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Britney Spears’ ex-husband Kevin Federline has claimed that her father Jamie’s 13-year conservatorship saved her, after she was finally released from the controversial arrangement last year.
In a world exclusive TV interview that broke his decade-long silence on their marriage, the dancer claimed Jamie came to him admitting he ‘didn’t know what to do’ about his daughter’s personal troubles in 2008.
Kevin, who was married to Britney from 2004 to 2007, also revealed in the bombshell interview that the singer’s two sons Sean Preston, 16, and 15-year-old Jayden haven’t seen their mother in months.
Opinion: Britney Spears’ ex-husband Kevin Federline has claimed that her father Jamie’s 13-year conservatorship saved her, after she was released from the arrangement last year
In the interview, parts of which will be aired on ITV news this week, Kevin was asked about Jamie’s decision to take control of Britney’s finances through a conservatorship back in 2008.
He explained her father came to him at the time noticeably concerned for her wellbeing, saying: ‘Jamie Spears actually came to me and was like, pretty much, ”I don’t know what to do I want to help.”
‘I saw a man that really cared, and wanting everything to be OK.’
Asked whether he felt Jamie might have saved his daughter Britney, Kevin replied: ‘100% I feel like he saved her back then.’
Worrying: The dancer claimed Jamie came to him admitting he ‘didn’t know what to do’ about his daughter’s personal troubles in 2008
Opinion: Asked whether he felt Jamie might have saved his daughter Britney, Kevin replied: ‘100% I feel like he saved her back then’
Speaking out: Kevin Federline (pictured with Britney at a Grammy afterparty) has broken a near decade-long silence on their marriage in a moving TV interview
And following Kevin’s comments that Britney’s two sons have decided they don’t wish to see her, his attorney doubled down by noting that they miss their grandfather Jamie.
Mark Vincent Kaplan, who represents Federline, claimed that while teens were more interested in spending time with their grandfather, he noted that a domestic violence restraining order is still keeping them apart.
Britney herself took to Instagram on Saturday evening to hit back at Kevin, lamenting: ‘It saddens me to hear that my ex-husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children.’
She added in her post about Sean Preston, 16, and Jayden James, 15: ‘I gave them everything.’
‘As we all know, raising teenage boys is never easy for anyone. It concerns me the reason is based on my Instagram. It was LONG before Instagram.’
Family: In the interview, Kevin claims that Britney’s sons, last pictured with her in March 2021, haven’t seen her in months
She continued, ‘One word: Hurtful… I’ll say it… My mother told me “you should GIVE them to their dad” … I’m sharing this because I can!!!’
Britney wrapped up the brief post by adding, ‘Have a good day folks!!!’
In a breathless follow-up post on her main page, she wrote, ‘In addition to what I said on my story … As their step mom says “whatever is happening outside this home has nothing to do with his home” …
‘I would like to share the DOOR [door emoji] to outside is a token to the WHITE GATES I’ve been kept from for 15 years … the conservatorship has only been over for 8 months !!!!’
She continued, ”Being able to have cash FROM THE OUTSIDE world for the first time is EXTREMELY ENLIGHTENING [light bulb emoji] …. are we equal now ??? As in even equality ???’
Fuming: Britney herself took to Instagram on Saturday evening to hit back at Kevin
Speaking her mind: The hitmaker had more to say later on Saturday night in a post that seemed to defend her nude photos while noting the long-lasting effects of her conservatorship
Free at last: Britney added that she was ‘controlled and monitored for nearly 15 years’ under her conservatorship and said she was ‘not surprised at all with their behavior’
She appeared to be defending some of her nude Instagram posts, while noting that the affects of her conservatorship were still being felt.
‘Reminder that the trauma and insults that come with fame and this business not only affect me but my children as well !!! I’m only human and I’ve done my best … I honestly would like to share my TWO CENTS !!!! I daringly would like for the Federline’s to watch the BIG BOOTY VIDEO [peach emoji] !!! Other artists have made much worse when their children were extremely young !!!!’
Britney added that she was ‘controlled and monitored for nearly 15 years’ under her conservatorship.
‘I needed permission just to take Tylenol !!! I should embark on doing WAAAY more than going topless on the beach like a baby !!!! I’m not surprised that just as my family did their share of interviews, they will too,’ she continued.
‘I’m not surprised at all with their behavior and their approach to what I’ve had to deal with !!!’ she concluded, though her target wasn’t clear.
During the interview, revealed exclusively by the Mail On Sunday at the weekend, Kevin also revealed that Preston and Jayden had not seen their mother for many months – at their own behest – even though his former wife, who married Sam Asghari, 28, in June, has bought a £10million mansion not far from the Federline family home in Los Angeles.
