While I’m one of the few people to believe that Kevin Federline has done the best he could for Britney Spears and their sons, I do find it interesting and shady that K-Fed’s longtime lawyer has been making the celebrity-media rounds in the past week. K-Fed’s lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan has represented Federline for more than a decade, and K-Fed generally lets Kaplan speak for him and his legal interests in the press. Kaplan has come across as competent and like he serves his client well. Kaplan spoke to Entertainment Tonight just a few days after Britney Spears made her heart-wrenching statement in court, where she described her father forcing her into mental institutions and forcing her to take lithium and other prescription drugs. Kaplan told ET that K-Fed was tentatively supportive of Britney’s efforts to remove her conservatorship. But now Kaplan tells Page Six that Federline might request Britney to be evaluated by doctors before they figure out their custody issues, if her conservatorship is removed.
While Britney Spears can count on ex-husband Kevin Federline for support as she seeks to end her controversial conservatorship, he has concerns regarding the idea of her regaining full control of her life “without any expert evaluation,” according to his attorney. Divorce lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan shared Federline’s thoughts on Spears’ desire for the conservatorship to be terminated, exclusively telling Page Six that the DJ would likely have concerns due to decisions previously made in terms of the “Toxic” singer’s medical care.
“I’ve seen it reported that Britney wants [the conservatorship] terminated without any expert evaluation,” Kaplan told us. “One thing that I can imagine will engender a further dialogue should it be terminated is that I know she had revealed in the statement she made that she had been put on lithium, and I think, as you can imagine, lithium is regarded as a very powerful psychotropic medication.
“I have to hope that if some medical professional prescribed that for her that there was some condition or basis for that to be deemed an appropriate medical protocol,” he went on. “So, if the conservatorship were to end and even more so to be terminated without an exit evaluation, I’m sure that Kevin would at least want to know what the conditions were that gave rise to her being prescribed that, and Kevin would probably have to engender some dialogue along those lines at some point in time if that were to occur.”
Despite his concerns, Federline believes Spears’ health and happiness is vital when it comes to the pair co-parenting sons Sean Preston, 15, and Jayden James, 14.
“It was distressing to see her be in distress,” Kaplan told us. “Kevin really has no inside information about what goes on inside of the conservatorship, but obviously if Britney is in a healthy and good and strong place, that’s great. He wants her to be happy and healthy.”
I’m of two minds – Britney has made it clear that she’s fed up with this kind of suffocating control over her life and God knows, she’s seen enough doctors, experts and psychiatrists. Britney said in court that she doesn’t mind the talk therapy, but she was done with everything else, the endless array of doctors evaluating her. On the other hand, it’s a pipe dream to think that Britney will be able to disentangle herself from the conservatorship without being evaluated whatsoever. But I worry that it will be like death from a thousand paper cuts – “sure, Britney, we can end your conservatorship, we just need ten doctors to sign off on it and they all need to do their own individual evaluations, and Kevin Federline is asking you to be evaluated by different doctors too.” It’s awful and destructive.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.
It’s 2021. Surely there must be a middle ground between ‘total freedom and lack of any psychological or financial help’ and this absolute abusive prison she is in. She shouldnt be punished for her mental healh she should be HELPED.
I have loved britney since I was 10 and this is just so so so sad.
Evaluations are necessary to terminate the conservatorship.
I am under conservatorship for head injuries. I am fine when there is NO stress or pressure, but life has stress and pressure. When my stress rises, (and my level is low), I cannot function. I cannot communicate, I get aggitated, and I have panic attacks. I also forget things easily and get lost. People think I look fine and would be shocked to find I am under a conservatorship. But I cannot do life without support, and it took two years of therapy to accept it.
I worry about Britney. She says she took a four hour psych test that she “failed,” and then went to rehab. This was in 2019. Reports at the time said she was under stress because her father was very ill, and also because her meds had stopped working and needed adjusting. Shortly after this she appeared shoeless before a judge asking for the conservatorship to be less strict. She was evaluated and nothing changed.
It is entirely possible she is being used by her father and needs help. It is possible that she is being used by others and needs help. It is also possible she needs ongoing support due to moments of instability. We just don’t know. What I feel very comfortable saying is that her attorney appears to have dropped the legal ball and needs to resign.
I think she’s going to need ongoing support. I hope they find a happy situation for her. But she also went on a rant about the paparazzi photoshopping her to look heavier – and the photo I saw being used to support her claim was clearly photoshopped to make her look smaller and the edge of her arm was missing spots where it was badly done. I worry that she’s headed down a dangerous path at the moment and that her “boyfriend” is taking advantage.
