To listen to Kevin Federline inform it, he by no means stood an opportunity.
It’s been greater than 21 years since Federline was first photographed with Britney Spears. It was 2004, and the pop princess was nonetheless getting warmth over the tip of her high-profile romance with Justin Timberlake. The “Oops!… I Did It Once more” singer adopted that with a blink-and-you-missed-it Las Vegas elopement that her dad and mom made her annul.
Enter Okay-Fed, a backup dancer for LFO and Pink, and self-styled dangerous boy, 4 years Britney’s senior. Quicker than you would ask, “Who’s Britney’s new man?” the tabloids instructed the story for him, main with the unique that he ran off with Spears whereas his then-girlfriend, Moesha actress Shar Jackson, was six months pregnant with their second baby.
To Britney followers, the revelation solid him as an unwelcome main man in Spears’s subsequent chapter — and, as he later rapped, “America’s Most Hated.”
“From the get-go, I wasn’t launched to the world within the best approach,” Federline, now 47, tells Yahoo in a dialog about his new memoir, You Thought You Knew. “I made some poor selections on that half. From there, me being quiet made everyone really feel like they may say no matter they wished, and I wasn’t going to come back again at them.”
And so they did. On the top of the brutal mid-2000s tabloid and paparazzi period, “Okay-Fed” turned a punchline. He was branded a gold digger for marrying Spears simply months after they met — and for wanting approach too snug in his new $200,000 Ferrari. A deadbeat dad for leaving his pregnant ex. Lazy for not working.
When he did work — on his music “Popozão” or the transient however memorable actuality present Britney and Kevin: Chaotic — he was known as untalented.
After having two sons and going via a messy, public break up in 2006, the narrative received darker. Federline gained major custody of their kids with $20K a month in baby assist funds — and shortly after, Spears was positioned underneath a conservatorship that may management her life for the subsequent 13 years.
“Silence did not carry peace,” Federline tells us, however he’s hoping the memoir, out Oct. 21, does.
He compares the writing course of, for which he admittedly had “a number of assist,” to “a yearlong remedy session.” He tells his aspect of Federline vs. Spears, but it surely’s actually his life story, warts and all. Which means revisiting elements he’s not happy with: impulsive decisions, messy relationships, typically letting down his kids, partying an excessive amount of and different moments he now sees in a different way as a person in his 40s, a father of six and a brand new grandpa.
“I hope this e book brings a greater perspective to individuals on who I’m,” he says. “There’s rather a lot in there — being clear and reflecting by myself doings and my very own half on this — that I feel will give individuals a great understanding of who I’m and what I went via. I’m lastly coming ahead and displaying individuals: That is who I have been the entire time.”
‘I’ve by no means been towards Britney’
As press for his e book has rolled out, media accounts have zeroed in on what he wrote about Spears, which she has issued scathing responses to, and renewed debate — and Okay-Fed hate — on-line.
Spears and Federline fell head over heels in 2004. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
Whereas he has been hit with criticism for opening previous wounds, it may well’t be neglected that Spears instructed her story first in her 2023 bestselling memoir, The Lady in Me. And, sure, he learn it.
So, we ask: Is he hoping his e book will lastly shut the chapter — now that each have had their say — or is it simply going to maintain the back-and-forth going, 20 years on?
“I’ve by no means been towards Britney,” he replies. “I solely need good issues for her. That is the kind of individual I’m. I need my kids to have an awesome relationship together with her. The back-and-forth, I really feel, is extra of a play from the media. Like I stated, I’ve by no means been towards her.”
Lately, there’s been a rising reexamination of how the media machine handled celebrities within the 2000s. Is Federline hoping his memoir may win him a few of that forgiveness?
“I imply, I do not know,” he says. “I am attempting to go in with no expectations, since you by no means understand how persons are going to react. I feel it is at all times going to be a 50/50 factor. That is simply sort of how society is break up down the center proper now anyway on the whole lot.”
The couple married months after assembly, and the tabloids could not get sufficient of their whirlwind romance. (Getty Photos)
He says he simply needs to “achieve some assist for my kids”— Sean Preston, 20, who goes by his center identify, and Jayden, 19 — and have the “public get behind my sons.” By all accounts, they’ve a fractured relationship with their mom.
“They’re those which have to hold this on,” Federline says. “They’re those who’re adults now and are going to be dwelling this life.”
Within the e book, he writes that whereas the #FreeBritney motion led to Spears’s conservatorship ending, he’s nonetheless fearful for her well-being. What does he hope to perform by detailing his worries within the e book?
“It will be nice if everyone might see what the widespread floor is right here,” he tells Yahoo. “I really feel like a lot finger-pointing has gone on. They vilified her household. Me. So many individuals on this. In case you actually sit again and look, it is like: All people needs her to be glad and wholesome. I need her round for my youngsters. I need her round for so long as attainable of their lives. So the purpose right here is just about the identical.”
