I realize that I’m basically the only person who kind of likes Kevin Federline these days, but whatever. I think he’s a stable, hands-on father who has genuinely wanted the best for Britney Spears and their two sons and he’s spent the better part of the past thirteen years trying to balance what’s best for their sons and for Britney. Days after Britney’s court appearance and heart-wrenching statement in court, K-Fed’s longtime lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan spoke at length to Entertainment Tonight about where things stand legally between Kevin, Britney and their sons. Apparently, Kevin is tentatively hopeful that the conservatorship is removed. Some highlights from Kaplan’s interview:
On Britney possibly ending her conservatorship: “What is best for her, Kevin supports her in being able to do that. … It doesn’t matter how positive of an effect a conservatorship has had if it’s having a deleterious effect and detrimental effect on her state of mind. So he supports her having the best environment for her to live in and for his children to visit with their mother in. Kevin feels that the best thing for his children is for their mother to be happy and healthy. And if she can do that without a conservatorship, that’s terrific,” he adds, sharing that Federline hasn’t been involved in the conservatorship proceedings and “stayed clear of that.” “He just hopes that everything goes well.”
On Britney’s pressure: “He wants her to be a happy person because that would make her a happy mother and obviously I think one of the takeaways we could all [hear] from her comments is that she is under a tremendous amount of pressure. And people under pressure sometimes don’t make the same decisions that they would if they were completely left to their own free will. If she is able to handle herself in a way that does not jeopardize herself or her children should they be in her custody, Kevin is very comfortable with the conservatorship being dissolved.”
Kaplan & K-Fed like the new conservator: Kaplan notes that the conservatorship only affects Federline and the children “to the extent that there are financial issues that have to be addressed,” noting that Federline feels that Jodi Montgomery, conservator of Spears’ person, “has done an excellent job from what he can see based on his interaction on those occasions where they had to communicate with each other.”
The boys are growing up: “Keep in mind when the conservatorship was placed over Britney, the kids were toddlers. We’re now talking about two healthy, intelligent young boys who are 14 and 15 and they can pretty much judge for themselves whether things are going down that they don’t like or what to have changed. And most importantly, they’re able to express to Kevin and to Britney. So that’s an extra layer of protection that didn’t exist when the conservatorship was first placed.”
Kevin still has a restraining order against Jamie Spears: As for Federline’s relationship with Spears’ father, Kaplan reminds that his client has a restraining order that doesn’t allow Jamie to see his grandchildren. Per Kaplan, it is not due to expire until another year and a half and there “hasn’t been any communication directly between Jamie and the boys or Jamie and Kevin. So the relationship with Jamie has been on somewhat on hold since that order went into effect,” he relays, adding that when it expires they will reevaluate the need for the restraining order.
Kaplan goes on to suggest that if the circumstances around Britney’s conservatorship change for the better, Kevin would be unopposed to allowing Britney even more time with their sons. Kaplan says K-Fed is even hopeful that he and Britney can become full co-parents at some point, but that it might be a while. Basically, Kevin is hopeful for Britney’s sake and he hopes that their arrangement does change in the future, and that Britney can see more of Jayden and Sean.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
The reality is is that he only has about 4 years left on child support from Brit and it might take that long for it to end, as let’s face it her family and management will fight to stop that. They have a LOT to lose – not just their income from her but any protection from being sued by her. If she sues them their lives will be ruined and rightly so after what they have done.
Even with the public pressure on her father and management it won’t be enough for them – a judge with balls is going to have to get involved and ensure she has a lawyer who works for Brit and only Brit.
That was my thought too. The child support will be ending so Kevin can afford to be supportive now. Maybe he has been supportive of her all along, I don’t know. But I can’t really blame him for not publicly advocating one way or the other with the conservatorship as his financial dependence on Spears could have made things very messy for him.
What if she wants to help pay for the boys to go to college or buy their first home (assuming that wasn’t spelledout in the divorce)? I guess the conservatorship could block that, right?
He’s still a Sycophant who raises all of his kids on Britney’s dime- he and his wife do not work and have over half a dozen kids. Also, he basically blackmailed Jamie into giving him more money. If he really supported his ex wife, he would have gone forward with the child support suit Bc it included a forensic accounting inquiry. Instead he used it as leverage to get more money.
Jamie Lynn is no better. It’s all good to be “supportive “ now , but where was their support and concern before the public outcry? Jamie Lynn has been in charge of Brit’s finances for a year and a half and chose a shady firm to manage the accounts.
Britney needs to be able to sue her family, and get protection from them. They basically are still using her as the child star to support the full family.