Low profile: Daphne Barak, who has conducted the interview, is pictured with Britney and Kevin’s sons, who have stayed out of the media limelight for years
Opinion: Kevin insisted that Britney’s two boys love their mother, despite choosing to take some time away from seeing her (pictured: Jayden with Kevin’s daughter Payton)
Britney recently married Sam Asghari in a secret wedding (pictured together) attended by Selena Gomez, Madonna and Paris Hilton. Her sons were not present
‘The boys have decided they are not seeing her right now,’ Kevin reveals. ‘It’s been a few months since they’ve seen her. They made the decision not to go to her wedding.’
Britney was finally released from her conservatorship, under which many aspects of her financial and personal life were controlled, last November. But the impact her very public tribulations may be having on their teenage sons is now Kevin’s driving force.
‘This whole thing has been hard to watch, harder to live through, harder to watch my boys go through than anything else,’ he says. ‘It’s been tough. It’s the most challenging thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.’
And there have been numerous parenting challenges throughout the ongoing Britney saga.
Following her release from her conservatorship last year, the 40-year-old star has remained at the centre of global attention and has taken to posting nude selfies on social media.
All grown up: Britney’s sons (Jayden left, while right, Preston) appeared in an Instagram post at the end of 2021 with Kevin’s pal Eddie Morales (centre)
At the time, Kevin says he felt compelled to apologise to the boys for any flak they experienced as a result.
He insists the boys love their mother, saying: ‘I try to explain to them, ”Look, maybe that’s just another way she tries to express herself.’ But that doesn’t take away from the fact of what it does to them. It’s tough.” He adds: ‘I can’t imagine how it feels to be a teenager having to go to high school.’
While he and the boys show nothing but compassion to Britney, Kevin says he is speaking out about his estranged former wife not for retribution, but to show a hitherto untold side of this showbusiness story.
Today, the 44-year-old father’s life is a world away from the frenetic chaos that accompanied his romance with a woman who went from Disney child star to global superstar. He lives quietly with his sons and wife of nine years, Victoria, an accomplished former volleyball player.
History: Kevin is pictured with Britney Spears at the Grammy’s in February 2006, the couple married in 2004
Sweet-natured, artistic-minded boys, Preston and Jayden have clearly inherited their parents’ creative streaks: Preston has already started producing music and wants to take guitar lessons, while Jayden is a keen piano player. Kevin and Victoria have encouraged all their children to express themselves.
Theirs is a blended family: Kevin and Victoria also have daughters Jordan, 11, and Peyton, eight, while Kevin’s eldest children – Kori, 20, and Kaleb, 18, from his prior relationship with actress Shar Jackson – are frequent visitors.
All six siblings are close. Kevin jokes that they are like the famous American sitcom family, The Brady Bunch, with cameras capturing them celebrating Kaleb and Kori’s birthday with cake in the garden, and the boys plunging in and out of the swimming pool.
The endless drama and controversy that Britney always appears to be at the centre of seems a world away, which is exactly how Kevin and Victoria want it.
‘This is a normal home, a family… full of love,’ Victoria tells me. ‘Whatever is happening outside has nothing to do with this home.’
But they say allowing the cameras into their home now may help Kevin’s former wife understand the strain that growing up in the shadow of global superstardom can bring.
Kevin says: ‘If there was a way – any way – I could possibly say something to just open [Britney’s] eyes – but I haven’t found that yet. I feel like, if I found that, I’d be on the phone trying to tell her.’
Kevin, who was raised in Fresno, California, would be the first to acknowledge he is no stranger to controversy himself.
He was a talented dancer when he encountered Britney in a Hollywood Club in early 2004. The timing was not ideal: Britney, then 26, had recently emerged from her 55-hour-long marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander, whom she wed in Las Vegas, while Kevin was expecting his second child with Shar, his then girlfriend.
The less-than-perfect circumstances landed Kevin in the gossip columns from the start.
The couple’s relationship – a whirlwind engagement and October 2004 wedding – unfolded against a backdrop of intense public scrutiny but did not last long. In November 2006, two months after the birth of Jayden, Spears filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences and asking for custody of their two sons.
Kevin was in Canada on a promotional tour at the time, and recalls being ‘blindsided’ when the news was broken to him as he took part in a live radio interview.
Revealing: Kevin said Britney’s sons find it ‘tough’ when she posts almost nude photos of herself on social media
‘I called my lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan and we sat down and I told him all I care about is getting 50 per cent custody,’ he recalls.
‘Nothing else mattered. Nothing. I’m not the person that will take money over family.’
He says Kaplan told him: ‘I will get it for you because I believe in you.’
A protracted legal fight followed, after which Kevin and Britney were duly awarded joint custody.
Over the following months, Britney embarked on a very public meltdown, dramatically shaving off her hair and being hospitalised for substance abuse.
By January 2008, Federline was awarded sole legal and physical custody of their boys. The following month, she was placed under the controversial legal conservatorship.
It was a chaotic and bewildering time during which Kevin says he believes everyone tried to do their best. ‘There were so many different things that were happening within a short period of time. It just all came to a head and I don’t think anybody knew what to do. How can anybody prepare you?’ he asks.
