Christina Aguilera has appeared to unfollow Britney Spears following an odd body-shaming post the 'Toxic' singer published on her Instagram this week.
The singers seemed to have reignited their decades-long feud - which began in the early noughties as the two pop stars were constantly pitted against each other by the media. Now, however, they've got something new to argue about, after Spears posted a strange quote that body-shamed Aguilera's backup dancers.
Taking to Instagram on Monday, the 'Circus' singer - who regularly uploads videos and lengthy posts detailing horrific revelations about her 13-year conservatorship - uploaded an image of a quote that read: "I found there was only one way to look thin: hang out with fat people."
The 40-year-old's accompanying caption touched upon how unconfident she was made to feel during her legal conservatorship, writing: "I wish I could have chosen the nannies for my children … my dancers … I mean if I had Christina Aguilera's dancers I would have looked extremely small 💃💃💃… I mean why not talk about it??"
"Don't you think my confidence would have been a bit better if I could choose where I lived, ate, whom I called on the phone, dated and who was on stage with me!!!," she stated, before adding: "It's hard sometimes now I see how much of my womanhood was stripped away at that time and every person sat back and didn't say a thing!!! Anyways … I will be here talking bout things people NEVER talked about 🙄🙄🙄 !!!"
The post was met with a lot of criticism, with many of Spears' 42 million followers kindly telling her that the post constituted body-shaming. One follower wrote: "Body shaming others is not the move."
"Oof. Love Britt- but this was in bad taste. Body shaming to make yourself feel better is not where it's at," another added.
"Confidence comes from within, not shaming your back up dancers for being too skinny?," someone else chimed in.
Another person commented: "You can speak YOUR truth without making an effort to offend someone."
While another wrote: "No need to put another woman down to feel better about yourself. Focus on your healing."
While it hasn't been confirmed when Aguilera unfollowed Spears, it's clear that she's definitely not following her post-body-shaming Instagram upload. This comes months after Spears publicly slammed Aguilera for choosing not to speak out in support as her conservatorship ended.
Aguilera, 41, was asked at the Latin Grammy Awards in November 2021 whether she'd spoken to Spears after she was freed from her conservatorship. The Dirrty singer's publicist jumped in before she could reply, saying: "No we're not doing that tonight, I'm sorry, thank you though, bye!" Irish entertainment site, Goss, reported.
Aguilera then quickly chimed in with: "Can't… but I'm happy for her."
She was swiftly bashed by Spears on her Instagram stories, after the mom-of-two posted the clip and wrote: "I love and adore everyone who supported me…but refusing to speak when you know the truth is equivalent to a lie!!!!"
She added: "13 years being in a corrupt abusive system yet why is it such a hard topic for people to talk about??? I'm the one who went through it!!!! All the supporters who spoke up and supported me thank you…yes I do matter!!!!!"
Eventually, several weeks later, Aguilera voiced her support for Spears on The Enrique Santos Show. After being asked whether she'd spoken to Spears since the termination of her conservatorship, the mom-of-one replied that she had not yet reconnected with the singer.
She stated: "It's a subject that I definitely want to be careful of because I never want to speak out of [turn] about somebody that I have so much respect and admiration for. I will just say what I do feel comfortable saying, as I've said before actually and stated: that I couldn't be happier for her."
"Every woman deserves to feel empowered and to own that for themselves however they see fit," Aguilera added.
As of Tuesday, September 13, Spears' controversial post is still up on her Instagram, much to many of her fans' disapproval.