about her mental health, telling him to read a book before commenting on her “intellect.”

Rounding off her statement, Britney told Jayden: “If you can honestly sit back and say with your sensible brilliant mind what Memaw and Paw Paw did to me was fine and call them not bad people… Then yes I have failed as a mother and hopefully that’s a chat for you and your father to sit face to face and try to learn WHAT’S GOOD.”

While many people empathized with Britney and praised her for speaking out, it was widely agreed that the situation with her sons has become pretty sad all around as fans expressed their hope that the family will be able to heal in private.

Discussing Britney’s post on a Reddit forum, one user wrote: “I’m sad for everyone involved and really hope Brit and her kids can figure it out privately/ heal so these kids can break the cycle of dysfunction.

“There’s so much trauma, lost time, and such a deep need to finally be respected/ heard coming through but I hope she doesn’t hold the boys responsible for too much because they grew up with some really fucked up stuff normalized,” they said.

Someone else wrote: “This whole thing is just messy and sad on so many levels….i feel horrible for Britney having to go through this so publicly.”