Even by Britney Spears’ standards, the video, posted on her beloved Instagram this week, is bizarre.
While fans have grown used to seeing the star cavorting semi-dressed around her home, a new addition to her cast list takes it into more disturbing territory: a tall, gangly teenager, dressed in a white Muhammad Ali t-shirt, sunglasses and beanie hat, and seated at a grand piano.
As the camera pans around the elegant marble-tiled living room, he launches into a dramatic – and impressively competent – melody, before following up with a barely audible, mumbled ‘rap’.
Britney, 43, is instantly in raptures: ‘That’s sick!’ she squeals. ‘Oh my God! I felt it in my bones and my heart and my lungs and my a** and my throat. Hello, hello, hello, hello… woah, woah… oh God, oh God, oh God!’
The youth, it turns out, is her 18-year-old son Jayden, the youngest of two boys born during her short-lived marriage to dancer Kevin Federline, which ended in 2007.
The two were reunited at Christmas after more than two years of estrangement, following her release from a 13-year ‘conservatorship’ order – put in place chiefly by her father as she struggled with severe mental health issues that once saw her forcibly committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Britney’s teenage son Jayden plays the piano in a video described by one fan as ‘the strangest mother-son interaction I’ve ever seen’
Yet the clips immediately sparked concern among the Toxic singer’s 41.8 million Instagram followers.
‘This is the strangest mother-son interaction I’ve ever seen,’ wrote one fan, while another said: ‘Are they OK? Something seems badly “off”. She definitely needs help.’
The social media posts have led many to ask whether #FreeBritney – the global movement to extricate the star from the legal order which placed the management of her entire life, including her $60million fortune, into the hands of her father – was a terrible mistake.
Adding to their concerns is her choice of current boyfriend: former handyman Paul Soliz, 37, a paunchy, heavily tattooed convicted felon, with nine children by three different mothers.
He’s said to have moved into Britney’s sprawling 13,264ft mansion, with five bedrooms, eight bathrooms and set in 21 acres.
Someone with a deeply vested interest in the goings-on in her gated estate is Sandra Smith, mother of Soliz’s estranged wife, Nicole – whose five children are regular visitors there.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Mrs Smith, 61, said: ‘That man is not a healthy environment. Britney looks kind of odd every time she does her social media. If I had any advice to give Britney it would be: run away.’
She revealed her daughter is currently embroiled in a bitter child custody dispute with Soliz, whose criminal record includes possession of a firearm in 2020, and driving without a licence in 2016.
Adding to fans’ concerns is her choice of current boyfriend: former handyman Paul Soliz, 37, a paunchy, heavily tattooed convicted felon, with nine children by three different mothers
‘To him, women are ATM’s,’ she said. ‘My daughter supported him for six years, working day and night.’
She said her grandchildren have been lavished with expensive gifts, trips to Disneyland and designer clothing since Soliz has been with the star.
‘The ten-year-old says: “We’re rich!” and I tell him: “No we’re not. That’s Britney’s money”.’
Mr Soliz has vehemently denied all accusations made against him by Mrs Smith.
In court documents obtained by this newspaper he called his estranged wife Nicole ‘mentally unstable’, adding of his mother-in-law: ‘Sandra Smith is manipulative and toxic.’
Yet despite his turbulent private life, thrice-married Britney seems smitten by Soliz.
The pair are often spotted driving in her white Mercedes coupe or his Mercedes G-wagon (a gift from her).
A source said: ‘They go out most afternoons. Mostly it’s to Starbucks or to fast food places like Dave’s Hot Chicken and Jack in the Box.
The singer frequently posts videos to her social media accounts of her dancing with little to no clothes on, raising eyebrows among some followers
‘They don’t go out for long. They drive around for an hour then head back to the house.’
The pair met in 2022 when Britney hired Soliz as a handyman. Their relationship quickly turned romantic although it is very much an on/off romance.
They made headlines last May when paparazzi photographed a dishevelled, half-naked Britney leaving the famed Chateau Marmont hotel on LA’s Sunset Strip after worried hotel employees called an ambulance when they allegedly heard a ‘heated fight’ between the couple in their $1,200-a-night suite.
A source at the hotel said: ‘They were drinking and partying and we got so worried we called 911.’
Britney denied they were fighting and later claimed she had accidentally injured her ankle while ‘leaping’.
Of course, sparking concerns with her eccentric behaviour is nothing new for the former ‘Princess of Pop’.
Just 24 hours before she posted the video of her and Jayden, she caused yet more alarm by declaring: ‘I burned my bathroom down today.’
