Toward the end of his memoir You Thought You Know, Kevin Federline issues a warning regarding his ex-wife Britney Spears and their sons Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19. “Now, more than ever, they need your support,” he wrote, according to an excerpt obtained by The New York Times. “I’ve been their buffer for years, but now it’s bigger than me. It’s time to sound the alarm.”
While Federline doesn’t specify in the excerpt any one particular concern, he expresses intense worry in his passages about Spears. He suggests that the pop star is in need of professional help that he believes won’t be provided in the aftermath of the “Free Britney” movement, in which her supporters advocated for an end to the conservatorship she was under from 2008 until 2021. “All those people who put so much effort into that should now put the same energy into the ‘Save Britney’ movement,” he wrote per The Times. “Because this is no longer about freedom. It’s about survival.”
Federline had sole custody of Sean and Jayden for most of the duration of the conservatorship, during which long periods of time passed between Spears’ visits with her children. In the memoir, he alleges that there was an element of fear involved when they would stay at her home. “They would awaken sometimes at night to find her standing silently in the doorway, watching them sleep — ‘Oh, you’re awake?’ — with a knife in her hand,” he wrote. “Then she’d turn around and pad off without explanation.”
According to The New York Times, Federline and Spears “haven’t spoken in years,” but the singer’s ex upholds, “I’ve never, ever, once, been against Britney. I’ve only tried to help my sons have an incredible relationship with their mother. And it’s hard because when I really reflect on everything that’s happened — my kids do not know the woman that I married. And I’ve spent two decades trying to bridge that gap.”
More details are, presumably, included in the book, about which Federline previously said, “If you’ve ever had questions, you’ll find answers here.” As it stands, excerpts have only provided more questions. Particularly, uncertainty looms around the meaning of certain statements made in the book, like a passage in which Federline wrote, “The truth is, this situation with Britney feels like it’s racing toward something irreversible. It’s become impossible to pretend everything’s OK.”
Since being released from the conservatorship, Spears has spent more time with Sean and Jayden, who relocated to Hawaii with Federline in 2023. This past December, she spent Christmas with her youngest son for the first time in two years. In her 2023 memoir The Woman in Me, Spears wrote about her complicated relationship with her two children, the court-ordered conservatorship, and the custody battle she underwent with Federline. “My freedom in exchange for naps with my children,” she wrote. “It was a trade I was willing to make.”
From Federline’s perspective, he wrote, “the clock is ticking, and we’re getting close to the 11th hour. Something bad is going to happen if things don’t change, and my biggest fear is that our sons will be left holding the pieces.”
Reps for Spears did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
In a statement to People, a rep for Spears said, “With news from Kevin’s book breaking, once again he and others are profiting off her and sadly it comes after child support has ended with Kevin. All she cares about are her kids, Sean Preston and Jayden James and their well-being during this sensationalism. She detailed her journey in her memoir [The Woman in Me].”
