A New Memoir Revives Spears-Federline Drama

They were tabloid fodder back in the aughts, but a new memoir by Kevin Federline has revived the drama between him and ex-wife Britney Spears. Coverage:

• The book, basics: Federline has written You Thought You Knew, which is out next week. Federline, 47, and Spears, 43, married in 2004 and divorced in 2007, but not before having two sons, Sean Preston, now 20, and Jayden James, 19, per NBC News.
• A knife? Federline tells the New York Times he hasn't spoken to Spears in years, but he recounts anecdotes from his sons in the book about her, including this from their teen years. "They would awaken sometimes at night to find her standing silently in the doorway, watching them sleep—'Oh, you're awake?'—with a knife in her hand," he writes. "Then she'd turn around and pad off without explanation."

• A warning: Federline also asserts that Spears seems dangerously off track since being freed from a conservatorship. "The truth is, this situation with Britney feels like it's racing toward something irreversible," he writes, per the Times. "It's become impossible to pretend everything's OK. From where I sit, the clock is ticking, and we're getting close to the 11th hour. Something bad is going to happen if things don't change, and my biggest fear is that our sons will be left holding the pieces."
• She responds: In a post on X, Spears writes that "the constant gaslighting from ex-husband is extremely hurtful and exhausting," per Rolling Stone. She accuses Federline of telling "white lies" to sell books, and blames him for poisoning her relationship with her sons, whom she will "always love." She asks supporters to ignore rumors about "my mental health and drinking," adding: "I speak on this because I have had enough and any real woman would do the same."

• And her team: "With news from Kevin's book breaking, once again he and others are profiting off her and sadly it comes after child support has ended with Kevin," a rep says, per NBC. "All she cares about are her kids, Sean Preston and Jayden James and their well-being during this sensationalism. She detailed her journey in her memoir."
• Ex crossfire: Jason Alexander, who was married to Spears for all of 55 hours in 2004, also went after Federline, per US Weekly. "You were her husband," he writes. "You were supposed to be her protector. Instead, you were partying right alongside her—the drugs, the alcohol, the chaos … you were there for all of it. You weren't trying to pull her out—you were feeding off it." Meanwhile, Federline has been trading insults with Spears' third husband, Sam Asghari, and TMZ has those details.