My close friend was the conservator for her sister, and she was watched very very closely on how she spent her sisters allocated funds for her. Her sister was angry at the situation and it really made it a dangerous situation for my friend (her sister could be violent when manic). my friend petitioned several times to get a state appointed conservator bc it’s damaging to the familial relationship. It’s a tough situation, only made worse when the whole family is supported by the person deemed unfit.
“It’s all good to be “supportive “ now , but where was their support and concern before the public outcry? “
It’s not quite fair to call what he did blackmail…
Britney was raking in cash from her residency. The initial child support was determined on a different income level. He requested an increase, as is his right. Jamie refused. He said okay, can I please see the evidence to back this up? Jamie caved.
Child support rules are what they are. If he is entitled to X money, why should be not receive it? If it was not within his rights, why would Jamie cave?
If the sexes were reversed, and Britney were asking for more child support as her ex had been making bucketloads more money than when the deal was set up, she too would be entitled for that extra support. And should receive it without being accused of blackmail….
I can support all the above, and still think it’s outrageous that neither he nor his wife work for a living.
I didn’t know he had a restraining order against Jamie. That’s telling.
I wish more people would come out against her father but clearly people are just happy getting $ from this situation. It’s gross.
Jamie physically harmed one of the boys (he hit him or grabbed him or something if that nature, sometime in the last few years, I don’t remember exactly) and Kevin now has a restraining order against him seeing either child.
KFed has won me over, honestly. He’s always been super supportive of Britney getting to see her boys, it’s really nice to see. He doesn’t use them as pawns against her, he has their best interests at heart, he seems to be doing it right.
Same here, not my favourite person at all, he has kept his mouth shut, and he looks like a present father who prioritize his sons.
Funny how everyone acted like he was too trashy for her but in the end, he’s never been a dirtbag to her (at least not publicly). He seems like a decent person and father, for sure.
Lol i think we judged a book by its cover, thinking justins superficial looks and career success meant he was better for britney and a better person. Many of us make that mistake when we’re young
Absolutely. KFed has done what a parent needed to do in such circumstances. He’s not perfect, but he created a stable environment, somewhat free of paparazzi where the kids could be kids. That he earns enough in child support so that all the siblings have access to the same opportunities and form a cohesive, supportive family even once their parents are gone is fine. It’s not leeching; it’s what happens when one parent earns a thousand times more than what the other can ever expect to make. It’s also understandable that he would want to see his kids’ mother in a happy, stable and healthy state because no one who has gone through something like this would want their children to become their parent’s guardian as they turn 18: it’s huge and draining responsibility.
K-Fed has been solid, and I like what his lawyer is saying.
Agreed. He seems like a good guy and a caring father.
I too like Kevin. Seems like a decent person and a good father. I believe he wants the best for Britney.
He’s not perfect but he has taken very good care of their kids and really worked to make sure they have a relationship with their mother. Part of me wishes he would drop whatever receipts he has because I think he knows something about the sketchy finances of the conservatorship.
Part of me thinks that was part of the reason for his asking for more in child support. To either force an audit of Britney’s finances or to see if Jamie would pay out to avoid that, which in and of itself was telling.
Maybe he will, just not in public. I think it’s smart of him not to do that sort of thing in the press. Wait until she files to terminate and then spill it all in a deposition under oath. That will carry a lot more weight than running to TMZ or People or whatever.
Yeah, I think K-Fed has some receipts. I bet he’s seen some really sketchy/scary/traumatic stuff and he’s just been keeping his head down. I don’t envy him. I’m glad that he’s all but disappeared from the spotlight. It makes me think he’s a decent person.
I’m certainly no expert on Brittany but I always felt like KFed was her desperate response to a childhood of horribly conflicting pressures: sell your sexuality/be every man’s desire/be a sweet Christian girl/be a wife and mom. Something about him helped her be all those things at once very briefly, even if it meant paying off his pregnant girlfriend. As much as he seems like the beginning of the end of her happiness there probably wasn’t a man alive who could’ve or would’ve done right by her. At least in the ensuing mess he did right by her children.
I must say that he spoke very well
This is qualified not wholehearted support for ending conservatorship, with good things to say about new management and a “hope for the best for Britney” attitude. The big factor from his point of view as a parent is their sons’ older age in terms of their judgment and wishes. The money is going to change either way and he seems realistic. He witnessed her problems up close and he is also shielding them from her father.
