Britney's gloomy Monday

A former bodyguard dropped a bombshell on Monday in pop-star Britney Spears’ custody battle with Kevin Federline. Tony Barretto, 28, testified that he feared for Spears’ children because of “issues of nudity” and “drug use.”

Monday has to qualify as “one of the worst days Britney Spears has had in a long time,” said PerezHilton.com, “and she’s had some pretty bad ones recently.” In the span of a few hours, her lawyer and “then her manager dropped her.” And then things really started going wrong.

“Sources tell me that Spears is just a breath away” from losing custody of her kids, said Roger Friedman on FoxNews.com. Barretto’s horror story could be all the Los Angeles Family Court needed to hear to decide that Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, should live with their father, Kevin Federline. And “it’s not like he’s Father of the Year.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Before quitting, Spears’ attorney, Laura Wasser, denied that the singer used drugs, People magazine reported. Wasser said that Barretto was merely bitter because Spears fired him in May. Wasser said that Spears and Federline—her former backup dancer—will continue to split custody for now. According to court documents, Spears has income of $737,868 a month, while Federline has no "net income after business expenses." His spousal support of $20,000 a month dries up in November.