Stagaroni
Britney’s only demand has seemed to be to remove her father from controlling her finances. And her conservatorship sounds like an absolute abuse of the system. It cannot be compared to a functioning conservatorship like yours.
I’m sorry but I think this is totally missing the issue. Is your conservator forcing you to work 7 days a week, getting paid more than they allow you to make from your labor? Did they force you to get an IUD? Are you not allowed to marry? Are you allowed access to communicate with a lawyer or judge on your own behalf or are you only allowed to communicate through someone profiting off of your confinement?
There is no doubt Britney needs a lot of support, but the way this conservatorship is functioning is abusive. It’s not about whether or not she needs help.
I’m similarly of two minds as well, but he’s privy to things we don’t know about it and so I understand his concern. I have such complex feelings about KFed!
I am in agreement here. We don’t know what every party has or is currently dealing with. We have one side of the story and it is heartbreaking. It is a process, she has to demonstrate she has changed and doesn’t need this conservatorship anymore and that does mean expert evaluation. From what I recall, Brit had made dangerous decisions when she had custody for example having the kids in the drivers seat on her lap driving etc. not saying she’s the same but she has to prove she is different with her kids.
One could interrupt that he doesn’t want his gravy train to end and therefore supports the continuation of conservatorship but I am not so sure. They boys are much older now, he has all but a few years left on the gravy train anyhow.
The kids are 14 and 15. It’s a different scenario than when they were infants and toddlers in terms of the damage she could cause via neglect. It’s clear via her own words that the sheer amount of medical intervention she’s receiving is damaging her well being.
There has to be a middle ground between endless rounds of assessment and treatments and more compassionate care.
@Belle
“From what I recall, Brit had made dangerous decisions when she had custody for example having the kids in the drivers seat on her lap driving etc. not saying she’s the same but she has to prove she is different with her kids.”
Don’t do this sh!t. I pulled over in an ice storm to clean off my windshield and when I got back in the car, I saw that I left it in gear. With 2 kids in car seats. GTFO “from what I recall”. XOXOXO
Women don’t need permission from people like you to get pregnant and society has protection in place for kids whose parents can’t care for them. K-Fed will just go back to regular family court instead of whatever he is doing now, to look out for his kids.
Society has protections in place? Sorry, I have to disagree. It seems every day I read about some poor child being tortured and killed. The problem with getting pregnant on psychotropic meds- Lithium for instance means weaning them off the med- you just can’t stop them. Then finding something to replace it before they completely decompensate. Good luck. I do predict the boyfriend will be exiting her life soon with an even more ironclad NDA, and an amount of money he doesn’t deserve.
I think you have to make a distinction between child protection and mental health conservatorship. Whether or not she should have custody of her children, or supervised access to them etc, is a separate question to how much autonomy she should have as an adult over her own affairs, especially medical and reproductive decisions.
I don’t know how much care she does or doesn’t need, but I do think that if she does need a conservatorship, it should not be her father who’s her conservator. That’s quite clearly a destructive situation, and not helpful to her recovery for her to continue to be placed under the control of her father who’s controlled her whole life almost. If she needs a conservator, it should be someone else.
I wonder if he wants it for two reasons. The safety of the kids of course, but she did say they put her on lithium not to long ago as a control effort. Maybe it’s his way to shed light on the fact she isn’t out of control, and get her dad put under scrutiny for his shitty treatment of her. Kfed hates her dad, so maybe this is his way of helping her out. Just a thought.
That was what I was wondering too
No one wants to talk about what happened to Brit & Kfed’s children when Brit was extremely sick & in the worst of her addiction.
She may be avoiding jail time w this conservatorship for abuse she may not even remember.
We don’t know everything. My heart goes out to her, but again, there’s more than meets the media here
I can certainly understand Kevin’s point of view and interest in having an exit evaluation given the kids would be in her care. He needs to feel that the kids are safe. Granted, Britney would not be able to drive with them on her lap anymore like she did when they were babies, but teenagers want to push boundaries and Britney has to have the capacity to determine which boundaries she could/should loosen for them while keeping them safe.
I think there’s a key difference here: KFed wants Britney evaluated to make sure that she is mentally equipped to safely take care of their minor children, who need people looking out for their interests just as Britney needs people looking out for hers. It’s not (as far as we know) to do with her finances and ability to work.
