Yesterday, we discussed the fact that Britney Spears and Kevin Federline finally came to an agreement regarding his child support. Earlier this year, Federlineâs lawyers filed notice that they wanted an increase in his support payments, an increase which would reflect Britneyâs massive income increase. Team Spears and Team Federline spent much of this year sniping at each other through legal filings and tabloid âsources.â Throughout it all⊠I was sort of K-Fedâs side? I thought he should get the child support increase. I also thought Jamie Spears was crazy for fighting K-Fed so publicly. Well, it looks like that fight did come back to bite Jamie Spears on the ass, because K-Fed got more money than he initially requested. And E! News reports that Britney isnât happy about any of it.
Britney Spears and Kevin Federline have reached a new child support agreement, but E! News has learned that the singer is “very unhappy” over the outcome. The Blast reports that the 36-year-old “Gimme More” songstress has agreed to pay her 40-year-old ex “thousands more a month in child support.” This news comes one month after Spears was ordered to pay Federline $110,000 in their ongoing child support battle.
“They are not happy and think the settlement is ludicrous,” a source tells E! News regarding Spears’ team’s reaction to the new agreement. “But they wanted to make an agreement so that they could move on.” As for Brit, the insider says she’s “very unhappy” but understands it’s “in her best interest” to move on from the legal turmoil. “She was tired of fighting about it and is ready to get on with her life and put this behind her,” explains the source.
In response to the new agreement, Federline’s attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan tells E! News, “I am happy that they came around to resolving this matter. I am sure that they decided the money would be better extended on child support than on attorney’s fees, which would’ve achieved the same result for Kevin but only after months and hundreds of thousands of dollars on litigation. They made a wise decision.”
A source close to Federline also confirms to E! News that Spears and Federline’s teams met and had negotiations throughout the week, “as of Friday they signed a stipulation that resolved all the pending matters that Kevin had asked the court to rule on. Kevin is getting more money monthly than what he had originally asked for before he ever filed his RFO. Britney’s team would’ve been better off settling with Kevin at that time because now he got more than what he initially asked for,” the insider shares. “There are more attorney fees that Britney agreed to pay that were folded into the settlement, in addition to the $100,000 Mark Kaplan was already rewarded. Kevin is extremely pleased for himself, for the kids and for Britney. It was the right thing to do on her part and it allows the kids to get the benefit of the standard of living both parents can provide for them.”
From here on out, I donât want to hear anything about how Britneyâs conservatorship is just in name only, or she only has it for her finances. Thatâs how Kevin got what he wanted: he has sole custody of the kids because of Britneyâs conservatorship, and despite all of the talk about âBritney fighting this in court,â she has no legal standing to fight anything. This was always going to be the outcome, especially since there was no way that Jamie Spears and Team Britney would ever allow the conservatorship to be lifted at this point. I also suspect that this settlement was reached as a way for Jamie Spears to avoid a full and comprehensive audit of Britneyâs finances from the past decade. Just my opinion.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
A Conservatorship is most definitely NOT in name only or just for finances. There is a pretty high standard to meet – because itâs signing over an adultâs legal rights. Itâs a big deal, and the fact that Britney is still under one is a big deal and implies that she has some very serious issues that she is dealing with (the she is also not obligated to publicly disclose). This was never a child support battle between Britney and Kevin. It was between Kevin and Britneyâs Conservator.
I agree. Honestly, I highly doubt that she even knows about this, since she has no say in it. I think they keep it all really simple for her: she works, works out, and goes to the beach with her children and boyfriend. If she gets more involved, she may start questioning other things and even the conservatorship as well since she wanted to fight it in the past.
Probably not forever, but I wouldn’t turn down a life where I get to perform, work out, and go to the beach with my kids and boyfriend while someone else totally manages my life and finances.
Yeah, I always get the feeling most people donât understand what a big deal it is that Britney has been under conservatorship for a decade. Getting temporary conservatorship of an adult is extremely difficult. Getting it long term is something else. Whatever mental health issues she has, sheâs been judged wholly incapable of caring for herself, and at this point thatâs probably going to be the case for the rest of her life.
She wouldnât be involved in any of the financial decisions here. If she was at all capable of being involved in any real capacity, she wouldnât be under conservatorship. Most likely sheâs only very vaguely aware itâs even happening.
I worry what will happen if her father passes away. He’s in his 60’s as far as I know. Hopefully her sister or brother will step in and be trustworthy. Is her mother in the picture at all?
Ouch that’s alot of moolah.
By all accounts, Kevin seems to be doing a good job as a father – and despite the fact that she does have access to the kids, she is in no way a full co-parent to those kids. Trying to co-parent with someone who is unbalanced is HARD and exhausting. Itâs not as easy to âjust get a jobâ when he is playing both roles and probabaly helping the kids deal with the inevitable issues that arise from having one parent who is not fully present or able to be a parent.
Britney is not a co-parent. Kevin has full legal and physical custody – under a Conservatorship, Britney is not legally able to hold any custody herself. She also does not see her children alone. Kevin facilitates time with the kids, but Britney doesnât make any decisions at all.
