Britney Spears and Kevin Federline's Relationship Timeline: From Their First Meeting to Their Divorce and Memoir Drama

Britney Spears found love again when she met Justin Timberlake's former backup dancer Kevin Federline in the summer of 2004.

In a 2008 interview, Federline said they "hit it off right away" after their eyes met while at a club in Hollywood.

"I was madly in love with her. Everything just seemed so right. I didn't see it as too fast or too slow," he added.

The DJ also wrote about their meet-cute in his memoir, You Thought You Knew.

"We talked for a little while and then hit the dance floor," he shared. "Nothing too wild, just a little playful back and forth. Honestly, at the time, in my 25-year-old mind, I was just thinking about smashing that."

He then detailed their "very passionate, very intense" first hookup, which occurred while he was still with his then-pregnant fiancée, Shar Jackson.

Nearly three months after they began dating, Spears and Federline exchanged vows in California in September 2004.

During a 2005 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, the "Toxic" singer said she was the one who proposed to Federline.

"Actually, I was a little rejected at first. I kind of got slapped down," she said.

Her sentiment echoed Federline's account, which said they discussed getting engaged after the European leg of her tour.

"There we were, sitting in first class, sipping cocktails, talking about life, and then — bam — she was casually, or maybe not so casually, proposing to me," he wrote. "I kind of laughed it off, played it cool, and told her no."

Spears and Federline became first-time parents when they welcomed their first child, Sean Preston, on September 14, 2005.

Spears and Federline's second son, Jayden James, was born on September 12, 2006, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Two months after they expanded their family, Spears filed for divorce from Federline, citing irreconcilable differences.

According to the dancer, he learned about his then-wife's filing while he was promoting his album Playing With Fire in Canada.

"I got to the studio, went through the usual motions with producers," he detailed in his memoir. "I knew what to expect, another day answering the same questions, until a producer ambushed me — right before I went live on air — with: 'How do you feel about Britney filing for divorce?' My brain just…froze."

In March 2007, the exes reached an initial divorce settlement, which included a custody agreement.

"The parties signed a global settlement on all issues of their marriage and the custody of the children," a spokesperson for Federline's attorney said.

Spears and Federline agreed to share custody of their sons when they finalized their divorce in July 2007.

"I think she's okay with the terms," Spears's lawyer, Laura Wasser, said. "I think both of them would prefer to have more custody, and that can be worked out down the line."

Although they officially ended their marriage, Spears and Federline continued co-parenting their children.

"Britney is an awesome mom. That's one thing I never really have to worry about," he told People in 2008.

He added, "It's good for the kids to see that Daddy does care about Mommy, and Mommy does care about Daddy."

However, they later engaged in a long custody battle that gave Federline sole physical and legal custody of their children amid Spears' controversies.

In 2019, they reached a new arrangement that granted Spears 30 percent of unsupervised custodial rights.

Things took a turn when the "A League of My Own" crooner discussed his ex-wife's relationship with their children.

"The boys have decided they are not seeing her right now. It's been a few months since they've seen her. They made the decision not to go to her wedding," he told ITV, referring to the "…Baby One More Time" singer's marriage to Sam Asghari.

Spears took to Instagram to respond to her ex-husband's bombshell, writing, "It saddens me to hear that my ex-husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children ... As we all know, raising teenage boys is never easy for anyone .. It concerns me the fact that the reason is based on my Instagram ... it was LONG before Instagram ... I gave them everything. Only one word: HURTFUL ... l'Il say it ... My mother told me, 'You should GIVE them to their dad.' I'm sharing this because I can. Have a good day folks!!!"

On October 24, 2023, Spears published her memoir, The Woman in Me, in which she looked back at her marriage to Federline and her public breakdown after their divorce.

In one part, she opened up about the January 2008 incident that led her to be put on a 72-hour psychiatric hold.

"I just couldn't let him go. I didn't want anyone taking my baby," she said of her then-16-month-old son Jayden. "Before I knew what was happening, a SWAT team in black suits burst through the bathroom door as if I'd hurt someone."

On October 21, Federline released his first-ever tell-all, You Thought You Knew, which included shocking allegations against Spears.

The "Criminal" singer responded to the claims in a statement, writing, "I 100 percent beg to differ the way he is literally attacking me in his interviews. If truth be told the man in the interview went STRAIGHT TO the SOURCE and said it CLEAR AS DAY … no money from Britney for 5 years you trying to get paid that's what general America is saying weird you both have moved on… your kids are adults it's a different world now … why is HE SO ANGRY … and what's scary is he's convincing."

Spears shared another lengthy post on X, accusing Federline of profiting off her pain.