Agree 100 percent. Throughout this whole mess his concern has always appeared to focus on the kids and making sure they were safe, which really made me change my opinion about him. When he was together with Britney he seemed like just another leech, but over the years it seems like he’s done a good job putting the kids first and doing his own thing.
It doesn’t sound like he’s asking for an additional evaluation. He is asking for an evaluation to be done if she is released from her conservatorship without an evaluation. But I doubt she will be released without an evaluation, so it’s kind of a nothing burger story.
I think doctors should evaluate the treatment Birtney has been receiving to determine if malpractice is impacting her mental health.
Good luck with that. Psychiatrists pay the least in malpractice insurance for a reason. It takes a ton for anything in that field to qualify as malpractice.
Yeah I don’t know why the lawyer is even making a public statement about all these hypotheticals that won’t happen. He could just say something vague in support of Britney’s efforts to regain control over her life and then deal with this highly unlikely scenario if it ever came to pass (it won’t). Maybe I’m just 2 steps behind some master PR or legal plan though.
I agree. I don’t think he’s asking for more than one evaluation to be done, just that one is done and he gets put in the loop. Sounds like he didn’t know she had been put on lithium at one point. I can imagine being concerned to find out you were way outside of the loop when it comes to the mental health of your children’s mother.
Yeah. I think it is dodgey as hell that his lawyer is talking to the media about this. ALL he had to say was that Federline wants her happy.
On the therapy/evaluation front, it seemed Britney’s biggest issues were:
1. She was being forced to see doctors and talk therapists she didn’t have a say in choosing and didn’t trust.
2. At least one doctor had worked with her dad to abuse and punish her.
3. She was being forced to do too much therapy (three times a week? forced into clinics for months on end?) and it was exhausting.
4. She was being forced to do therapy in full view of the paparazzi and it was humiliating.
The psychiatric community hasn’t done much earn her trust. Nor have the courts.
Entertainment Tonight?? Ew, no.
It’s very understandable and appropriate what he’s saying, but Entertainment Tonight is so low-class.
Exactly. If she wasn’t crazy before, she’d be now after going through all this. It’s really such a catch-22. They made her life impossible, all these so called experts and doctors and lawyers and when she acts out, she’s the crazy one.
Couldn’t an actual, expert evaluation also help? If, for example, the doctor found that she was more competent than her current team says, or that the dosage of medication is not correct? Either way, yes, her safety and that of her kids has to be paramount.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that KFed would still be making news in 2021.
I agree – and Kfed isn’t having her evaluated for the conservator issue my hope is that they can find a non-biased professional that is not as traumatizing.
Even in the best case scenario it is a good idea for both of the as parents to have the evaluation going forward so there is less risk of it getting questioned as a power grab later.
Umm how can you evaluate someone on heavy psychotropic meds? You can’t diagnose them, that’s for sure, I’ve read DSM, every diagnosis there says other factors need to be ruled out, including medication. Plus a one-time evaluation also can’t be basis for diagnosis, there has to be long-term harm from the symptoms
You can’t. Just like you can’t evaluate someone abusing drugs.
Mental health professional here ! You CAN evaluate someone on heavy psych meds, and it would most likely work in her favor as any side effects and life stress would factor into the evaluation. The idea that someone has to be off of medication to get evaluated is false. Street drugs, yes.
This can help move forward with streamlining her medication, including the risk of non-compliance from being on medication she does not want to be taking in the first place for whatever reason.
I have been part of many such evaluations and it is VERY rare that things like this would harm her agreement. Any good provider is able to evaluate some one who just does not want to be on any meds, period, as a symptom of another issue.
That is very different situation than someone who has a lot of mistrust due to previous mistreatment by psychiatric professionals. That is more likely to show that the patient just wants to retain some control of themselves or their care, but genuinely does want to function well and does not have a significant issue hindering judgment/safety
I hope that makes sense!
I agree that Kevin seems to be stable and an attentive father. But, I can’t be Team Federline, since he is definitely one of the people benefitting from Britney’s labor and money. Yes, it’s child support and it is for the children, and they are entitled to it, and he is entitled to support as the custodial parent. And he, personally, absolutely benefits from it as well. I would imagine his lifestyle, not just the boys’, is dramatically different than it would be if those boys had a different mother.
Absolutely. I’m glad he’s a stable father for the kids, but I think he, and all of his various children, have lived very well off of Britney’s money since the day they met.