I think he’s turned out to be a lot more decent than most people expected when they first got together and he does seem to genuinely have his sons interests as his first priority and had always been discreet and respectful about Britney. So good for him. But he is also somebody who has profited by his association with her. He “works” as a DJ but the only reason he can do that is because of the fame being married to Britney bought and it’s her money that pays for his house and lifestyle. She doesn’t financially support his other children but his family definitely benefits from being the primary caregivers for her children. He can use his DJ money for whatever he likes because Britney pays for his upkeep and day to day expenses.
So what was he supposed to do? Let his other children run around in rags while Sean & Jayden have everything a rich kid could desire? Treat Britney’s boys wildly differently while their little siblings go without? Is that what you think should have been happening?
I’m just baffled at how people think that’s a reasonable solution in the best interest of any of Kevin’s kids, including S & J.
His “association” is that he is the father of her children and he has full custody of those kids. He’s not some distant ex-boyfriend. He raised her kids on a full-time basis because she was not able to, and he kept them largely away from the press and let them be kids. Somehow I think she’s happy for him to have every dime to enable the boys to have the life she wants them to have. If the genders were reversed I don’t think anyone would blink at the arrangements.
I’m not inspired by any of the men that surround Britney:
K-Fed – Uses the conservatorship to his advantage. Surely there could have been a review to share the custody of the children some time ago. But that would have meant a cut in the income he gets from Britney. Sure, he is a decent human being, but he still driven by money.
Her current boyfriend – seems to be another K-Fed
Her dad – a heartless human being as we know.
I may be mistaken,but I have read many times over the years that because of her conservatorship, Britney can’t be party to a custody arrangement. She is legally incompetent, so she can’t legally be granted custody of any kind.
Yes, and that’s my point.
From a legal perspective, she’s deemed incompetent since she is in a conservatorship.
But is she really?
Because her conservatorship hasn’t been reviewed in 14 years, it’s still accepted that she is incapable of caring for her children.
I don’t doubt that she’s very naive and vulnerable, but the conservatorship has enabled this.
She has been told what to do for so many years that she hasn’t learnt to make decisions for herself as an adult.
He is a decent person and a good father. Why is he getting praise for that? Millions of parents around the world are like that. It’s what you do.
Britney, he abandoned. It’s obvious in these carefully written words that he cares about his sons and the people they’re around. He does an job excellent making sure his boys are treated well, which is very important. And he makes sure he gets child support. As long as that happens, he’s satisfied. You could argue that it’s not his responsibility to care about Britney or do anything to help her. But he is incredibly close to the situation. He’s like the teacher or doctor who witnesses child abuse, but sends the child home, without calling social services. If just one person around her, had said something, spoken out, made a phone call, years ago, and he could have been that person, but he didn’t want to risk losing the money and control. Nothing praise worthy about that.
Amen!
I agree.
We normally praise people for being good parents. We even have holidays dedicated to them. And are you arguing he shouldn’t get child support? What decent parent let’s their child go without just to spite their ex-wife’s conservators? He’s not close to situation. He has to deal with them in regards to making sure the kids are provided for. Beyond that, what would he know besides what Britney tells him? Teachers don’t usually witness abuse. Usually the child has to speak up. And unlike teachers, Kevin has no standing to do anything even if he did witness something or was told. CPS doesn’t take adult cases.
You have no idea what he has done or said privately or through his attorneys; him making some big public scene would not have been beneficial to anyone. He is the sole legal guardian of their two minor children, and as such, has to be careful about what he says/does publicly and how it affects their mother and her well-being. All we know is that he has kept his mouth shut in public, has been respectful of her privacy and has bent over backwards to facilitate a healthy bond between their sons and Britney. It’s his job to be the best dad possible to all of his kids, including two that could have been in a VERY sideways situation if he hadn’t stepped up like he did.
Exactly!!!
He has never done the pap walks or exploitative tell all press with/about the kids
I don’t think Ive seen a pic of the boys in 10 years
He could’ve done a reality show or piped them out to do modeling or acting
But he hasn’t done any of that. For that alone, I respect him. Bc i am sure there are leeches at every turn trying to get a piece.
He is no saint, not at all, but he isn’t the enemy here either.
I’m not a fan of Kfed b/c I think he has leached on Britney just as everyone else has. But I don’t understand this talk of “if she gets more custody/time with the boys”– that is something that is ENTIRELY within Kevin’s control as he has sole legal custody of their sons. If he wanted Britney to have more time with the boys, nothing in the conservatorship is stopping that from happening.
