Britney Spears has hit headlines all over the world after speaking out in court concerning the control that her father, Jamie Spears, holds over her finances and health via a legal conservatorship. Her claims are explosive and heartbreaking, and she has described how she is unable to get married or have a third child due to an IUD that the Baby One More Time hit maker and genuine cultural icon is not permitted to remove. It also has an impact on the custody arrangements in place concerning her two sons, Sean and Jayden.
Sean Preston Spears, who is 15, and Jayden James Spears, who is 14, are Britney’s children with Kevin Federline, a rapper, actor, presenter and former dancer who she married in 2004 and divorced in 2007. Kevin has legal custody of their sons, meaning they live with him for 70% of the time. This, of course, could be reappraised in light of these new developments concerning her conservatorship. The initial arrangement, post-split, saw the parents agree to a 50/50 custody split, although that changed after an incident in 2008, and Kevin later successfully applied for a restraining order against Jamie: he accused his ex father-in-law of assaulting Sean. In March of last year, a source stated that this was a source of pain for the star. 'Britney hasn’t been spending time with her dad, and very much remains angry that she doesn’t have the boys as much as she did in the past,' the source said. 'Jamie worries about her not having a set schedule for work that keeps her busy.'
In 2008, Britney spoke of the children to Rolling Stone. ‘Every time they come to visit me, I think about how they’re such special people,’ she said. ‘Since they’re almost like twins, they both take care of each other. I think they look like me.’
Jayden previously surprised fans of his mother by claiming that Britney may ‘quit music.’ 'What's going on with my mom?’ he asked on an Instagram Live. ‘ll tell you guys the whole story about my mom and stuff if I get 5,000 followers on my Instagram. That stuff will come out way in the future [when] I get really popular.' Asked if his mum would care about that, he offered: ‘I mean, my dad doesn't care. I have the best dad ever. My dad's literally Jesus.' When asked if he was at Britney’s house, he said no. 'I'm gonna visit her in like a couple weeks cause I'm with my dad right now. I'm doing pretty good’, and then, when asked about if his mum was working on music, he shut down the suggestions. 'Actually I haven't seen her doing a lot of music at all,’ he said. ‘I don't think that… I remember one time I asked her, I said, "Mom, what happened to your music?" and she was like, "I don't know, honey. I think I might just quit it." I'm like, "What? What are you saying? Like, do you know how much bank you make off of that stuff?"’
TMZ has reported that Kevin receives $20,000 a month from Britney in terms of child support. She also covers the costs of their education and clothing, among other expenses. But Kevin demanded an increase in 2018 – from $20,000 to $60,000 a month – arguing that ‘the kids are older and the financial circumstances of the parties are significantly different than when the child support was originally resolved.’
Good luck to Britney in her ongoing fight for true independence in all its forms, and on her journey to becoming a mother to a third child if that’s what she and her partner wants. Throughout the rollercoaster that her career has been, she has shown that she deserves every happiness.
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