That they had two sons — Preston and Jayden — earlier than splitting in 2006. A authorized battle over their youngsters adopted. (Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)
‘Cash is just not on the root of this’
The lingering public notion of Federline is that he has lived off Spears’s dime, utilizing baby assist from her to pay for all six of his kids with three girls (together with his two youngest with spouse Victoria Prince). His e book doesn’t shrink back from {dollars} and cents.
Federline will get particular: He writes that the alimony he obtained when divorcing Spears was $20,000 a month for one 12 months. His baby assist funds, which have now ended, had been an extra $20,000 a month — a lot of which went to safety, a nanny and dwelling bills, he says. He used his cash from Chaotic to pay for a part of their Malibu home, an funding netted him $1 million when he and Spears offered it. He additionally spells out how a lot he received for numerous gigs, Together with $1 million for the Tremendous Bowl industrial, practically $500,000 for Superstar Match Membership and $100,000 for a membership look.
Federline says he is aware of he made missteps alongside the way in which as he navigated prompt stardom. He particulars lots of them in his memoir. (Danny Moloshok/AP)
However he is not laying all of it on the market to silence his detractors, he insists.
“I do not assume I did that for that function,” he says. “I did that as a result of while you carry movie star into the state of affairs, particularly in my state of affairs, I used to be nowhere close to her tax bracket. I felt it was necessary to provide a bit of that.”
In addition to, he provides, “the kid assist [amounts and other financial details] had already been printed. It is already issues which were talked about. I believed it was necessary to not solely focus on a number of the monetary stuff … [but] to the touch on virtually each single factor individuals have been involved with. All of these items have been [following me] for 20-plus years.”
Federline was granted full custody of his two kids with Spears whereas she was put right into a conservatorship. (J. Emilio Flores/Getty Photos)
After all, there’s a query hanging over all of this: Did the tip of the kid assist have something to do with him deciding to come back out with a e book now?
“No,” Federline says. “That is the opposite factor: Cash is just not the foundation of this. This isn’t about [that]. It’s about me lastly coming ahead and telling my story, as a result of I’ve stayed quiet for the sake of my household and waited till my youngsters had been sufficiently old to get behind it. It is one thing that my entire household is on board with, and that is what it is about. It is about actually telling my reality.”
Federline emphasizes the significance of household ties and staying linked to Spears’s family members. Whereas he hasn’t spoken to his ex-wife in years, he says he’s nonetheless in contact with members of the Spears household. Preston and Jayden nonetheless see their grandparents Jamie and Lynne, and their aunt Jamie Lynn.
“I do converse to the household,” he says. “I’ve this entire time. I’ve at all times believed in protecting an open line of communication and [access] to the children via all of this. All people deserves to have their time, and I need my youngsters to know all of their relations. That was necessary to me.”
Federline’s automotive is swarmed by paparazzi outdoors courtroom in 2008. (Ted Soqui/Corbis by way of Getty Photos)
In his e book are what Federline claims are two direct messages Jamie Lynn despatched to his spouse that praised the couple parenting of her nephews. Did he get Jamie Lynn’s permission to incorporate them?
“I do not wish to touch upon that,” he replies, selecting to go away readers to attract their very own conclusions. “I actually wish to save that for individuals to learn within the e book as a result of I really feel it is an important piece.”
A contemporary begin for Okay-Fed
In 2023, Federline left Hollywood for Hawaii, the place his spouse of 12 years is a seashore volleyball coach at her alma mater, the College of Hawaii. He teases having a “few tasks within the works” himself after wrapping up his e book tour.
Federline married Victoria Prince in 2013. (David Hardenberg/Getty Photos)
“This place is particular,” he says of life in his new dwelling. “It is introduced peace. It’s gotten me again to the middle and in a position to transfer ahead and navigate my very own life, increase my kids who aren’t adults and try this in the very best approach.”
Preston and Jayden have formally flown the coop. He says they — in addition to Kori and Kaleb, his kids with Jackson — “know it is a spot they’ll at all times come again to and go to. It turned an ideal state of affairs. … I am so glad that we lastly made the transfer.”
One other milestone second: Federline just lately turned a “proud” grandfather when Kaleb, 21, welcomed a baby of his personal.
Federline moved to Hawaii together with his household in 2023. (Sam Holden)
“What I’ve realized is: You blink and that point is over,” he says of parenting. “So the one factor that I’m grateful for is the truth that I have been in a position to spend a lot of that point with my kids. As a result of it goes by so quick. And I am grateful to my exes, Shar and Britney, for giving me 4 priceless items of my life.”
And now? “I am prepared for the subsequent chapter,” he says. “I am prepared to maneuver on from all this and eventually be at peace.”