I think she’s always had a lot of time with the boys and he’s repeatedly said that the boys can be with her as much as they both want and works for her. He even made sure the boys were there a lot when she lived in Vegas. What she doesn’t have is custody, and that’s what can change if the conservatorship is lifted. A lot of people equate custody with time but they are two different things. So no, he never had the ability to change the custody arrangement because it’s legally not posible for her to have custody, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t had her kids a lot. In fact, the only pics you see if the kids are when they are with her.
Something changed a couple of years ago. He now has the boys 70 percent of the time.
I think her time with them is required to be supervised. That might be uncomfortable for the boys because it is a structured arrangement and it would be odd to be supervised with your parent at that age and they may not want more time there.
Or they may be uncomfortable with her. I have some friends whose parents went through bought of mental illness and my mom did too for a bit – as a kid it is hard to know what to do when your relationship shifts from parent-child to one of caregiving, watching for signs of instability, etc. They likely can’t have friends over, and kids that age tend to be pretty peer-centric.
I don’t think he’s the ultimate problem. I do wonder why he never spoke out about the conservatorship and it needing to end. Maybe he didn’t know that was what Britney wanted, or how restrictive it continues to be. He is a good father to their sons and has never used them as a pawn when it comes to Britney, he has always wanted their sons to have time with her. He has never talked to the press about Britney as far as I can tell. He could have done more for the mother of his children, but I don’t think he bears the ultimate responsibility for this situation, Jamie Spears does.
Everyone in Brit’s life sees her as their paycheck. No way should KFud be getting paid support for all HIS kids and not just he & Brit’s children. This is the ugliest story all the way around, as well as everyone involved in this story.
He… doesn’t? He gets support for his kids with Britney.
Kevin was incredibly messy back in the day and i feel the way he acted in the intermediate after their breakup probably made Britneys situation worse but after the terrible incident where Britney locked herself in the room with the kids and police were involved he really seemed to get his shit together. He stepped in to protect the kids but he’s also always seemed to try to get Britney access to them so I do believe he actually cares for her wellbeing and his children.
Also: given that Kevin literally has a restraining order against Jamie i highly doubt he’s working with him and if his game was to keep her in the conservatorship so that he would have the kids more and get more child support i dont think he’d have been as open to her having much time with the kids as he’s shown to be.
Britney was showing signs of mental illness long before K-Fed, in her late teens which is when such disorders tend to start surfacing. She didn’t get mentally ill because of her parents or K-Fed. It was brewing no matter what. Every illness is actually a physical illness and when the brain is involved, behavior can be affected. Calling it “mental illness” is a holdover from a time when we didn’t understand even as little as we now do about the brain and what can go wrong. Anyway, you might as well blame a parent for a child having Type 1 diabetes or a spouse when their partner has a brain tumor.
K-Fed was not the powerful one in the relationship. He was a backup dancer and she was the one who pursued him (not the other way around). She was having more and more disturbing episodes throughout that period. I can see how K-Fed had no idea what to do in such a situation. Few would. He probably did not even see her actions in terms of mental illness.
His wake up call was the 911 incident (I think he might have actually had to make the call). I suspect she told him something on the phone while sequestering herself in the bathroom with the baby that scared the hell out of him. Really, I think he came close to losing both his ex and his two sons that day.
But he has never said a bad word about her and from the very beginning he always said he hoped to go back to 50/50 custody once she was recovered. He did not seem to realize how sick she really was and the prospects for recovery, but in the early days he allowed her time with the boys if one of her parents was present and she did not drive with them. The court had said no visitation at that point, and she was pretty much out of it during the visits. But I’m sure it still helped both the kids and her to see each other regardless. He followed her on tour with the boys so she would still be able to see them. And he kept them pretty much out of the papparazzi’s view.
K-Fed made a big mistake leaving his former girlfriend (the mother of his two oldest children), but she said once that he was a lousy boyfriend but a great father. He made sure his two older girls and his boys with Britney had enough time with each other to be family, and their mom approved of that approach.
I never have seen him as an extravagant consumer, so I doubt that he has been living high off the hog with child support money. But California law is pretty clear that the higher income parent has to pay the other enough to maintain comparable lifestyles for the children at each residence. The idea is to avoid the richer parent buying the child’s affections, I assume, so when they go between houses they have comparable stuff. So all his kids and spouses would benefit from that, but what else would anybody suggest? Making everybody but Britney’s kids live in the treehouse?!? It’s not that hard to just maintain a reasonable standard of living for everybody without going nuts over high expenses, as long as the big ticket items like the house and its upkeep are covered. I don’t think Britney is extravagant either, which helps.