A cursory glance through her social media accounts reveals scores of videos of the singer, often in various states of undress and some completely naked, dancing around her $10million home.
Just a day after posting a video with her son Jayden, the 43-year-old took to social media once more and declared: ‘I burned my bathroom down today’
One this week showed her wild-eyed, wearing a cheetah-print leotard and writhing in front of a roaring fire to Senorita, a song by her ex Justin Timberlake.
Then there are Britney’s increasingly outlandish claims which have included her assertion she is ‘five years old and moving to Mexico’ and her assumption of a new identity on Instagram where she goes by the alter ego ‘Xila Maria River Red’.
Her ex-husband Kevin once claimed it was Britney’s Instagram habit that formed part of the problem in Jayden and his older brother Sean’s strained relationship with their mother.
But what makes Britney’s erratic public displays so deeply worrying is that she is a fragile woman whose long history of mental illness culminated in the infamous 13-year-conservatorship, instigated by her now-estranged father Jamie Spears.
That prompted the global #FreeBritney movement which, at its peak, saw hundreds of fans take to the streets wielding placards demanding her ‘controlling’ father release her from a life of court-ordered drug tests and psychiatric evaluations.
A judge overturned the conservatorship in November 2021 – but only after the court heard how Britney had been forced to have a contraceptive device implanted, denying her the chance to have any more babies.
She claimed she lived as a ‘virtual prisoner’ in a ‘gilded cage’, unable to make even the most basic decisions about what to eat, let alone have any control over money.
But many are now asking if it was wise to have removed the legal safeguards.
One friend said: ‘Whatever you think of her father Jamie – and I know Britney’s fans hate him – his conservatorship kept her out of the headlines for years. She might have been controlled but at least she was taking her medication and there were legal protections in place.
‘Now she’s vulnerable and has become increasingly isolated. Her videos are highly-sexualised and her expressions are odd. People are deeply concerned. No one knows what is going on.’
Since the conservatorship ended in November 2021 there have been multiple signs that all is not well on what one ex-employee calls ‘Planet Britney’.
In April 2022, Britney married would-be actor and fitness trainer Sam Asghari, 29, but the couple split a year later citing ‘irreconcilable differences.’
Police were called for a ‘welfare check’ when Britney wielded two kitchen knives during one wild Instagram dance.
And now it seems Jayden has chosen to live with his mother.
She announced their reconciliation last Christmas on Instagram and spoke of her ‘tears of joy’ at spending the holiday with her younger son, while adding she had not seen him ‘in two years.’
Under a touching photograph of her planting a kiss on Jayden’s cheek she wrote: ‘This is my baby. Mine forever !!! It’s weird we’re like twins but he’s a boy and I’m a girl !!!’
One thing those close to Britney agree on, however, is how much she adores her boys.
A source said: ‘Whatever may have gone wrong in Britney’s life she is a great mother and has always loved her sons deeply. The worst time for her was when she couldn’t see her boys. The best thing to come out of all of this is that Jayden is back although the way he looked in her Instagram post this week was concerning. He seemed spaced out. But maybe that’s a typical teenage boy’s look?’
Those who remain close to Britney defend her ‘kookiness’ saying she is finally free to express herself after years of being rigidly controlled.
One friend said: ‘You don’t need to be concerned about Britney. She’s happy and doing fine. She’s an artist and is expressing herself through dance.
‘She was under such tight control for so many years she relieved to finally be free to be herself. She enjoys sharing her artistic freedom with her fans.
‘She loves to dance. It’s her expression of joy.’
As for Britney’s relationship with her family, she recently paid father Jamie’s outstanding $2.12million legal fees with his lawyer saying: ‘He has only ever wanted what is best for Britney whom he loves very much.’
Jamie turned down multiple interview requests but is understood to remain estranged from his eldest daughter.
Britney has reconciled with her mother Lynne and younger sister Jamie Lynne, 33.
Her relationship with older brother, Bryan Spears, 47, who was co-manager of Britney’s conservatorship for a time, remains unknown.
The film rights to her best-selling (ghostwritten) memoir The Woman in Me have been bought by Universal Pictures for $10million.
Yet Britney’s recent behaviour concerns mental health professionals who fear she may be headed for a fall.
Hollywood psychiatrist Dr Charles Sophy said: ‘It doesn’t surprise me at all because the conservatorship was there for a reason. When you have a mental illness of this degree you need that kind of structure, supervision and, most importantly, to take your medication. The erratic behavior, this out-of-control behavior… it suggests she is not being properly medicated.
‘Hindsight is 20/20 but look at it. She’s slowly unravelling. She might not have been happy (in the conservatorship) but she was stable. Now she’s out of control.’
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