Britney Spears has hit back at those who doubted a nude selfie she posted to Instagram this week was actually her.

The Toxic singer raised eyebrows with the snap, which was taken from behind and cropped from just above the bottom.

However, some doubted it was her due to the fact that the tiny Hebrew tattoo the singer has on her neck wasn't visible.

In a response, the star admitted she had digitally removed the inking to "see what it would look like clean".

"Ok so ... I edited out my tattoo on my neck cause I wanted to see what it would look like clean (shrugging emoji)," the mother-of-two wrote. "... and yeah I like it better so while you guys are talking behind my back go ahead and kiss my a*s haters!!!!"

But her fans were less than convinced by the response, with some insisting that "Britney would never be this rude".

Due to the controversial court battle over her conservatorship - which Britney wants to come to an end after 13 years - there has been increased speculation over who controls her social media accounts.

Fans have often attempted to glean clues as to what's going on behind the scenes from online posts during the court fight over her father Jamie's status as her conservator, which the I'm A Slave 4 U musician denounced in testimony last month.

Jamie remains her conservator ahead of the latest hearing on 14 July.

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