Kevin Federline Said He Could ‘Never Fully Get Behind’ the #FreeBritney Movement
In his new memoir, Kevin Federline criticized the #FreeBritney movement for doing more harm than good. The social movement began in 2008 and aimed to free Britney Spears from her conservatorship. While many celebrities voiced their support for the movement, Federline said he couldn’t get behind it. He shared why he felt that way.
Kevin Federline said he couldn’t support the ‘Free Britney’ movement
In a new tell-all memoir, You Thought You Knew, Federline writes about his relationship with Spears. The pair married in 2004 and divorced in 2007. They share two sons. Federline said that his ongoing relationship with the mother of his children makes him feel concerned about her, and encouraged the #FreeBritney movement to do more for her.
“All those people who put so much effort into [#FreeBritney] should now put the same energy into the ‘Save Britney’ movement,” he wrote, per Page Six. “Because this is no longer about freedom. It’s about survival.”
Federline said that when the movement gained momentum in the years leading up to Spears’ conservatorship, he felt they weren’t as concerned with her welfare as they should have been.
“I tried to understand where they were coming from but I could never fully get behind it,” he wrote. “There were too many conspiracy theories, too many wild misunderstandings. At times, it felt more like fandom’s mob mentality than genuine concern for Britney’s well-being.”
He said he is concerned about his ex-wife
In his book, Federline said he wanted to share his story at least partially out of concern for his former wife. He worries that something bad will happen to her.
“It’s become impossible to pretend everything’s OK,” he wrote, per The New York Times. “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.”
He claimed that while he revealed a lot in his memoir, things are actually worse than he made them seem.
“I kind of have to sound the alarm that I truly feel that somehow, someway, I wish that their mom would get help,” he said, per Rolling Stone. “I’m not just going to expose her personal life, but it’s 10 times worse than anything I said in my book.”
Spears has pushed back against Federline’s claims about her.
Leaders of the #FreeBritney movement responded to Kevin Federline
Despite Federline’s urging, the #FreeBritney movement will not involve itself in the singer’s affairs. The group no longer exists.
“The heads of the movement don’t meet anymore, we don’t talk anymore,” Pilar Vigneaux, the former director of communications, said. “We were so burned out.”
“You have no idea how much we worked on this,” she said, adding, “We sent a press release every other week. We were reading the court documents, we were going to the court in LA. Once she was free … we just dismembered.”
Vigneaux noted that part of the reason the group stopped meeting was because they disagreed on whether or not Spears was actually free of the conservatorship.
“The movement broke because half of the [leaders] thought she was really free and the other half thought she was not,” Vigneaux explained.
Vigneaux said she feels suspicious of Spears’ care plan.