That conservatorship has been the subject of intense media scrutiny, heightened by the release of the 2021 documentary Framing Britney Spears, which in turn led to the growth of a worldwide movement – played out largely online – to end the conservatorship, under the hashtag ‘FreeBritney’.
Four months after the documentary was screened, Britney broke her silence during a legal hearing in which she asked the judge to bring the conservatorship to an end, proclaiming: ‘I just want my life back.’ She added: ‘It’s enough and it makes no sense at all. I’m done.’
Happier times: Bryan Spears, Jayden James Federline, Sean Federline, Britney Spears and niece Lexie at the Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles back in 2015
Cosy! Britney and now husband Sam Asghari tied the knot in June, after the singer was released from her conservatorship
Her wish was granted six months later, in November 2021, when a judge officially terminated the conservatorship.
Kevin acknowledges he has his own questions about why the arrangement lasted so long, but maintains Britney’s father did everything with the best intentions.
‘I saw this man that really cared, and really cares about his family and wanting everything to be OK,’ he says. ‘When Jamie took over, things got into order. He saved her life.’
Nonetheless, he acknowledges that while their sons grew up against the backdrop of the conservatorship, it became increasingly difficult trying to explain the circumstances that surrounded it.
‘They’ve had a lot of questions about it,’ he confides. ‘I don’t know that I can answer all of them for them but I just tried to explain to them that your mom needed help, you know, and the people were in play to try to make that happen, to make it better.’
This has not stopped his own relationship with Jamie from experiencing its hiccups: in November 2019, Kevin took out a restraining order against his former father- in-law following claims of an altercation with one of his sons.
Today, however, with the restraining order about to expire, any rancour is ancient history.
‘I would absolutely welcome Jamie Spears back in the boys’ lives,’ Kevin says. ‘Especially if that’s what the boys wanted. I don’t have any hard feelings towards Jamie Spears. People make mistakes. I feel bad for him. I feel like he’s been put through the wringer.’
That warmth extends equally to the rest of the family – Britney’s mother Lynne, known as ‘memaw’ by her grandsons, brother Bryan, who lives not far away in LA, and sister Jamie Lynne.
Kevin and the boys are close to all of them, as is Victoria.
‘Family is supposed to stick together, and just because they’re not my immediate family, you know, they’re my sons’, my kids’ immediate family,’ Kevin says. ‘They love their memaw. My priority has always been: it is about what is good for the boys.’
This extended family unit has taken on additional poignancy as Kevin reveals that both Sean Preston and Jayden have for several months now chosen not to see their mother.
The boys told me and my producer Erbil Gunasti what a painful decision it had been. They still love her, after all.
A period of relative stability followed the initial period of conservatorship and Kevin recalls peaceful co-parenting with his former wife. Yet in recent years, relations between mother and sons have deteriorated.
Kevin clearly has no wish to embarrass his former wife but acknowledges he became increasingly uncomfortable with what his then younger teenage sons confided they were witnessing during their visits in recent years, although he declines to go into detail.
He just says: ‘There were a lot of things going on that I didn’t feel comfortable with.’
He explains that in recent months, in the wake of increasingly erratic posts by Britney on Instagram – as well as frequently posting shots of her naked body, she has launched public attacks on social media on him and members of her family – his boys have come to their own decision.
‘They tried to give her the benefit of the doubt but at the same time, I can tell that sometimes, it hurts to be in that position,’ he says. ‘So, I made sure all my kids can come to me at any moment and discuss anything. The boys – all my kids – know that they come to me and to my wife and discuss anything.’
He adds: ‘They’re teenagers right now. You know, we talk about sex, we talk about drugs, we talk about all the things that teenagers go through. I want my kids to make all the mistakes they possibly can in my house, because [that way], I can protect them.’
It is one reason, Kevin reveals, that his sons did not attend Britney’s recent wedding to Asghari.
Woes: Britney embarked on a very public meltdown in the late 2000s, dramatically shaving off her hair and being hospitalised for substance abuse (pictured in 2007)
While the ceremony in California was attended by a clutch of A-list celebrities, her children did not join her. ‘[The boys] were happy for her, but they decided that, as they’re not seeing her right now, they made the decision not to go to her wedding,’ he says.
It is in keeping with all of Kevin’s sentiments towards his ex-wife, which remain respectful and measured. The boys are encouraged to talk about their mum with love and to understand the complexities in which her life has been mired over the years.
Victoria tells me that ‘whatever is going on outside, has nothing to do what is going on inside this house!’
A sentiment echoed by Kevin. More than anything, he hopes that one day all the drama will be behind them, not just for his sons but the whole Spears clan.
‘I wish for them to forgive, to reach inner peace and then peace with each other,’ he says. ‘One day.’
Struggling for One America, a book by Daphne Barak and Erbil Gunasti is available from Skyhorse Publishing on Amazon here.
Close bond: Britney Spears (C) and her sons Sean Preston Federline (L) and Jayden James Federline (R) are pictured in 2013
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