THANK YOU. He may be a good father (and I guess we’ll see if that’s true, eventually), but he’s another leech. He allowed his children’s mother to be abused and caged without comment. He’s less vile than her blood family but that doesn’t make him a hero, either.
Yep. There is a reason the term “KFed” can generally be used and understood to mean “some non famous and generally mediocre and unaccomplished person who has managed to attach themselves to a wealthy celebrity in such a way that they will never have to work again.”
I have to wonder what the hell has gone on with Britney behind the scenes that warrants such an ongoing conservatorship and all these therapists and evaluations. Has to be more than her 2007 breakdown.
I think she is also supporting his other children somehow? Is this how it works that the wealthier party in a custody agreement would be paying so the other party can live as well as she does so the boys don’t experience inequality? Also agree with other commenter that the lawyer didn’t have to speak out. He’s using her to raise *his* profile. He does raise an interesting point but it didn’t have to be public! Still don’t understand how she can’t arrange an interview with someone for herself. They must regulate her use of a phone…? Apparently to even leave the house, lawyers have to be consulted.
Agree with Kaiser on how complicated they might make it for her. It IS awful.
And if things hadn’t gone this way with conservatorship, and she had just gotten proper care, likely, Britney would primarily be the one raising her boys the way she wanted to.
You are correct that she’s also supporting his other children, who are not hers.
Feederline strikes me as a good father but not necessarily a good spouse or even person. He uses Britney for her money, IMO. That being said, he is warranted to ask for an evaluation before she in theory gets any kind of custody of her kids, but that’s kind of putting the cart before the horse. She hasn’t even been released from her conservatorship, and we have no idea if she ever will be, so the custody question is kind of a non starter at this point.
The goal of child support is to ensure that children live in similar wealth circumstances regardless of with which parent they are staying at so that the kids don’t prefer one parent over the other due to wealth disparities. When parents have a significant difference in terms of wealth, it’s normal that the poorer receives a lot. KFed could be working 24/7, he’d never make a quarter of what Britney is making, that was the case even before the kids were born and she agreed to this deal when she decided to have children with him. I doubt KFed thought his and Britney’s relationship would turn like this, he had to mature quickly and step up for his children and it seems like he did.
It’s normal that the other kids also benefit from the child support, as they are a family unit, living together and supporting each other. What was KFed supposed to do? Should he have had a vasectomy after his divorce because he should not be allowed to have other children after Britney? Was he ban from ever entering into a new relationship? Have a pool that only Britney’s kid can swim into while the others watch, crammed in a 2bdr apartment on their siblings’ estate? How would that create brotherly love? Remember that these siblings will be in each other’s life way after their parents have passed, it’s good for them to have a tight bound and love each other. It won’t be easy for Britney’s kids once they become adults, they’ll need all the support they can get.
Well said, Arpeggi
It’s not Britney’s responsibility to take care of the children who are not hers. Period.
He could have tried getting a job.
Yes, but the point is KFed is NOT working 24 x 7 and he never has. The last time he went into court to get more money from Britney back when she was doing the last Las Vegas residency, he told the judge that he only made about $3,000 a month because the demand for his services was not what it once was, LOL! So he and his wife, who are both able bodied individuals have been living off Britney for years. Sean and Jayden will turn 16 and 15, respectively this September. The clock is ticking on his child support monies…
Also, I believe California is one of the states that let minor children be heard about custodial agreements once they turn 16.
The free Britney Twitter accounts have info I’ve never read anywhere. Like the fact that Britney has never been declared medically incompetent. How do they get to keep her in a conservatorship if that’s so?? I’ve also read how they “dangled her kids like carrots in front of her” to get her to comply. It’s all disgusting, and Britney said she fully expects her family to object to her being released from the conservatorship, Kevin’s just the first one. He’s parented his children, as he should have. But I’ll believe Britney that everyone around her is on her payroll. I think Kevin’s lawyer forgot the part where she said they put her on lithium in response to her refusing to do a certain dance move. Like a commenter above said, how will they evaluate her now, to determine if she’s “capable” of caring for herself, if she’s been on who knows what medications for years??? The trust that had been approved to be her co-conservators, have filed to request to be removed. Now let’s see who else does the right thing. I find it disturbing that so many talk about she must be severely ill, she’s still under conservatorship. In the end, we know nothing no matter what we read. Guessing what mental condition she may have, is wrong. There are people who live with severe mental illness, who manage their life with a doctor that they chose, and supportive family or friends.