And the financial question with Kevin has never been about him caring for the kids, but whether or not he was using Britneyâs child support checks to pay the support for his older 2 kids, which is a big no-no.
…and his 2 younger children with the current wife.
@ Kerfuffle: I have no problem with Britney supporting HER two children she has with HIM, but she seems to be paying for HIS entire family. Why isn’t his current wife working? He’s a stay at home dad, so mom could work while he watches the children. Feel like Brit is in a no win situation. But it’s not fair to her to support his entire family. What is he going to do when the kids turn 18 and she may not be obligated to support HIM?
This is what makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable about her continuing to work. If something is so badly wrong with her that she has no legal say in her life, shouldnât she be allowed to retire so she can work on healing and enjoying her life? It feels like she is being trotted out to earn money for her conservator.
I wondered the same thing, Hrefna. I don’t think we have conservatorships here, so was really interested in the comments above. It sounds incredibly serious, and more particularly since she’s been virtually under her father’s control for so long already, with no sign of this arrangement ending, but still working her arse off to keep the money rolling in to support evryone. Not hat I think working is a bad thing for people dealing with mental health issues; on the contrary, actually. But this does make me very uncomfortable, too.
That’s what I’ve always thought too. I feel like as soon as possible, her father or whoever pushed her back into performing. She seems to be doing OK now, maybe the stability working in one place day after day is better for her than touring, but I’ve never gotten the impression it was her preferred choice.
I feel Kevin was entitled to more as her income increased, but I hope he spends it wisely.
Lucy2 – I saw her Circus tour, and my impression was that she was in no way ready to perform at that level again… Made my heart hurt for her.
Performing for audiences and receiving their adulation is likely one of the few things that make her happy. I would say the Las Vegas residency provides her more day-to-day stability than if she were bouncing from city to city on some non-stop tour.
This is great point Hrefna!
K-Fed looks after the kids full time, while Britney travels the world’s beaches taking selfies. He deserves that raise 100%.
Agree. And the boys are being raised as brothers to these kids so it wouldn’t be right to not use some of the $$$ on KFeds other kids.
Nice to see the lawyers got paid
… because in their place you wouldnât expect to be paid for your work?
True, TJ, yet she is the one keeping so many in the styles to which they have become accustomed. It doesn’t really make sense to me, but as I said above, I’ve never heard of such a (legal) arrangement happening here.
Yeah I think she’s Amanda Bynes level of being unable to care for herself. Amanda is also under a conservatorship with her parents. It was on and off due to I think since Amanda did better for a little while then had another psychotic episode (I will never forget her incoherency on social media, it was clear the girl was completely out of it and then she set a fire in a stranger’s driveway which is the equivalent of Britney shaving her head and assaulting paparazzi with an umbrella). On Wikipedia it says Amanda’s conservatorship has been extended until 2020. Amanda has never made her diagnosis public but my guess is it’s something similar to Britney’s.
My heart broke for Amanda. That breakdown was so public and sad. She was so funny and talented (her ridiculous character on Easy A is still my favorite) and it just seems that she won’t ever fully recover that. But it’s probably best she stays out of the limelight and just focuses on her mental health and well being. I think Britney should do that, too, but the powers that be are too afraid of her not pulling in those millions.
Amanda is about to finish her 3rd year of design school. She expects to be a fashion designer. By all accounts she is flourishing at school and under her parents care. I’m rooting for her the same way I’m rooting for Brit to have a happy, less confusing life.
Team Kevin on this. Britney’s team tried to make him look like a gold digger for asking for the increase. She makes a boatload of money and he’s the full time parent to those boys. He’s kept them out of the spotlight and given them a normal-ish childhood (as normal as you can with a megastar for a mom). No matter their crazy issues when they were together, he has been a great dad by all accounts. Any other average family would’ve went to court in such a case – with a big increase in income there is almost always an increase in child support. It’s just that in their case the money figures are not average like ours would be. Our $100/mo increase is their $10K/mo increase. ha.
So, out of pure curiosity – what happens if Jamie dies or ages out of the capacity for the conservatorship? Heâs got to be getting older at this point. I donât know anything about his health obviously. It just occurred to me today that I had no idea who would take over.
My guess would be her big brother will be groomed to take over
He got 35k that’s 5k more papa spears offered him. Didnt he originally wanted 60k. It looks to me papa spears won at the end considering Kevin settled.
Good for Kevin! Hope he takes ALL his children on a nice vacation!
yeah and maybe on the vacation, him and the wife add to their family. another mouth for Britney’s money to feed
Yeah, this was always gonna happen- that’s how child support works for the non famous, so… you know… it should work that way when its Britney’s money, too. It doesn’t matter how anyone feels about Federline, it’s about the way support is tallied. It just bees that way.
I also thought Kevin deserved somewhat of an increase in child support. Obviously if the roles were reversed and Kevin made millions more over the last 10 years he would be expected to pay more too. Not to mention child support is calculated based on a worksheet that I think each state uses and if it says she owes more, than she owes more. I do think Kevin and his wife should be looking for more lucrative jobs as well. Once the kids are of age the support is gone and I wonder how they will support themselves.