Kevin Federline has insisted Britney Spears isn’t to blame for her behaviour, given the way she has been treated since she was a young child in the entertainment business and public eye.
Kevin Federline has said he still feels “a lot of sympathy” for Britney Spears, insisting her struggles were shaped by her treatment when she was younger.
Speaking on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast recently, the 47-year-old former dancer reflected on the pressures his ex-wife, with whom he has sons Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19, faced from her teens and how those early years shaped everything that followed.
Kevin said: “Right. And that is where a lot of my sympathy for her comes from, because this isn’t all just her. A lot of people out in the media, they like to point fingers and act like, ‘Oh, you’re doing this and you are bashing her.’ No. I am not saying that this is all her. I’m saying that there are so many things at play here and so many people. Hollywood is to blame, you know what I mean? Number one. Giving a person everything and expecting them to be who you want them to be, not letting them be who they are.
“And you are talking like 16 years old is when that started. Her, obviously yes — Mickey Mouse Club and all that — there were a lot of things before. But to put a 16‑year‑old in a situation where you drop a record and it goes around the world overnight, man, and you’re an instant success, and it gradually gets bigger from there… we are not talking one‑hit‑wonder types. Like you said, by the time we were together, she had already been on the radar and at the top of the chart for years.
“And so young that you are not even able to… how do you even know? You don’t even know who you are. On a human level, you have no idea. So it’s like she’s trying to figure all these things out, and all that stuff comes into play when I think about her situation.”
Kevin – who is now married to Victoria Prince and moved his family, including his sons with Britney, to Hawaii to escape the chaos of Hollywood in 2023 – was speaking to promote his new memoir, You Thought You Knew, where he speaks about having to step in when Britney’s issues were impacting the lives of their children.
He said: “There were so many aspects of things that were going on around her, and for me, whenever I talk about it in my book, a lot of it — the things that I get upset about, the things that have happened over this — is all the stuff that directly impacts my children.”
Kevin – who has four other children from different relationships – continued: “That’s where I kind of had to draw a line where it’s like, ‘OK…’ And even when we were together — I talk about it in my book — so many times I let things go because of that mindset. But at some point you have to hold somebody accountable for the decisions that they make, especially when it’s affecting our kids.
“And that’s the battle within myself that I deal with for 20 years, and that’s the battle that I talk about in this book. I bent over backwards for so long in hope that a situation was going to get to a point where it was great for the family, and that never happened. And that’s the hardest part about this — that I know that my kids are still going to have to deal with everything that I’ve been dealing with for 20 years.”
Kevin’s comments come just days after new details emerged about Britney’s recent arrest in California.
A 911 caller told authorities that the pop idol was “driving erratically” before an hour‑long police pursuit that ended with the singer being taken into custody on suspicion of DUI.
The caller reportedly described her as “all over the road,” prompting officers to track her vehicle until she eventually stopped.
Police sources told the outlet that Britney appeared “disoriented” when approached, and she was later booked before being released.
The incident has sparked renewed concern among fans, especially as Britney – who has struggled with her mental health and was freed from the constraints of a lengthy conservatorship in 2021 – has been largely out of the public eye in recent months.
Authorities have not yet announced any formal charges, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Kevin Federline has ‘a lot of sympathy’ for ex-wife Britney Spears
