Approximately 18 years ago, Britney Spears had her second baby with ex-husband, former backup dancer Kevin Federline. Since the end of the couple's two-year marriage, part of their arrangement has included monthly child support payments in the five-figure range. But now, TMZ and other outlets are reporting that Spears's obligation is set to lapse, as their youngest son Jayden is set to turn 18.
More precisely, the divorce stipulation states that Spears will pay child support to Federline until youngest son Jayden turns 18 or graduates high school, whichever comes later. As Jayden is celebrating his 18th birthday this month and is set to graduate high school early in November of this year, the payments of $40,000 per month will actually extend until then. But either way, the clock is ticking on Spears's legally mandated child support obligation and is set to run out pretty soon.
J.Sciulli/WireImage for Ogilvy Public Relations/Getty Images
How much has Spears been paying in child support to Federline? When their divorce was finalized in 2007, she was reportedly on the hook for some $20,000 per month, and the amount was then doubled in 2018 as a result of Federline's primary custody of the kids as well as the increasing expenses of raising their sons as they got older. Altogether, Spears has paid an estimated $5 million in child support to Federline over the years, and according to a source quoted in The Daily Mail, the relationship between the two is pretty acrimonious, although TMZ says she is maintaining more contact with her kids. As one source put it:
"In terms of her boys Sean and Jayden, they know that she would do the world for them, but she will be very careful to make sure any money she gives to them will not be handed over to their dad."
The matter of child support has been a contentious issue between Spears and Federline over the years. In a legal appeal to raise the child support amount to $60,000 per month, Federline characterized the former couple's divergent living situations in stark terms:
"[Britney Spears] is a single woman who lives alone in a 13,264 square foot Neoclassical Italianate villa on 21 acres of land in a gated community with an elevator, a library, a media/game room, 3,500 bottle wine cellar, an additional 1,200 square foot pool house, an orchard, resort-sized pool and spa, lighted tennis court and three-green golf course…There is a library, a media room, a game room, private chefs, tutors, housekeepers, ATVs and all the latest gaming systems, entertainment systems and technological gadgets. I simply cannot even come close to providing parity for our children in my modest home."
Federline has also spoken in court and in interviews about his diminished ability to work in the music business, taking only occasional jobs and at one point estimating his income from DJ work as being just $3,000 per month, a far cry from the millions Spears has been raking in thanks in part to the success of her memoir "The Woman in Me" and its accompanying movie deal.
In 2022, it spilled over into public social media, as Spears alluded to the child support situation in a post that was later deleted:
"Do you guys want me to continue to get better so I can continue giving your dad 40 grand a month?
"Or is the reason you guys have decided to be hateful is that it's actually over in two years and you don't get anything?"
Spears was also reported to be planning a lavish gift for Jayden's 18th, specifically something "more expensive than anything his father could afford," according to one source.
