Britney Spears has spoken publicly for the first time since her arrest earlier this month on suspicion of driving under the influence.

According to TMZ, the singer was taken into custody on March 4 in California on suspicion of “driving under the influence of a combination of drugs and alcohol”.

On March 27, she returned to Instagram for the first time since the arrest, posting a video showing her dancing alongside her 19 year old son Jayden Federline.

“Thank you guys for all your support… spending time with family and friends is such a blessing,” she wrote to her 42 million followers on her private account. “Stay kind !!!”

Following the arrest, a spokesperson for Spears described the situation as “an unfortunate incident that is completely inexcusable”.

They added: “Britney is going to take the right steps and comply with the law and hopefully this can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to occur in Britney’s life.

“Hopefully, she can get the help and support she needs during this difficult time. Her boys are going to be spending time with her. Her loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success for well being.”

Spears is scheduled to appear in court on May 4.

Back in 2007, Spears was involved in a hit and run case. Those charges were later dismissed, and she was also cleared by a jury of driving without a valid California licence.

Toward the end of last year, her former husband Kevin Federline claimed she had used cocaine during a period when she was nursing their two sons. Spears pushed back at the claims and suggested Federline was attempting to “profit off [her] pain”.

In 2023, Spears also addressed speculation suggesting her family feared she was struggling with substance use, calling those reports “not true”. That same year, police confirmed she was not considered to be in “any kind of danger” following a welfare check.

During that year, she also released her memoir The Woman In Me. The book generated significant attention thanks to its honest reflections on her career, relationships, the 13 year conservatorship and other personal chapters of her life.

More recently, reports emerged that Spears had sold the rights to her full music catalogue. She also said in January that she would “never perform in the US again because of extremely sensitive reasons”, while also suggesting that shows in the UK and Australia could happen soon.

This followed comments she made in 2024 when she told fans she would “never return to the music industry” while responding to speculation about upcoming projects.

Spears has not released a full length album since 2016’s ‘Glory’. A previously unreleased track from those sessions, ‘Swimming In The Stars’, was later released in late 2020. She returned in 2022 for a collaboration with Elton John on ‘Hold Me Closer’, which marked her first new release after the end of her long running conservatorship the year before.