Lithium is prescribed for bipolar disorder. I don’t think it’s the first drug psychiatrists use to treat patients under their care. When Britney shaved her head in 2007 & attacked the paps with the umbrella, it was rumored she suffered from bipolar disorder. There were rumors of other disorders but I just don’t see anything other bipolar disorder. Does she need a conservatorship? Well I don’t know. I have a few family members that are bipolar & none so far have led functional lives without help from family members. That’s not saying it can’t be done.
There is a lot going on with her that only a few know the full scope. It seems to me that every single person invested in Britney has a specific interest. My hope is that she is fully supported in her journey towards wellness and that the courts have both eyes open. Lithium is not a play toy to be used by unscrupulous individuals and certainly not given because somebody is refusing to do a dance move.
KFed is looking at a few more years on the Britney $$$$ train, I am sure he would love a bump in pay. He is as greedy as ever and he doesn’t care about Britney, never did, she was always his meal ticket. He is gross. I feel bad for her that she has all these horrible men in her life who want to control her and make $ off of her,.
Agree. He’s seen all this go on for years, and even if he hasn’t, he must have a clear picture via what his sons tell him. All of a sudden his lawyer is giving new sound bites every 24 hours. What bs! And again, the bar is set so ridiculously high for Britney. Be effing perfect or stay in the conservatorship. She doesn’t have to be cooking and cleaning and driving and being mother goose- she’s still a Popstar. She can have nannies and assistants for the practical stuff. Let her be herself. Let her be weird and all of it.
@Anna: The medical evaluation he is requesting might be to her advantage. If she was put on lithium; without need, it will severely impair her ability to care for the children and more importantly hurt her. It’s important for someone outside her current team to check her claim.If it’s true they need to put her doctors in jail. If the investigation shows lithium was medically needed then it might be an indication that she needs some level of supervision ( but still much less than currently exists). In any case, I totally understand a parent needing to make sure the other parent is ok.
This sounds like extortion to me. “I’ll testify on your behalf when the time comes, as long as you give me more money. But if you don’t put me on the payroll, I’m going to insinuate that I don’t think you’re mentally sound and because I’m a man and you’re Britney, people will believe me.”
@Teecee: I don’t think (or I hope) he will not do this to his children. He filed a restraining order against her dad when he hit one of their kids. I think he believes Britney and knows her dad is trouble. It’s just a really difficult situation. He probably has very restricted access to her.
Here’s my issue with this- Kevin is her ex husband. His request to have her medically evaluated is intrusive. If he doesn’t want her around the kids unsupervised, then he should be asking for her visitation to be supervised or at a center. His lane is the kids. He needs to stay in it.
It’s been 13 years. If he wanted her evaluated, he could have included that in the custody support request. But he took the money and ran. There is no real concern for Britney.
@Steph: I might have misunderstood him but I thought the evaluation was to expand her rights and actually award her custody (or joint custody). She only has visitation now. His lawyer might be expressing KF desire to change the current arrangement. They spoke of the situation being better because the children are older and can report issues if they come up. I guess time will tell.
Federline’s leeching days are coming to an end, oldest will be 16 this yr and the baby will be 15.
I get that she needs an overseer but her dad should not be the one.
Patriarchy at its finest with Daddy controlling his “little girl” in lieu of a husband. I know troubled stars such as Chris Brown, Marilyn Manson, Danny Masterson, etc. have benefited greatly by the matriarchal conservatorships they were forced into, too. Oh, my bad. None of these troubled, criminally-prone men have ever been in a conservatorship! Male freedom is privileged, while female freedom is not. Even as a famous pop star, Spears, who has broken no laws, is legally straitjacketed by her father. Outrageous.
Federline is not a leech. He is the custodial parent. We would not call a woman caring for children a leech. BS made a choice to have two children with a man that was not wealthy. The “risk” of making that decision is that if they break up she will end up paying a lot of child support.
BS should no longer be in a conservatorship. She should be allowed to marry and have kids. Her current partner is also not wealthy. If she has a child with him, and they break up she will again be on the hook for a substantial amount of child support. It’s her choice and we need to respect it!
@Jfeeber: They are not in a conservatorship but I suspect all three will be in jail soon.
Check out Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker investigation into BS conservatorship.
It is jaw dropping.
It was so distressing I had to stop midway and finish later.
Thanks @MissySnow
I just read Ronan Farrow’s article and felt I had to come back here to comment… Kevin Federline is a total p.o.s… end of story.